mass of rock, hewn down perpendicularly on all sides. It is twelve paces in each front, and from twelve to fifteen feet high, is plain on three of its sides, but has on the other, in the centre, a square passage, which leads by three or four steps to the top. Beneath the square aperture admitting to these steps is a row of rudely-cut niches. The top of the whole is flat; and with the exception of the passage up to it, by the square aperture and the steps, is one solid mass of rock, with no discoverable opening to an interior. Mr. Buckingham could not conjecture whether it was designed for a tomb, a temple, or an altar; but from the flatness of the top, and the means of access provided to it, there is more probability of its being a fire altar than anything else. About two hundred yards to the west of this is a work of masonry. It is about fifteen paces square, and at least thirty feet high. The stones of which it is constructed are so large, that, besides the foundation, which projects about three feet from the main body of the pile, in the form of a pedestal, two tiers of them are sufficient for the height, and two stones for the whole breadth of each front. Above is a layer of smaller stones, as if for a deep frieze; and the whole is crowned by a convex, moulded, and overhanging cornice. In the interior there are two chambers, one above the other, each occupying the whole square of the building, excepting only the thickness of the walls, which is about two feet, and in their height extending from the base to the summit. There is no visible communication between the lower and upper chambers; nor are there any steps leading to the entrance of the latter from without; so that it could not have been intended to have been entered often, if at all, after being once closed. Both chambers are roofed over with two large beams of stone that serve to cover them completely. The original work was fair and excellent, but time, and the effects of earthquakes, have shaken it, and severed the stone in many places. structure was, in all probability, a tomb, the work of the ancient Phoenicians.

This

Sir John Gardner Wilkinson remarks, "It has been generally supposed that the Egyptian pillars, or obelisks, were dedicated exclusively to the sun, and that they were called (according to Jablonski,) Pitebpere, the finger of the sun. This, however, is a misconception not difficult to explain. The first obelisks removed from Egypt to Rome were said to have come from Heliopolis, the city of the sun,' which stood in Lower Egypt, a little to the south-east of the Delta; and those of Heliopolis being dedicated to Rê, the divinity of the place, the Romans were led to conclude that all others belonged to the same god. But the obelisks of Thebes were ascribed to Amun, the presiding deity of that city; and though several of those at Rome came from Thebes, and were therefore dedicated to Amun, the first impressions were too strong to be removed, and the notion of their exclusive appropriation to the sun continued, and has been repeated to the present day."

The term pillar is frequently used in the Scriptures in a figurative sense. Thus we have, a pillar of cloud, a pillar of fire, a pillar of smoke, &c.; signifying a cloud, a fire, a smoke, raised up towards heaven in the form or shape of a pillar. (Exod. 13. 21; Judges 20. 40.) Job speaks of the pillars of heaven and the pillars of the earth, (Job 9. 6; 26. 11,) which are metaphorical expressions, that suppose the heavens and the earth to be an edifice raised by the hand of the Almighty Creator. St. Paul speaks of the Christian Church, under the similitude of a pillar or column, on which the truths or doctrines of the Gospel are inscribed. (1Tim. 3. 15.)

PILLOWS, ni

miraashoth, (Gen. 28. 11.)

In this passage we read that " Jacob took of the stones of that place, [Haran,] and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep." The Hebrew word would be more properly rendered "towards the head." What kind of pillows the Hebrews used we have no means of knowing, but the ancient Egyptians had pillows of wood formed to receive the head when resting on their couches, and these no doubt had a cushion stuffed with feathers, or other soft material. Specimens of these wooden pillows may be seen in the British Museum.

In 1 Samuel 19. 13, it is said, "Michal took an image and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth." The probable interpretation of this passage we have already given under the word BOLSTER; and that occuring in Ezekiel 13. 18, where the prophet says, "Wo to the women that sow pillows to all arm-holes," we have endeavoured to explain under the word ARM-HOLES.

PILOT, hhobil, (Ezek. 27. 8,28.) This word, meaning literally a steersman, a mariner, is also rendered in our version, (Jonah 1. 6,)" ship-master;" but in the chief rulers or counsellors of the Tyrians. in Ezekiel it is used in a figurative sense for the passage

PIN,yathid. (Exod. 27. 19.) The pins here spoken of, in the account of the tabernacle in the wilderness, are rather to be regarded as nails, particularly those of an ornamental description; indeed, the word yathid is often thus rendered by our translators. An account of the various uses of these pins or nails will be found under that article. See NAIL.

Pins, in the modern sense of the word, used for fastening the dress, were no doubt in use among the Hebrews, as we know they were among the Egyptians, but they were frequently made of bone or wood, and bore a considerable resemblance to skewers, as did those used even in England, till a comparatively recent period.

The forms of the Egyptian pins may be seen in the British Museum, and likewise in Sir John Gardner Wilkin

son's work on the manners and customs of the ancient

Egyptians.

PINE. The word "pine" occurs in our translation three times, but in neither case is the pine of our northern regions referred to in the original. The first instance is in Nehemiah 8. 15, where the Hebrew words joy its shemen, are rendered "pine branches," though the phrase is generally and properly understood to denote the wild olive-tree. (See OIL-TREE.) The second and third instances are in Isaiah 41. 19, and 60. 13, where the Hebrew word is tidhar, which Gesenius conjectures to denote the plane-tree; but the old translators waver between beech, pine, cypress, larch, &c.

The wood of the so-called cedar of Lebanon, is the Pinus cedrus of botanists. The fruit of this tree is a large cone of a turbinated figure, and composed of a beautiful arrangement of scales. See CEDAR-TREE; LEBANON.

PINNACLE, TEрvyιov. (Matt. 4. 5.) In the Evangelist's account of the temptation of Our Lord we read, "The devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the Temple;" meaning the highest point of the Temple, probably the apex of Solomon's porch; not the pinnacles of which Josephus speaks, when he says the roof of the Temple was defended by tall golden spikes, to hinder birds from alighting upon it, that they might not defile it. See TEMPLE.

PIPE. See MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

great distance, by reason of the noise of a stream running down into it from the hills. We could not guess it to be less than thirty yards deep. But it is so narrow, that a small arch, not four yards over, lands you on its other side." May not Solomon refer to such a place as this? It is very common in the East to store corn in subterranean granaries, or pits. The Hebrews had them of old. Thus the prophet Jeremiah says, "We have treasures in the field, of wheat and of barley, and of oil, and of honey." (ch. 41. 8.) These "treasures in the field" were doubtless laid up in subterranean pits, similar to the mattamores in Barbary, in which Dr. Shaw informs us they deposit the grain when winnowed; two or three hundred of them being sometimes together, and the smallest holding four hundred bushels. The same mode of keeping corn prevails in Syria and the Holy Land. See GRANARY.

PITCH. See ASPHALTUM; BITUMEN.

PITCHER. The word 7 kad is in Genesis 24. 14 translated "pitcher," a vessel for carrying water; but in 1 Kings 17. 12,14,16, "barrel," for the keeping of flour. (See BARREL.) The pitcher, which was made of earth, seems to have been but little esteemed, (Lam. 4. 2,) compared with the leather bottle; it was usually carried on the shoulder. (Luke 22. 10.) See POTTERY.

In Judges 7. 16, we read that Gideon "divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers." This passage is thus explained by Harmer: "Though skins or leathern bottles are usually employed for carrying water in the East, yet they sometimes content themselves with earthen jars; thus Dr. Chandler, though he was equipped under the direction of a Jew, of such eminence as to fill the office of British consul at the Dardanelles, and was attended at first by him, yet the vessel in which water was to be carried was an earthen jar, which not only served them in the wherry in which they coasted some of the nearer parts of Asia Minor, but was carried upon the ass of a poor peasant along with other luggage, when they made. an excursion from the sea-side up into the country to visit the great ruin at Troas. This may serve to remove our wonder that Gideon should be able to collect three hundred water-jars from among ten thousand men, for we have no reason to suppose the method he was to make use of to surprise the Midianites, was not suggested to him before he dismissed all the army to the three hundred. In an army of ten thousand Israelitish peasants, collected together on a sudden, there might be many goat-skin vessels for water, but many might have nothing better than earthen jars, and three hundred water jars collected from the whole army were sufficient to answer the views of Divine Providence."

PITHOM, л (Exod. 1. 11,) one of the treasure cities built by the Israelites for Pharaoh, Raamses being the other. The sites of Pithom and Raamses cannot now be ascertained with any certainty; but as the land of Goshen is also called "the land of Rameses," (Gen. 47. 11,) it seems probable that Raamses was in that land. Michaëlis thinks that the Egyptian government obliged the Hebrews, with the view of making them a more settled people, to relinquish their living in

tents.

Professor Robinson is of opinion, that "the land of Goshen lay along the Pelusiac arm of the Nile, on the east of the Delta, and was the part of Egypt nearest to

| Palestine. This tract is now comprehended in the modern province esh-Shurkiyeh, which extends from the neighbourhood of Abu Zábel to the sea, and from the desert to the former Tanaitic branch of the Nile; thus including also the valley of the ancient canal. If the Pelusiac arm, as is commonly assumed, were navigable for fleets in ancient times, the Israelites were probably confined to its eastern bank; but if we are at liberty to suppose that this stream was never much larger than at present, then they may have spread themselves out upon the Delta beyond it, until restrained by larger branches of the Nile. That the land of Goshen lay upon the waters of the Nile is apparent from the circumstances, that the Israelites practised irrigation; that it was a land of seed, figs, vines, and pomegranates; that the people ate of fish freely; while the enumeration of articles for which they longed in the desert corresponds remarkably with the list given by Mr. Lane as the food of the modern Fellahs. All this goes to show that the Israelites when in Egypt lived much as the Egyptians do now; and that Goshen probably extended further west and more into the Delta than has usually been supposed. They would seem to have lived interspersed among the Egyptians of that district, perhaps in separate villages, much as the Copts of the present day are mingled with the Mohammedans. This appears from the circumstance of their borrowing 'jewels of gold and silver' from their Egyptian neighbours; and also from the fact, that their houses were to be marked with blood, in order that they might be distinguished and spared in the last dread plague of the Egyptians. The immediate descendants of Jacob were doubtless nomadic shepherds like their forefathers, dwelling in tents; and probably drove their flocks for pasture far up in the wadys of the desert, like the present inhabitants of the same region. But in process of time they became also tillers of the soil, and exchanged their tents for more fixed habitations. Even now there is a colony of the Tawarah Arabs, about fifty families, living near Abu Zábel, who cultivate the soil and yet dwell in tents. They came thither from Mount Sinai about four years before the French invasion. This drove them back for a time to the mountains of the Terabin, east of Suez; but they had acquired such a taste for the good things of Egypt, that like the Israelites they could not live in the desert, and soon returned after the French were gone. Now,' said our Arabs, though we acknowledge them as cousins, they have no right to dwell among us; nor could they live in our barren mountains after enjoying so long the luxuries of Egypt.'

"The land of Goshen was the best of the land,' (Gen. 47. 6;) and such too the province of esh-Shurkiyeh has ever been, down to the present time. In the remarkable Arabic document translated by De Sacy, containing a valuation of all the provinces and villages of Egypt, in the year 1376, the province of the Shurkiyeh comprises three hundred and eighty-three towns and villages, and is valued at one million four hundred and eleven thousand eight hundred and seventy-five dinars, a larger sum than is put upon any other province, with one exception. During my stay in Cairo, I made many inquiries respecting this district, to which the uniform reply was, that it was considered as the best province in Egypt. Wishing to obtain more definite information, I ventured to request of Lord Prudhoe, with whom the Pasha was understood to be on very friendly terms, to obtain for me, if possible, a statement of the valuation of the provinces of Egypt. This, as he afterwards informed me, could not well be done; but he had ascertained that the province of the Shurkiyeh bears the highest valuation, and yields the largest revenue. He had himself

PITHOM

just returned from an excursion to the lower parts of this province, and confirmed from his own observation the reports of its fertility. This arises from the fact that it is intersected by canals, while the surface of the land is less elevated above the level of the Nile than in other parts of Egypt; so that it is more easily irrigated. There are here more flocks and herds than anywhere else in Egypt; and also more fishermen. The population is half migratory, composed partly of Fellahs, and partly of Arabs from the adjacent deserts, and even from Syria, who retain in part their nomadic habits, and frequently remove from one village to another. Yet there are very many villages wholly deserted, where many thousands of people might at once be sustained in the district, and the soil is capable of higher tillage to an indefinite extent. So too the adjacent desert, so far as water could be applied for irrigation, might be reckoned fertile; for wherever water is, there is fertility." See GOSHEN; RAMESES.

PITY, is usually defined to be the uneasiness we feel at the unhappiness of others, prompting us to compassionate thern, with a desire for their relief. God is said to pity them that fear Him, as a father pitieth his children. (Psalm 103. 13.) Pity is thus a Christian grace, to the practice of which we are exhorted by the Apostle: "Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous." (1Pet. 3. 8.)

The phrase o nashim rachamaniyoth, rendered "pitiful women" in our version, (Lament. 4. 10,) properly refers to the tenderness and affectionate love which is the distinguishing trait of the female character; and that such women should in the "siege and the straitness" be driven to and adopt the terrible expedient of feeding upon their own children, as in this passage they are stated to have done, is an awful instance of the literal fulfilment of the threatenings of the Lord in the event of the disobedience of the house of Israel. (Deut. 28. 57.) The same horrible expedient was resorted to also in the last siege of Jerusalem, as it had formerly been at the siege of Samaria, in the reign of Ahab. (2Kings 6. 28,29.)

PLAGUE. The word 717 daber, as already explained, (see PESTILENCE,) signifies generally any contagious disease; but in Leviticus 26. 25; Deuteronomy 28. 21, it appears to denote that terrible scourge ordinarily known as "the plague." Palestine is now, as it anciently was, often afflicted with the plague, which makes its entrance from Egypt and the neighbouring countries; it is often referred to in the sacred writings, and from the insidious manner in which it is first introduced into a country, is perhaps that which is termed the "pestilence that walketh in darkness." (Psalm 91.6.)

"The definition of the plague given by Dr. Cullen, is 'a typhus fever, in the highest degree contagious, and accompanied with extreme debility. On an uncertain day of the disease there is an eruption of buboes or carbuncles.' On the whole, this brief character of the disease is as correct as any that can be given; for, in fact, the disease varies greatly in its appearances in different instances; insomuch that even fever is by no means invariably present; and in the more fatal cases of plague, death terminates its course, before a sufficient time has elapsed to admit of the formation of buboes and carbuncles.

"The general derangement of the system, which ushers in an attack of the plague, is much like that which commences the course of ordinary fever. A

sense of cold, with some shivering, which is soon followed by heat, and acceleration of the pulse, with giddiness, head-ache, depression of strength and spirit, white tongue, vomiting, or diarrhoea, and great oppression about the præcordia, are among the first symptoms of the disease. These are succeeded by a burning pain about the pit of the stomach, by a peculiar muddiness of the eyes, by coma, delirium, and other affections of the sensorium, which terminate by death, in some cases, on the second or third day, before the pathognomonic symptoms, buboes and carbuncles, have appeared; but which, in others, continue to increase, while those morbid changes ensue, together with purple spots and ecchymoses, which belong to the plague, in common with other malignant fevers.

"The fever is present at one stage or other of the plague with very few exceptions, though it differs materially in its degree, duration, and symptoms, in different individuals. It is usually preceded by a weariness and a confusion of head, which becomes a severe pain as the fever advances. The cold stage is short, and less marked than in an intermittent; but the changes in the succeeding hot fit are sudden, anomalous, and alarming. Nausea and vomiting frequently occur from the beginning; but these symptoms are absent in a large proportion, even in cases which terminate fatally. Indeed in many the attack is scarcely to be distinguished from that of ordinary fevers before the second night, unless where buboes and carbuncles arise within the first twenty-four hours. Although these remove all doubts about the nature of the fever, they do not, however, afford any certain prognosis of the event of the disease. In some cases, clear remissions occur on the second or third day; but in general the changes from better to worse are frequent in the course of the first twenty-four hours, and more sudden and various than in common fevers. The disease, in most cases, advances with extreme rapidity, insomuch that the patient, on the second or third day, is often, in point of debility, disorder of the senses, and of the vital functions, reduced apparently to the condition of one in the last stage of a malignant fever; yet to this desperate state will succeed a remission, in which his senses and intellectual faculties are restored, and weakness only seems to remain. Nevertheless, these remissions, when occurring early in the disease, or when not preceded by a sweat, are often short and fallacious: but when they follow a perspiration on the third day or later, and are of some hours' continuance, they afford hopes of a favourable issue.

"Delirium in the plague seldom becomes so violent and phrenitic, as in some other fevers. It sometimes comes on the first night, but in general not before the second; and is highest in the febrile exacerbations.

"The change in the eyes, which has been described as a muddiness, is extremely remarkable. It sometimes takes place on the first day, but more commonly on the second or third, and remains till some favourable turn of the disease occurs. 'It resembled," says Dr. Russell, "somewhat the dull fixed eye observable in the last stages of malignant fevers, but the dullness was different, muddiness and lustre being strangely blended together:' and he adds, that it contributed much to that confusion of countenance, which enabled him, after a little experience, to pronounce with tolerable certainty on the existence or nonexistence of the plague.

"The functions of the brain and nerves are particularly affected by the attack of the plague; so that a sudden and extreme prostration of strength belongs to the disease under all circumstances, and is, in fact, the most marked characteristic of its severe and fatal forms; the vital principle appearing to be suddenly, as it were,