to be not usually above forty years; and others think it to be not above ten years; he is a solitary, melancholy, and bold fish; he breeds but once a year, and his time of breeding or spawning is usually about the end of February, or somewhat later, in March, as the weather proves colder or warmer and his manner of breeding is thus: a he and a she pike will usually go together out of a river into some ditch or creek, and there the spawner casts her eggs, and the melter hovers over her all the time she is casting her spawn, but touches her not. Walton's Angler. In a pond into which were put several fish and two pikes, upon drawing it some years afterwards there were left no fish, but the pikes grown to a prodigious size, having devoured the other fish and their numerous spawn. The pike the tyrant of the floods. PIKED, adj. Hale. Pope. Sax. piic: Goth. piki (a pointed stick or pole); Teut. PIKEMAN, n. s. (picke; Belg. pick; Fr. pique. PIKE STAFF. A lance; a long pointed weapon; a fork used in husbandry; a pitchfork (which may have one or more points): piked is sharp, acuminated: a pike man is a soldier who is armed with a lance or pike: pikestaff, the pole or handle of a pike. A rake for to rake up the fitches that lie, A pike to pike them up handsome to drie. Tusser. Three great squadrons of pikemen were placed against the enemy. Knolles's History of the Turks. Beat the drum that it speak mournfully, Trail your steel pikes. Shakspeare. Coriolanus. Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes; for I speak this in hunger for bread, not for Shakspeare. revenge. you Why then I suck my teeth, and catechise My piked man of countries. Id. King John. They closed, and locked shoulder and shoulder, their pikes they strained in both hands and therewith their buckler in the left, the one end of the pike against the right foot, the other breast-high against the enemy. Hayward. A lance he bore with iron pike; Hard wood, prepared for the lathe with rasping, they pitch between the pikes. Moxon. To me it is as plain as a pikestaff, from what mixture it is, that this daughter silently lowers, t'other steals a kind look. Tatler. PIKE, in war, an offensive weapon, consisting of a wooden shaft, twelve or fourteen feet long, with a flat steel head pointed, called the spear. This weapon was long in use among the infantry; but now the bayonet, which is fixed on the muzzle of the firelock, is substituted in its stead. PIKE, in ichthyology. See Esox. The pike never swims in shoals as most other fishes do, but always lies alone; and is so bold and avenous that he will seize upon almost any thing less than himself. Instances of the voracity of these fishes are so numerous and well known that it is unnecessary to quote them. They breed but once a year, in March. They are found in almost all fresh waters; but very different in goodness, according to the nature of the places where they live. The finest pike are found in clear rivers; those in ponds and meres are inferior, and the worst are those of the fen ditches. They are very plentiful in these last places, where the water is foul and colored; VOL. XVII.-PART 2. The and their food, such as frogs and the like, plentiful but coarse; so that they grow large, but are yellowish and high bellied, and differ greatly from those which live in clearer waters. fishermen have two principal ways of catching pikes, by the ledger, and the walking bait. The ledger bait is fixed in one certain place, and may continue while the angler is absent. This must be a live bait, a fish or frog: and, among fish, the dace, roach, or gudgeon, are the best; of frogs, the only caution is to choose the largest and yellowest that can be met with. If the bait be a fish, the hook is to be stuck through the upper lip, and the line must be fourteen yards at least in length; the other end of this is to be tied to a bough of a tree, or to a stick driven into the ground near the pike's haunt, and all the line wound round a forked stick except about half a yard. The bait will by these means keep playing so much under water, that the pike will soon lay hold of it. If the bait be a frog, then the arming wire of the hook should be put in at the mouth, and out at the side; and, with a needle and some strong silk, the hind leg of one side is to be fastened by one stitch to the wire arming of the hook. The pike will soon seize this, and must have line enough to give him leave ling for pike is a pleasant method also of taking to get to his haunt and poach the bait. The trol them in this a dead bait serves, and none is so proper as a gudgeon. This is to be pulled about in the water till the pike seizes it; and then he is to have line enough, and time to swallow it: the hook is small for this sport, and has a smooth piece of lead fixed at its end to sink the bait; and the line is very long, and runs through a ring at the end of the rod, which must not be too them fat, is by giving them eels; otherwise slender at top. The art of feeding pikes, to make perches, while small, and their prickly fins tender, are the best food for them. Breams put into a pike-pond are a very proper food: they will breed freely, and their young ones make excellent food for the pike. The numerous shoals of roaches and ruds which are continually changing place, and often in floods get into the pike's quarters, afford food for them for a long time. Pikes, when used to be fed by hand, will come up to the very shore, and take the food that is given them out of the fingers of the feeder. It is wonderful to see with what courage they will do this, after a while; and it is very diverting when there are several of them nearly of the same size, to see what striving and fighting there will be for the best bits that are thrown in. The most convenient place is near the mouth of the pond, and where there is about half a yard depth of water; for, thus, the offal of the feedings will all lie in one place, and the deep water will serve for a place to retire into and rest in, and will be always clean and in order. PILA (Lat. from Gr. Aw, compressed wool), in archaiology, a little image of a man made of wool, and sacrificed by the ancients to the household gods, or lares, in the fetes instituted in honor of those inferior deities by Servius, and styled compitales. Macrobius states that actual infants were originally offered up for this purpose; but on the expulsion of the kings from 2 C Rome that barbarous custom was abolished, and the pila substituted in place of the child. This appellation was likewise given to a figure made of straw, which they presented to the bulls in the amphitheatre for the purpose of exciting them; as also to a species of standard upon which were represented several shields piled upon one another. Titus Livius calls the pillar in the forum, from which Horace had suspended the spoils of the Curiatii, Pila Horatia. PILA, in antiquity, was a ball variously made according to the different games in which it was to be used. Playing at ball was very common among the Romans of the first distinction, and was looked upon as a manly exercise, which contributed both to amusement and health. The pila was of four sorts: 1. Follis or balloon; 2. Pila Trigonalis; 3. Pila pagonica; 4. Harpastum. All these come under the general name of pila. PILA MARINA, or the sea ball, in natural history, a substance very common on the shores of the Mediterranean, and elsewhere. It is generally found in the form of a ball about the size of the balls of horse-dung, and composed of a variety of fibrillæ irregularly complicated. Various conjectures have been given of its origin by different authors. Bauhine tells us that it consists of small hairy fibres and straws, such as are found about the sea plant called alga vitriariorum; but he does not ascertain to what plant it owes its origin. Imperatus imagined it consisted of the exuviæ both of vegetable and animal bodies. Mercatus is doubtful whether it be a congeries of the fibrilla of plants, wound up into a ball by the motion of the sea-water, or whether it be not the workmanship of some sort of beetle living about the sea shore, and analogous to our common dung beetle's ball, which it elaborates from dung for the reception of its progeny. Schreckius says it is composed of the filaments of some plant of the reed kind: and Welchius supposes it is composed of the pappous part of the flowers of the reed. Klein, who had thoroughly and minutely examined the bodies themselves, and also what authors had conjectured concerning them, thinks that they are wholly owing to, and entirely composed of, the capillaments which the leaves, growing to the woody stalk of the alga vitriariorum, have when they wither and decay. These leaves, in their natural state, are as thick as a wheat straw, and they are placed so thickly about the tops and extremities of the stalks, that they enfold, embrace, and lie over one another; and from the middle of these clusters of leaves, and indeed from the woody substance of the plant itself, there arise several other very long, flat, smooth, and brittle leaves. There are usually four from each tuft of the other leaves; and they have ever a common vagina, which is membranaceous and very thin. This is the style of the plant, and the pila marina appears to be a cluster of the fibres of the leaves of this plant, which cover the whole stalk, divided into their constituent fibres; and by the motion of the waves first broken and worn into short shreds, and afterwards wound up together into a roundish or longish ball. Klein. de Tab. Marin. p. 22. PILANI, Roman soldiers who were armed with a sort of spontoon, the iron of which was thick and long, called pilum. PILASTER, n. s. Fr. pilastre; Ital. pilastro. A square column sometimes insulated, but oftener set for the greater part within a wall. Pilasters must not be too tall and slender, lest they resemble pillars; nor too dwarfish and gross, lest they imitate the piles or piers of bridges. Wotton. Built like a temple, where pilasters round Were set. Milton. The curtain rises, and a new frontispiece is seen, joined to the great pilasters each side of the stage. Dryden. Clap four slices of pilaster on't, PILASTER, Fr. pilastre, in architecture, a square pillar or column, usually placed against a wall, and projecting not more than one-fifth or one-sixth of its thickness. It has the same proportions and ornaments as a column, varying according to the different orders of architecture, but no diminution. The pilasters in a building should be of the same order as the columns, if any of the latter are used. It would be incorrect to attribute the inventon of pilasters to mere imitation of the column, inasmuch as the motive for their use is chiefly to give strength to the building, and the desire to render these props ornamental occasioned the ancient architects to apply to them the graces of adornment and proportion. See ARCHITECTURE. PILATE (Pontius), was governor of Judea when our Lord was crucified. Of his family or courry we know but little, though it is believed that he was of Rome, or at least of Italy. He was sent to govern Judea in the room of Gratus, A. D. 26 or 27, and governed this province for ten years, from the twelfth or thirteenth year of Tiberius to the twenty-second or twenty-third. He is represented, both by Philo and Josephus, as a man of an impetuous and obstinate temper, as a judge who used to sell justice, and to pronounce any sentence that was desired, provided he was paid for it. They likewise speak of his rapines, murders, oppressions, and the torments that he inflicted upon the innocent, and the persons he put to death without any form of process. Philo, in particular, describes him as having exercised excessive cruelty during his whole government, disturbed the repose of Judea, and given occasion to the troubles and revolt that followed. St. Luke records his massacre of the Galileans in the temple (xiii. 1, 2, &c.), Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Eusebius, and after them several others, both ancient and modern, assure us that it was formerly the custom for Roman magistrates to prepare copies of all verbal processes and judicial acts which they passed in their several provinces, and to send them to the emperor. And Pilate, having accordingly sent word to Tiberius of what had passed relating to Jesus Christ, the emperor wrote an account of it to the senate, in a manner that gave reason to judge that he thought favorably of the religion of Jesus Christ, and showed that he would be willing they should decree divine honors to him. But, fortunately, the senate was not of the same opinion, and so the matter was OWL dropped. It appears, by what Justin says of these acts, that the miracles of Jesus Christ were mentioned in them; and that the soldiers had divided his garments among them. Eusebius insinuates that they spoke of his resurrection and ascension. Neither Eusebius nor St. Jerome, however, nor any other author that wrote afterwards, seem to have seen them, at least not the true and original acts; for, as to what we have now in great numbers, they are not authentic. There are also letters of Pilate to Tiberius extant, giving a history of our Saviour; but they are universally allowed to be spurious. Pilate having, by his excessive cruelties and rapine, disturbed the peace of Judea during the whole time of his government, was at length deposed by Vitellius, the proconsul of Syria, A. D. 36, and sent to Rome to give an account of his conduct to the emperor. Tiberius having died before he arrived at Rome, his successor, Caligula, banished him to Vienne in Gaul, where he was reduced to such extremity that he killed himself. He was only procurator of Judea, though the evangelists call him governor, because he in effect acted as one, by taking upon him to judge in criminal matters. See Calmet's Dictionary, and Beausobre's Annotations. With regard to Pilate's wife, the general tradition is that she was named Claudia Procula, or Proscula; and, as to her dream, some think that as she had intelligence of our Lord's apprehension, and knew by his character that he was a righteous person, her imagination, struck with these ideas, naturally produced the dream we read of; but others think that this dream was sent miraculously, for the clearer manifestation of our Lord's innocence. PILATRE DU ROSIER (Francis), was born at Metz the 30th of March, 1756. He was first apprentice to an apothecary there, and afterwards went to Paris in quest of improvement. He applied himself to the study of natural history and of natural philosophy, and had already acquired some reputation when the discovery of M. Montgolfier had just astonished the learned world. On the 25th October, 1783, he attempted an aerial voyage with the marquis of Arlande. He performed several other excursions in this way with success, in the presence of the royal family of France, of the king of Sweden, and of Prince Henry of Prussia. He then resolved to pass into England by means of his aërial vehicle, and for that purpose repaired to Boulogne, whence he rose about seven o'clock in the morning of the 15th of June, 1785; but, in half an hour after he set out, the balloon took fire, and the aeronaut, with his companion M. Romaine, was crushed to death by the fall. Pilatre's social virtues and courage, which were very distinguished, heightened the regret of his friends for his loss. His merit as a chemist, and his experiments as an aeronaut, procured him some pecuniary rewards, and some public appointments. He had a pension from the king, was intendant of Monsieur's cabinets of natural philosophy, chemistry, and natural history, professor of natural philosophy, a member of several academies, and principal director of Monsieur's mu seum. PILAYA Y PASPAYA, or CINTI, a province of Peru, forty leagues south of La Plata, and bounded on the north by Tomina and Pomabamba, on the east by the Chiriguanos Indians, and on the west and south by Porco and Chichas. Its length is about thirty leagues, and its width forty. Intersected in all directions by the Cordillera, the climate in the valleys is moderately hot, and the soil very productive: the grapes of the district are made into wine and brandies, which are much esteemed. The San Juan, which rises in Lipes, pervades this country: the Toropalca and Cinti also fertilise the valleys through which they run; and the Supas and Agchilla form, by their united streams, the Paspaya, which divides the province from Pomabamba, and runs into the Pilcomayo. The towns of Pilaya and Paspaya were, not many years since, destroyed by the incursions of the Indians from the east; but there are some abundant lead-mines in the settlement of Pototaca. Inhabitants about 12,000. PILCHARD, or PILCHER, in ichthyology, a fish which has a general likeness to the herring, but differs in some particulars very essentially. The body is less compressed than that of the herring, being thicker and rounder: the nose is shorter in proportion, and turns up; the under jaw is shorter. The back is more elevated; the belly less sharp. The dorsal fin of the pilchard is placed exactly in the centre of gravity, so that when taken up by it, the body preserves an equilibrium, whereas that of the herring dips at the head. The scales of the pilchard adhere very closely, whereas those of the herring very easily drop off. The pilchard is in general less than the herring, but is fatter, or more full of oil. Pilchards appear in vast shoals off the Cornish coasts about the middle of July, disappearing the beginning of winter, yet sometimes a few return after Christmas. Their winter retreat is the same with that of the herring, and their motives for migrating the same. See CLUPEA. They affect, during summer, a warmer latitude; for they are not found in any quantities on any of our coasts, except those of Cornwall, that is to say, from Fowey Harbour to the Scilly Isles, between which places the shoals keep shifting for some weeks. The approach of pilchards is known by the same signs as those that indicate the arrival of the herrings. Persons, called in Cornwall huers, are placed on the cliffs, to point to the boats stationed off the land the course of the fish. By the 1st of James I., c. 23, fishermen are empowered to go on the grounds of others to hue, without being liable to actions of trespass, which before occasioned frequent law-suits. Enormous multitudes of these fish are taken on the coast of Devonshire as well as Cornwall, between the months of July and September inclusive, when the whole line of coast presents a scene of bustle and activity. The fish for foreign export and winter consumption are laid upon shore in large stacks or piles, with layers of salt between each row; here they are suffered to lie for twenty or thirty days, during which time a vast discharge of pickle mixed with blood and oil takes place, all of which is carefully caught in pits and preserved for manure, which is eagerly purchased by the farmer and carried away in casks. It is The foundation of the church of Harlem is supported by wooden piles, as the houses in Amsterdam said that every pilchard will dress and richly manure one square foot of ground. The fish are then carefully washed with sea water, dried and packed in hogsheads, in which state they are sent abroad. The average value of pilchards taken in one year in Cornwall is supposed to be from £50,000 to £60,000. See our article FISHERIES. PIL'CHER, n. s. Sax. þylche. Warburton says we should read pilche, in Shakspeare, see below, which signifies a cloke or coat of skins (meaning the scabbard): this is confirmed by Junius, who renders pilly a garment of skins; Fr. pellice; Ital. pelliccia; Lat. pellis. A gown, or case. It is used for a child's garment, provincially, to this day. Pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears. Shakspeare. PILCOMAYO, a large river, formerly of Peru, now included in the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, province of Charcas. It falls into the Paraguay on the left, by two branches, on the point of land formed by the most northern of which, the city of Assumption was founded by Gonzales de Mendoza, in 1538. The other branch joins the Paraguay within a short distance of the confluence of the Vermejo. It is the largest river of the Gran Chaco, and is one of the most important of the branches of the Paraguay, forming a water communication of nearly 900 miles, with the province of Los Charcos, and the mines of Potosi. It is said that, owing to the quantity of quicksilver washed into the river from the mountains, no fish will live in it. In 1740 a failure of its waters is recorded, even at its source, by which the working of the mines of Potosi was suspended. PILE, n. s. & v.a. Sax. pil; Belg. pyle; Fr. pile; Lat. pila. A piece of timber used as a buttress or prop. See below. Hence a building; heap; accumulation; any thing heaped to be burned; to heap or accumulate. Woe to the bloody city, I will even make the pile for fire great. Ezekiel xxiv. 9. The bridge the Turks before broke, by plucking up of certain piles, and taking away of the planks. Knolles. I'll bear your logs the while; pray give me it, I'll carry 't to the pile. Id. Tempest. The fabrick of his folly, whose foundation Is piled upon his faith, and will continue The standing of his body. Id. Winter's Tale. Attabaliba had a great house piled upon the sides with great wedges of gold. Abbot. Not to look back so far, to whom this isle Owes the first glory of so brave a pile. Denham. The ascending pile stood fixed her stately height. Milton. Locke. If the ground be hollow or weak, he strengthens Moxon. by driving in piles. Men piled on men, with active leaps arise, And build the breathing fabrick to the skies. The pile was of a horse fly's tongue, Whose sharpness nought reversed. Drayton. Whom, on his haire-plumed helmet's crest, the dart first smote, then ran Chapman. Into his forehead, and there stuck the steele pile, making way Quite through his skull. PILE, n. s. Fr. pile; Ital. pila. One side of a coin; the reverse of cross. Other men have been, and are of the same opinion, a man may more justifiably throw up cross and pile for his opinions, than take them up so. Locke. PILE, in artillery, implies a collection or heap of shot or shells, piled up by horizontal courses into either a pyramidal or else a wedge-like form, the base being an equilateral triangle, a square, or a rectangle. In the triangle and square, the pile terminates in a single ball or point, and forms a pyramid; but, with the rectangular base, it finishes at top, in a row of balls, or an edge forming a wedge. In the triangular and square piles the number of horizontal rows, or courses, or the number counted on one of the angles from the bottom to the top, is always equal to the number counted on one side, in the bottom row. And, in rectangular piles, the number of rows or courses is equal to the number of balls in the breadth of the bottom row, or shorter side of the base; also, in this case, the number in the top row or edge is one more than the difference between the length and breadth of the base. To PILE ARMS, to place three muskets, with or without fixed bayonets, in such a relative position that the butts shall remain firm upon the ground, and the muzzles be close together in an oblique direction. This method has been adopted to prevent the injury which was formerly done to musketry, when the practice of grounding the firelock prevailed. Every recruit should be taught how to pile arms before he is dismissed the drill. PILE, among the Greeks and Romans, was a pyramid built, whereon were laid the bodies of the deceased to be burnt. It was partly in the form of an altar, and differed in height according to the quality of the person to be consumed. Probably it might originally be considered as an altar, on which the dead were consumed as a burnt offering to the infernal deities. The trees made use of in the erection of a funeral pile were such as abounded in pitch or resin, as being most combustible; if they used any other wood, it was split that it might the more easily catch fire. Round the pile were placed cypress boughs, to hinder the noisome smell. See Fu NERAL. PILE, in coinage, denotes a kind of puncheon, which, in the old way of coining with the hammer, contained the arms or other figure and inscription to be struck on the coin. See COINAGE. Accordingly we still call the arms side of a piece of money the pile, and the head the cross; because, in ancient coin, a cross usually took the place of the head in ours. PILE, in heraldry, an ordinary in form of a USZ beareth azure a pile wavy issuing out of the dexter corner. Sometimes inverted, as fig. 3. PILE WORMS are a kind of worms found in the piles of the sea dikes in Holland. They are of very various sizes; for some of the young ones are not above an inch or two in length, while others have been found thirteen or fourteen inches long. The heads of these creatures are covered with two hard shells or hemicrania; which, together, form a figure resembling an auger, and with which they bore the wood. The best remedy against them is to perforate the pile with many small holes about an inch asunder; then it must be done over with a varnish in the hottest sun; and, while the varnish is hot, brick dust must be strewed over it; and, this being several times repeated, the pile will be covered with a strong crust, absolutely impenetrable to all insects. See Philosophical Transactions, No. 455, sect. 5. PIL'EATED, adj. Lat. pileus. Having the form of a cover or hat. A pileated echinus taken up with different shells of several kinds. Woodward on Fossils. PILES, n. s. Lat. pilule. Used only in the plural. The hæmorrhoids. Wherever there is any uneasiness, solicit the humours towards that part, to procure the piles, which Arbuthnot. seldom miss to relieve the head. PILES. See MEDICINE, Index. PILES, in the architecture of bridges and other. works connected with deep water, are beams or stakes of wood, driven firmly into the ground, for various purposes; as for forming the foundation for piers, buildings, &c. A large portion of some cities, as for instance Amsterdam, is wholly built upon piles, but they are not ordinarily employed for foundations unless the ground be unsound, or when the weight to be borne is very great. When they are to be driven quite below ground, small straight trees are often used without squaring; but, for the outside work of coffer-dams, square piles are always used. When they are to touch each other, flat ones, called pile planks, of three or four inches thick, are used, according to the depth of water, and have grooves formed in their edges, to receive tongues or slips of wood which make the joints tight. Two rows of piles are first driven one within the other, at a distance proportionate to the depth and force of the water they are driven in. The space between is filled with clay, so as to form a mound or rampart, defended outside and inside by the piles. Different machines have been used to drive the piles; some worked by a number of men, who raise a heavy weight a small height, and let it fall upon the pile, others by horses and wheelwork. A very simple machine is often employed. A long thick plank of wood, being fixed up close to the pile, has a mortise through the upper end, in which a pulley is fitted; a rope goes over this to suspend the rammer, which is a large block of hard wood, properly hooped: in rising and falling it slides against the face of the plank, and is guided by irons, which are fixed to the ram, and are bent round the edges of the plank in the manner of hooks. The plank, when placed upright, is secured by guy ropes, in the manner of a ship's mast, the end of the great rope which suspends the ram has ten or twelve small ropes spliced into it, for as many men to take hold, and work it by; they raise the ram up by pulling the ropes altogether, and then letting them go, the ram falls upon the pile. When the latter becomes firm enough to cause the ram to rebound, they take care to pull the ropes instantly after the blow, that they may avail themselves of the rebound. Other machines instead of a plank have two upright beams attached, at such a distance asunder as to leave an opening for the reception of a piece of wood which is affixed to the ram, and by this means it is guided. Piles are chiefly used for making the faces of wharfs, |