Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/643

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PtIESUIVANT. 561 PXJRVES. porter, a red dragon, assumed in allusion to his descent from Cadwaladyr; and I'ortcullis. named from a badge of the same monarch. There are three pursuivants in the heraldic establishment of Scotland (there were formerly six), known by the names of Bute, Carhck, and Unicorn — titles which, as well as those of the heralds, seem to have originated in the reign of James 111. The Scottish pursuivants take precedence according to seniority in office. The Ulster King of Arms in Ireland has four, Athlone and Haint Patrick I.. II., and ///. In ancient times any great nobleman might institute his own pursuivant. PURSY MINNOW. A minnow of the typical genus Cyprinodon, especially Cyprinodon larie- gatus, a chubby little fish, of which the male measures three inches, and the female two inches, and which abounds in all the brackish waters of the Atlantic coast south of Cape Cod. It is one <jl the most brightly colored of the minnows, and may be distinguished by the lustrous steel-blue of the head and forward part of the back (but this fades immediately after death ) , the dusky bar at the tip of the tail, and the coppery tint of the abdomen. See Plate of KiLLiriSHES. PXTRTJANDIEO, poor'oo-an'de-ro. A town of the State of Michoacan, Mexico, 43 miles north- west of the city of Morelia. It is the centre of an important local trade and has leather manu- factures. Its municipal population, in 1895, was 7782. PURU-PURUS, poo-roS' poo-roos'. A tribe which formerly lived along the middle Funis, a southern affluent of the Amazon, in Western Brazil, and apparently constituting, with one or two other tribes of the same neighborhood, a dis- tinct linguistic stock which Brinton calls the Arauan. The name refers to a peculiar skin disease with which they were nearly all afflicted, and manifested by white and brown blotches, pos- sibly from their habit of sleeping naked upon the sand, without hammocks. They were sav- ages of the lowest order, both sexes going per- fectly naked. They were described by Spix and ilartius in 1820 and by Castelnau and Wallace in 1847 and 1853, but the name is now extinct and the tribe seems to be represented by the modern Pammari or Pammary. i.e. eaters of the pama berry,' w ho live in the same region. PURURAVAS, poo-ri>o'ra-vas. A legendary king of ancient India, renowned for his kingly virtues and personal beauty, and still more fa- mous on account of his love for the Apsaras, or ■celestial hetaera Urvasi. Seeing Pururavas, and seen by him. their mutual love was sealed on condition that he would never suffer two rams, which she always kept near her bedside, to be carried from her. and that she should never see him naked. The Gandharvas. choristers in Indra's heaven, and lovers of the Apsarases. being jealous of Pururavas, stole the rams during the night. At this Pururavas was enraged, and, trusting that Urvasi would not see him, as it was dark, rose in pursuit of the robbers. At that moment, however, the Gandharvas caused a flash of lightning to irradiate the scene, and Urvasi be- lield the King. The compact was violated, and Urvasi disappeared. Pururavas could find her nowhere. Like one insane, he wandered over the world until he saw her at Kurukshetra. sport- ing with four other Apsarases in a lotus-pool. Urvasi, however, forbade him to approach until, at the end of the year, she should be delivered of the son with whom she was pregnant by him ; but after the child's birth she visited the 'King once each year. Urvasi succeeded in propitiating the Gandharvas who had caused the separation, and eventually she and the King were enabled to pass to the sphere where Gandharvas and Apsarases dwell together. This legend is as old as the Rig- Veda. It forms the subject of the celebrated drama of Kalidasa, the Vikramorvali, where, however, Urvasi's disappearance is ascribed to a fit of jealousy, during which she trespassed on the proscribed bonds of a divine hermitage. The mjth of Pururavas and Urvasi has been inter- preted in various ways, as sun and dawn, or, perhaps the best explanation, as the thunder and the cloud which produces the fire of the lightning- flash. Consult: Geldner, Tedische Studien, vol. i. (Stuttgart, 1889) ; -Macdonell, Yedic Mythology ( Strassburg, 1897 ) ; Blo^omfield, The ilyth of Pururavas, Un-agl, and Ayu," in Journal of the American Omental Society, vol. xx. (Xew Haven. 1899). PXJRTJS, poS-roos'. A large tributary of the Amazon. It rises on the Montana of Eastern Peru, flows in a general northeast direction through the northwestern corner of Bolivia and the Brazilian State of Amazonas. and empties into the Amazon through a large delta about 150 miles above the mouth of the Kio Negro (Map: Brazil, Do). It is a sluggish and much winding stream flowing in its course of 1850 miles through the great forest plains. It is entirely unob- structed, and navigable for boats almost to its source; steamers ascend it 800 miles, and it has several large navigable tributaries. There are hardly any settlements along its banks, except a few stations for rubber-gatherers. The river was first explored to its source in 1864 by the English traveler Chandless. PURTJSHA, pur'oo-sha (Skt. purusa, man). In Hindu philosophy, the efficient cause of the universe as contrasted with its material cause, Prakriti (q.v.). The term is also applied to the supreme god Brahma (q.v.). PTJR'VER, Anthoxt (1702-1777). The trans- lator of the 'Quakers' Bible.' He was the son of a poor Hampshire farmer. Though appren- ticed to a shoemaker, he found time to learn Hebrew by himself. After a brief period of school teaching, he went to London (about 1726), where he joined the Society of Friends. In 1758 he returned to Hampshire and there passed the rest of his life. His translation of the Bible, be- gun about 1733, was published in 1764. For the meaning of difl'erent passages. Purver depended upon divine inspiration instead of scholarship. PURVES, ptir'ves, George TTBorx (1852- 1901). Xn American Presbyterian clergyman, born in Philadelphia, Pa. He graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1872, and at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1876. and held his first pastorate in Wayne, Pa., from 1877 until 1880. He was in charge of churches in Baltimore and Pittsburg until 1892, when he was appointed professor of Xew Testament literature and exegesis in Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1900 he became pastor of the Fifth Avenue Pres- byterian Church in New York City, of which he was in charge at the time of his death. Dr. Purves was a preacher of unusual force and effectiveness. His publications include Testi-