two sorts-the free-stones, in which the flesh may be coast of Malabar, the kingdom of Siam, and the easily separated from the stone, and the cling-island of Java. As early as the days of Solomon, stones, in which it is adherent. The nectarine is by they were imported into Judea by the fleets which some considered a mere variety of the peach, differ- that monarch equipped on the Red sea. From India ing only in its smooth skin; and this fruit is like- they were brought into Asia Minor, and subsequently wise divided into cling and free-stones. The peach into the isle of Samos, where they were formerly is reproduced by planting the stones; but it is much multiplied, and consecrated to Juno, but from usual, when the stocks have attained a certain size, which they have now wholly disappeared. In to graft upon them any required variety. Forty Greece, they still brought a high price in the time years are mentioned as the duration of the peach- of Pericles. They were introduced into Rome tree. It is recommended, when the fruit approaches towards the decline of the republic; and the orator maturity, to strip off the surrounding leaves, in Hortensius was, according to Pliny, the first who order that it may be fully exposed to the rays of the had them presented at table, at a feast which he gave to the college of augurs. The emperors took PEACOCK (pavo, Lin., &c.); bill naked at the a pride in collecting large dishes of the heads or base, convex above, thickened, bent down towards brains of peacocks, which seem to have had nothing the tip; nostrils open; cheeks partially denuded; to recommend them but the enormous expense at feathers of the rump elongated, broad, capable of which they were provided. In modern times, the being expanded like a fan, and ocellated; tail young birds only are reckoned fit for the table. wedge-shaped, consisting of eighteen feathers; feet The Europeans have introduced them into Africa furnished with four toes; the tarsi with a conical and America. spur; the head crested. sun. posed of two distinct ranges of long feathers, the undermost being the true tail. These feathers are capable of being erected, and displayed like a fan when the bird is agitated, but at other times they remain in a horizontal position. The plumage of the female is less brilliant than that of the male, and the tail shorter. In the natural state, this species is not very wild, and it readily becomes accustomed to confinement, and propagates with facility. PEAK; a name given to the upper corner of those sails which are extended by a gaff, or by a yard which crosses the mast obliquely, as the mizzenyard of a ship, the main-yard of a bylander, &c. The upper extremity of these yards and gals is also denominated the peak. P. chinquis, Tem.; pavo bicalcaratus, and pave P. cristatus, Lin., &c.; crested, or common Thibetanus, Lin.; peacock pheasant, iris peacock, peacock. To recite the numerous details of the Thibet peacock. These singular birds, which are markings of this splendid bird would require a long rather larger than a pheasant, and highly elegant description, which, after all, would convey but a and beautiful, inhabit China and the mountains faint idea of the original. There are, however, which separate Hindostan from Thibet. According few of our readers who are not sufficiently familiar to Sonnerat, they likewise occur in Malacca. The most with the rich attire of the living specimen to dis- remarkable circumstance in their natural history is pense with a minute enumeration of its changeable that of the tarsi being armed with several spars, hues. Like other domesticated birds, it exhibits which vary in number from two to six, and freseveral varieties. The ordinary length of the quently the same bird has a different number on each peacock, from the tip of the bill to that of the full-leg. Another curious fact is that the tail is com grown tail, is about four feet. The female is rather less; and her train is not only very short, but destitute of those beauties which ornament the male; her crest, too, is shorter, and her whole plumage partakes of a cinereous hue; her throat and neck are green, and the spots on the side of the head are larger than those of the male. The females of this species, however, like those of some other birds, have sometimes been known, when past breeding, to assume the male attire. In a state of nature, the pea-hen breeds once a year, and lays, it is alleged, from twenty-five to thirty eggs, of a whitish hue, speckled with dusky. In colder climates, and when domesticated, the number of eggs seldom exceeds five or six, and the hen sits from twenty-five to thirty days, according to the temperature of the country and season. When pleased or delighted, the cock erects his tail, unfolds his feathers, and frequently turns slowly round, as if to catch the sunbeams in every direction, accompanying this movement with a hollow murmuring. At other times, his cry is very disagreeable, and often repeated, especially before rain. Every year he sheds his plumes; and courts the most obscure retreats till the returning spring renews his lustre. The young acquire the perfect brilliancy of their plumage in their third year; but, in cold climates, they require attention in rearing, and should be fed on grass, meal, cheese, crumbs of bread, and insects, until they are six or seven months old, when they will eat wheat and various sorts of grain, like other gallinaceous birds; but the peacock is, in this respect, extremely capricious, and there is hardly any kind of food which it will not, at times, covet and pursue. According to Aristotle, it lives about twenty-five years; but Willoughby and others allege that it is capable of existing for near a century. When full grown, it is not readily injured by cold, Though long naturalized in Europe, it is of Eastern origin, occurring in the greatest profusion in the neighbourhood of the Ganges, and in the extensive plains of India, particularly in Guzerat, Cambay, the PEAK CAVERN, in Derbyshire. See Care. PEALE, CHARLES WILLSON, the founder of the Philadelphia museum, was born of English parents, at Chestertown, Maryland, in 1741; was appres ticed to a saddler at Annapolis, and married at an early age. He successively carried on the trades of saddler, harness-maker, silversmith, watchmaker, and carver; and afterwards, as a recreation from his sedentary practice of portrait-painting, beca a sportsman, naturalist, and preserver of animas; made himself a violin and guitar; invented and executed a variety of machines; and was the dentist in America that made sets of enamel teeth At the age of twenty-six, he was first excited to become a painter by the desire of surpassing de wretched things which he happened to meet with At this time, Hesselius, a portrait-painter from t school of Sir Godfrey Kneller, was living near Antspolis. Mr Peale, selecting the handsomest se his shop afforded, as a present to the artist, ferduced himself, and solicited the favour of seeing for the first time, the mysterious operations of painting. Mr Hesselius gave him essential it strue tion, and he afterwards received similar serv from Mr Copley, on a visit to Boston. Soon arm, by the aid of his friends, he went to England, and attention. 66 PEAR-PEARL. studied, during the years 1770 and 1771, in the royal academy at London, under the direction of Mr West. The writer of this article was informed by colonel Trumbull, that, one day when he was in Mr West's painting room, some hammering arrested his Oh," said Mr West, "that is only that ingenious young man, Mr Peale, repairing some of my bells or locks, according to custom." This custom, much to the comfort and amusement of many a host, he continued all through life, whenever he was on a visit in the country, either for business or pleasure. On his return to America, he removed to Baltimore, and afterwards to Philadelphia, where he opened a picture-gallery. For about fifteen years, he was the only portrait-painter in North America; and persons came to him to be painted even from Canada and the West Indies. During the revolutionary war, he raised a company, was often employed in confidential services, and was engaged in the battles of Trenton and Germantown. In 1777, he was elected a representative of Philadelphia in the state legislature, where he chiefly interested himself in the law for the abolition of slavery. During the revolutionary contest, he had painted the portraits of many distinguished officers, some of whom were afterwards killed. This collection constituted the chief interest of his gallery, and was, from time to time, extended, and afterwards made to comprise the portraits of men eminent in the different walks of life. Some large bones of the mammoth, found in Kentucky, and brought to him to be drawn, laid the foundation of his museum, when the name of museum was scarcely known even to our travellers, and Europe possessed none of great note but the celebrated Aldobrandine collection at Florence. The increasing income from his museum at length enabled Mr Peale to procure almost an entire skeleton of the mammoth, at an expense of 5000 dollars. A large quantity of the bones of an individual of this species was discovered in Ulster county, New York, which Mr Peale purchased, together with the right of digging for the remainder in a swampy marl pit, which was obtained after very great exertions. When the Pennsylvania academy of the fine arts was founded, he zealously co-operated for many years, and lived to contribute to seventeen annual exhibitions. After a life of extraordinary exertion and temperance, he died, in 1827, at the age of eighty-five. PEAR; the fruit of the pyrus domestica, a tree growing wild in many parts of Europe, and now cultivated in all temperate climates. The pear tree belongs to the rosacea, and, by some authors, is placed in a different genus from the apple, from having flexible sides to the cells which contain the seeds, and from the turbinated form of the fruit. It is the largest of the genus, and reaches the height of forty feet, with the trunk two feet or more in diameter. The leaves are simple, alternate, oval, and finely serrated. The flowers are white, about an inch in diameter, and are disposed in terminal or lateral corymbs. The fruit, in a wild state, is regularly turbinated, about an inch either way, and to the taste is austere until perfectly ripe, when it becomes soft, juicy, and not disagreeable. In the cultivated plant, the fruit varies exceedingly in size, colour, taste, and time of ripening. The culture of the pear is very ancient, and several varieties were known to the Greeks and Romans. At the present day, more than two hundred, fit for the table, are enumerated, and constant accessions are made every year; for the seeds never reproduce the same variety without more or less modification. These varieties are perpetuated only by grafting; they differ in colour, being either greenish, yellowish, 447 grayish, or reddish; in the consistence of the pulp, dry and firm, or melting and watery; and in taste, insipid, austere, acid, or sugary. A constant suc. cession may be had from the beginning of summer, throughout the winter. Pears are chiefly used in deserts, and are generally considered much superior to apples; some varieties are stewed with sugar, baked, or preserved in sirup. France and the north of Italy are celebrated for the perfection to which they have carried the culture of this fruit. Even in districts where it grows wild, the tree is very liable to injury from frosts, which greatly diminish its bearing. There are, besides, numerous varieties of pears, cultivated solely for the purpose of making perry, a liquor analogous to cider, and prepared nearly in the same manner. This is less wholesome, and in general is less esteemed, than cider, though often very agreeable; indeed, many of the dealers in Champaigne wine are said to use perry to a great extent in the adulteration of it; and really good perry is little inferior to it in taste or quality. The wood is fine-grained, of a yellowish colour, and susceptible of a brilliant polish: it is not subject to the attacks of insects, and receives a black dye remarkably well, when it so much resembles ebony, that it can only be detected by the difference in specific gravity. In the early ages of Greece, this wood was employed in statuary; now it is used for musical instruments, the handles of carpenter's tools, and a great variety of mechanical purposes; it is, besides, excellent fuel. Nine other species of pyrus, as the genus is above restricted, are known; all natives of the temperate parts of the eastern continent. PEARL. Pearls are produced by a testaceous fish of the oyster kind, which lives in the waters of the East and West Indies, and in other seas in warm latitudes. They are found in some parts of the globe in clusters of a great number, on rocks in the depths of the sea. Such places are called pearlbanks, of which the most famous are near the coast of Ceylon, and that of Japan, and in the Persian gulf, near the island of Bahreim or Bahrem. Near the coasts of Java, Sumatra, &c., the pearl is also found. The finest and most costly pearls are the Oriental. Some consider pearls to be unfructified eggs, others a morbid concretion or calculus, produced by the endeavour of the animal in the shell to fill up holes in the shell; others consider pearls as mere concretions of the juice of which the shell has been formed, and with which the animal annually augments it. To collect these shells is the business of divers, brought up to this most dangerous occupation from early youth. They descend from their boat with a rope fastened round their body, and a stone of twenty or thirty pounds weight attached to the foot to sink them. Generally they have to descend from eight to twelve fathoms, before they reach the shells. Their nostrils and ears are stopped up with cotton; to the arm a sponge, dipped in oil, is fastened, which the diver now and then brings to his mouth, in order to draw breath without swallowing water. Every diver has, besides, a knife, to loosen the shells, and a little net or basket, to collect them. When he has filled this, or is unable to stay any longer under water, he unlooses the stone quickly, shakes the line, and is drawn up by his companions. These divers are often destroyed by sharks; their health always suffers by this occupation. Other divers use the diving bell. The shells thus obtained are put into vessels, where they remain till the body of the animal putrefies, when they mostly open of themselves. Those which contain any pearls, have generally from eight to twelve. After being dried, they are passed through nine sieves of different sizes. The worth of a pearl is in proportion to its magnitude, round form, fine polish, and clear lustre. The largest are of the size of a small walnut; but these are very rare. Those of the size of a cherry are found more frequently, yet still very rarely. Pearls are round, pear-formed, onion-formed, and irregularly shaped. The small ones, sold by weight, are called ounce pearls, the smallest, seed pearls: these are converted into powder. In Europe, pearls of "white water" are the most sought for; the Indians and Arabians prefer those of yellow water." Some have a lead colour, some incline to black, some are totally black. the nobility in others. The reformation in religio, which now excited universal attention, gave me be example of examining established usages, and a res desire for a better condition arose among the oppres sed peasantry. The clergy and the nobility were des to their call; but the successful struggle for liberty in Switzerland gave them hope. The peasants of Alsia revolted, and, in 1513 and 1514, those of Wurtemberg. John Bohme, a young man of the territory of Wan burg, declared that the Virgin had announced to him, that liberty and equality were now to be introduced among men; the earth was to be equally free for the use of all. 40,000 men are said to have collected around him, from Franconia, Suabia, Bavaria, and the Rhine. He directed his followers to appear armei He was, however, arrested by the bishop of WurzburgBut 46,000 men marched to his rescue against the castle of Wurzburg. They were routed, and Bobe with several others, executed. In 1525, the peast rose again, and sent twelve articles to Wurzburg, a which they maintained the justice of their complant They principally wished, 1. to elect their own curates 2. that the tithes should be appropriated solely to th maintenance of their curates; 3. that feudal service should be abolished; 4. that hunting and fishing shou no longer be the exclusive privilege of princes an nobles; 5. that the feudal services should be man accurately determined, and the lord should not arbitrarily demand service from his vassal, &c.—The bishop promised to fulfil these demands; but the peasantry, who suspected his intentions, took up arms and even the citizens, whom he called to his assis ance, took their part. After Easter, in 1525, de peasantry in arms marched against Wurzburg; the bishop filed to Heidelberg. They took Wuriburg. and proceeded to burn and ravage the country around but were beaten near Konigshofen and Suladorf; 9000 peasants were killed, or taken prisoners, and afz wards put to death. Wurzburg was compelled surrender to the conquerors, and the bishop returned there June 8, 1825. This war was not suppressed i Franconia and Suabia till after it had cost the lives of more than 50,000 peasants, without their staining their aim-the diminution of their burdens-stick on the contrary, were in some places increased. The troubles in Franconia and Suabia, were succeeded br the peasants' war in Saxony and Thuringia, which was principally excited by Thomas Munter. (44 See also the History of the Peasants' War, by Sartarius. Pearls are found in the Elster, a river in the Voigtland, in the kingdom of Saxony, from its origin down to the small town Elsterberg, as well as in the rivu-on a certain evening, without their wives and children. lets which fall into the Elster, Since 1621, a pearl fishery has been established there, of course for the benefit of the sovereign. Also in the river Watawa, in Bohemia, and in the Moldau river, from Krumau to Frauenberg, pearls are found, sometimes of great beauty, and difficult to be distinguished from the Oriental pearl. The fishery there is the property of the owner of the land. There are also pearl fisheries on the coasts of Scotland. Even in antiquity pearls were an object of luxury. A pearl which Pliny valued at about £84,000 of our present money, Cleopatra is said to have dissolved at a banquet, and drank off to Antony's health. Another, called la peregrina, was given to Philip II. of Spain. It was oval, and of the size of a pigeon's egg, and was valued at 80,000 ducats. Pearls were formerly used in medicine; but their medical operation is not different from that of any other calcareous earth. Linnæus discovered how to produce artificial pearls from the common river muscle; but the process has never been published, nor has it ever come into use. The shells of the pearl oyster are the substance called mother of pearl. See Nacre. PEAT. See Fuel. There is a very curious passage in Philostratus (Vita Apollon.), in which Apollonius the philosopher relates that the inhabitants of the shores of the Red sea, after having calmed the sea by means of oil, dived after the shellfish, enticed them, by means of some bait, to open their shells, and having pricked the animals with a sharp-pointed instrument, received the liquor that flowed from them in small holes made in an iron vessel, in which it hardened into real pearls. The Chinese at present cause a certain kind of muscles to form pearls. In the beginning of summer, when the muscles repair to the surface of the water, and open the shells, five or six small beads made of mother of pearl, and strung on a thread, are thrown into each of them. At the end of the year, when the muscles are drawn up and opened, the beads are found covered with a pearly crust, in such a manner that they have a perfect resemblance to real pearls. The truth of this, says Beckmann, in his History of Inventions, cannot be doubted. (See vol. ii. of the English translation of Beckmann.) In the same work curious facts respecting the discovery of Linnæus, and other points connected with this sub-propriation of money or other things sacred to a god ject, are found under the head Artificial Pearls. PEARL ASH. The common name for carbonate of potash. See Potassium. PEARL, MOTHER OF. See Nacre. PEARL POWDER. See Bismuth. PEARL STONE. See Pitchstone. PEASANTS' WAR. A war of the German peasantry in Suabia and Franconia, afterwards also in Saxony and Thuringia, against the oppressive taxes and services under which they languished. As early as the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th centuries, opposition was made to the bond-services in some places, and to the insupportable exactions of PECULATION; the term, in the Roman law, for the embezzlement of public money belonging eithe to the government or to communities. Loder pecs lation, also, was comprised the adulteranon of gold silver, or any metal belonging to government. Cos nected with it, by a law of the dictator, Cesar, wen the crimen de residuis (if a person had received pub lic money for a certain purpose, and did not apply for the same), and the sacrilegium (the theft or misap In most governments, the embezzlement of pabit money by public officers is severely punished. Par lation and treason were, by the French charter of 1814, the only crimes for which a minister was in peachable. For further information, see the articl Embezzlement. PECULIUM. The Roman slave, with every thing belonging to him, was, at first, the property of his master; but at a later period, a slave was permated to have a property in a portion of the proceeds of his labour, as an incentive to diligence. This was styled his peculium; and masters were in the habit of making agreements with their slaves, who exercised see |