Pindo´rus and Aride´us, the two heralds of the Christian army in the siege of Jerusalem.—Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered (1575).
Pine-Bender (The), Sinis, the Corinthian robber who used to fasten his victims to two pine trees bent towards the earth, and leave them to be torn to pieces by the rebound.
Pingree (Nancy), called “Old Lady Pingree” because of her pride and black lace turban. She lives by herself in the lower part of the old Pingree house, and is so poor that to give an egg to the lodgers above stairs is an act of self-denying generosity. She has money and burial-clothes laid away for her funeral, yet when the neighbor upstairs dies, Nancy “lends” it to the daughter to keep her mother out of the Potter’s field. A sudden rise in property brings Nancy a few hundreds, and enables her to face death with calm certainty of an independent burial in the Pingree lot.—Mary E. Wilkins, A Humble Romance, and Other Stories (1887).
Pinkerton (Miss), a most majestic lady, tall as a grenadier, and most proper. Miss Pinkerton kept an academy for young ladies on Chiswick Mall. She was “the Semiramis of Hammersmith, the friend of Dr. Johnson, and the correspondent of Mrs. Chapone.” This very distinguished lady “had a Roman nose, and wore a solemn turban.” Amelia Sedley was educated at Chiswick Mall academy, and Rebecca Sharp was a pupil-teacher there.—Thackeray, Vanity Fair, i. (1848).
Pinnit (Orson), keeper of the bears.—Sir W. Scott, Kenilworth (time, Elizabeth).
Pinto (Ferdinand Mendez), a Portuguese traveller, whose “voyages” were at one time wholly discredited, but have since been verified (1509-1583).
Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar of the first magnitude.—W. Congreve, Love for Love (1695).
Pious (The), Ernst I., founder of the house of Gotha (1601-1674).
Robert, son of Hugues Capet (971, 996-1031).
Eric IX. of Sweden (*, 1155-1161).