Puppet Shows
the performances of images of the human figure moved by fingers, cords, or wires, with or without dialogue.
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Single-source entries: P (98)
Each of these 19 subjects appears in only one of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. None is long enough to carry a page by itself, so they are gathered here by letter. Anything that grows moves out to a page of its own.
Purana
the last great division of Hindu sacred literature. Eighteen principal Purânas are enumerated, called Brahma, Padma, Brahmanda, Agni, Vishnu, Gâruda, Brahmavaivarta, Siva, Linga, Nâradîya, Skanda, Markandeya, Bhavishyat, Matsya, Vâraha, Kaurma, Vâman, and Bhagavat. None of them is dated. Some quote from others, and the period of their redaction embraces perhaps a dozen centuries. In their present form none of them appears older than the 9th century A. D. The most celebrated are the Vishnua and the Bhagavat Purânas.
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Purbeck
ISLE OF, a peninsula S. of Dorsetshire, so separated from the mainland on the N. by Poole harbor and the Frome as to be connected with it by only a very narrow isthmus. It is about 12 miles long by 7 miles broad. The prevailing rock is limestone.
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Purcell
HENRY, an English composer; born in 1658. He became organist of Westminster Abbey, and in 1882 of the chapel-royal. In 1680, probably, he composed "Dido and Æneas," which has been called the first genuine English opera. He composed mainly anthems and sacred music, all of great excellence. In 1690 he wrote the music for Dryden's version of "The Tempest." In 1691 he produced the music to Dryden's "King Arthur," considered his dramatic masterpiece. In 1694 he wrote his great works the Jubilate and Te Deum," 1695 music to "Bonduca," in which was "Britons, Strike Home." He died in 1695, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
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Purchas
SAMUEL, an English clergyman; born in Thaxted, Essex, England, in 1577. He was educated at Cambridge, and was rector of St. Martin's, London. His great works were "Purchas, His Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in All Ages" (1613); and "Hakluyt's Posthumus, or Purchas His Pilgrimes: Containing a History of the World, in lishmen and Others" (1625). Another work is "Purchas His Pilgrim: Microcosmus, or the History of Man; Relating the Wonders of His Generation, Varieties in His Degeneration, and Necessity of His Regeneration" (1619). He died in London, in September, 1626.
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Purchase
in law, the suing out and obtaining a writ; the obtaining or acquiring the title of lands and tenements by money, deed, gift, or any means except descent. In mechanics, a means of increasing applied power; any mechanical hold, advantage, power, or force applied to the raising or removing of heavy bodies: mechanical advantage gained by the application of any power.
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Purdue University
a coeducational non-sectarian institution in Lafayette, Ind.; founded in 1874; reported at the close of 1919: Professors and instructors, 187; students, 2,470; president, W. E. Stone, A. M., LL. D.
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Purgatory
in comparative religions, any place or state succeeding the moral purification. In Roman theology, a place in which souls who depart this present life, and serving as a means of life in the grace of God, suffer for a time, because they still need to be cleansed from venial, or have still to pay the temporal punishment due to mortal sins, the guilt and eternal punishment of which have been remitted.
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Purification
a Jewish rite. It was mainly the one through the performance of which an Israelite was readmitted to the privilege of religious communion, lost through uncleanness.
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Purim
the Festival of Lots, which was instituted by Mordecai (Esther ix: 27, x: 3), and is celebrated to this day by the Jews on the 14th and 15th of the month Adar (March), in commemoration of their wonderful deliverance from the destruction with which they were threatened by Haman.
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Purple
a color obtained by mixing pure red and pure blue. Tyrian purple was obtained at great cost from a shellfish,--a sort of Phoenician whelk known as a murex, each yielding but a drop of dye. In the day of Cicero a pound of fine wool dyed with Tyrian purple was valued at $175. From its excessive cost, purple was the emblem of rulers. The consular toga bore a purple border. The Roman emperor wore a purple toga. The term, "royal purple," is still current. Italy kept secret for a century a process of dyeing purple with a sort of lichen. Purple dye is now obtained inexpensively from aniline, a byproduct of coal tar .
Only in Aiton's Encyclopedia
Purple Black
a preparation of madder, of a deep purple hue, approach ing to black; its tints, with white-lead, are of a purple color.
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Purple Heron
in ornithology, the Adrea purpurea, about the same size as the common heron.
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Purpura
in zoölogy, a genus of Buccinidæ; British species, abounds on the coast at low water, and is very destructive to mussel beds. Also, a peculiar unhealthy condition of the blood and tissues, evinced by purple spots, chiefly on the legs, due to unhealthy surroundings, want of proper food, intemperance, and other depressing causes. URSER, on shipboard, the officer whose duty is to keep the accounts of the ship to which he is attached. In mining, the paymaster or cashier of a mine, and the official to whom notices of transfer are sent for registration in the cost-book.
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Pursuivant
in heraldry, an attendant on the heralds; one of the third and lowest order of heraldic officers. There are four pursuivants attached to the English College of Arms, styled Rouge Croix, Blue Mantle, Rouge Dragon, and Portcullis.
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Puru
or PURUS, a river of South America, which rising in the E. of Peru enters Brazil, and flowing N. E. after a course of 400 miles joins the Amazon about 100 miles above the confluence of the Madeira with the latter.
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Purveyance
formerly in England the exercise by officials called purveyors of the royal prerogative, involving a right of pre-emption, by which the king was authorized to buy provisions and necessaries for the use of his household at an appraised value, in preference to all his subjects.
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Pus
in physiology and pathology, the product of suppuration, a thick, viscid, yellow fluid.
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Pusey
EDWARD BOUVERIE, an English theological writer, a leader of the Anglo-Catholic (Tractarian) party in the Established Church; born near Oxford in 1800. He was associated with Newman and others in the "British Critic," "Tracts for the Times," etc., and his conspicuousness from his social position (nephew of one earl and grandson of another, professor and canon of Christ Church), wealth and munificent charities, caused the Oxford Movement to be known as "Puseyism." He published: "The Holy Eucharist a Comfort to the Penitent" (1843), a sermon which resulted in his suspension for three years; two sermons on "The Entire Absolution of the Penitent" (1846), equally revolutionary. Of his larger works the most important are: "The Doctrine of the Real Presence" (1855); "The Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ the Doctrine of the English Church" (1857); "An Eirenicon." He died Sept. 16, 1882.
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