Pigments. The colours used in painting. A large number are described in their order. Standard works on ancient and modern pigments are Eastlake’s Materials for a History of Painting; Merrifield’s Ancient Art of Painting; Hundertpfund’s Art of Painting restored to its Simplest and Surest Principles. An exhaustive catalogue of other works on the subject has been issued by the Librarian of the South Kensington Museum.
Pike. A celebrated infantry weapon now replaced by the bayonet, consisting of a strong spear or lance with a spike at the butt for fixing in the ground. The shape of the head has varied at different periods.
Pila, R. This word has different meanings, according as the first syllable is long or short. In the first case it denotes (1) a mortar; (2) a pillar or conical pier for supporting the superstructure of a bridge; (3) a breakwater. When the first syllable is short, the word denotes (1) a playing-ball. The game of ball, from the earliest times to the fall of the Roman Empire, was one of the favourite exercises of the Greeks and Romans. In the baths and the gymnasiums a room (sphæristerium) was set apart for the purpose. Pila was a small ball; follis, a large one filled with air: other balls were the paganica and the harpastum. (2) Pila vitrea, a glass globe. (3) A dummy made to roughly imitate the human form.
Pilaster, It. A square pillar on a wall, partly embedded in it, one-fourth or one-fifth of its thickness projecting.
Pile. (1) Her. One of the ordinaries, in form like a wedge. (2) An arrow used in hunting, with a round knob below the head, to prevent it penetrating too far. (3) The nap or surface on velvet.
Pileatus, R. One who wears the pileus, or skull-cap of felt; it was specially worn by the seafaring classes, and also by the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux).
Pilentum, R. A state carriage in which the Roman ladies rode when attending any ceremony, whereas for purposes of recreation or for visiting they made use of the carpentum or the harmamaxa.
Pileolus, R. Diminutive of Pileus; it was a small felt skull-cap which hardly covered the top of the head.
Pileus, Pileum, R. (πῖλος, felt). A kind of close-fitting felt cap worn more particularly by the seafaring classes. The pileus varied in form amongst the different nations by whom it was adopted; it was worn exclusively by men. The most familiar form of the pileus, in art, is the Phrygian bonnet, or cap of liberty. (Cf. Petasus.)
Pillar Dollars are Spanish silver coins, stamped on the obverse with the royal arms of Spain supported by two columns.