[Peishwah], the name of the overlord or chief minister of Mahratta chiefs in their wars with the Mohammedans, who had his head-quarters at Poonah, the last to hold office putting himself under British protection, and surrendering his territory; nominated as his successor Nana Sahib, who became the chief instigator of the Mutiny of 1857, on account, it is believed, of the refusal of the British Government to continue to him the pension of his predecessor who had adopted him.
[Pekin] (1,000), the capital of China, on a sandy plain in the basin of the Pei-ho, is divided into two portions, each separately walled, the northern or Manchu city and the southern or Chinese. The former contains the Purple Forbidden city, in which are the Imperial palaces; surrounding it is the August city, in which are a colossal copper Buddha and the Temple of Great Happiness. Outside this are the government offices, foreign legations, the temple of Confucius, a great Buddhist monastery, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and Christian mission stations. The Chinese city has many temples, mission stations, schools, and hospitals; but it is sparsely populated, houses are poor, and streets unpaved. Pekin has railway communication with Hankow, and is connected with other cities and with Russia by telegraph. Its trade and industry are inconsiderable. It is one of the oldest cities in the world. It was Kubla Khan's capital, and has been the metropolis of the empire since 1421.
[Pelagius], a celebrated heresiarch of the 5th century, born in Britain or Brittany; denied original sin and the orthodox doctrine of divine grace as the originating and sustaining power in redemption, a heresy for which he suffered banishment from Rome in 418 at the hands of the Church. A modification of this theory went under the name of Semi-Pelagianism, which ascribes only the first step in conversion to free-will, and the subsequent sanctification of the soul to God's grace.
[Pelasgi], a people who in prehistoric times occupied Greece, the Archipelago, the shores of Asia Minor, and great part of Italy, and who were subdued, and more or less reduced to servitude, by the Hellenes, and supplanted by them. They appear to have been, so far as we find them, an agricultural people, settled and not roving about, and to have had strongholds enclosed in cyclopean walls, that is, walls consisting of huge boulders unconnected with cement.
[Peleus], the son of Æacus, the husband of Thetis, the father of Achilles, and one of the Argonauts, after whom Achilles is named Pelides, i. e. Peleus' boy.
[Pelew Islands] (10), twenty-six in number, of coral formation, and surrounded by reefs; are in the extreme W. of the Caroline Archipelago in the North Pacific, and SE. of the Philippines. They belong to Spain; are small but fertile, and have a healthy climate. The natives are Malays, and though gentle lead a savage life.
[Pelham], a fashionable novel by Bulwer Lytton, severely satirised by Carlyle in "Sartor" in the chapter on "Dandies" as the elect of books of this class.
[Pelias], king of Iolchus, and son of Poseidon, was cut to pieces by his own daughters, which were thrown by them into a boiling caldron in the faith of the promise of Medea, that he might thereby be restored to them young again. It was he who, to get rid of Jason, sent him in quest of the golden fleece in the hope that he might perish in the attempt.
[Pelican], a bird, the effigy of which was used in the Middle Ages to symbolise charity; generally represented as wounding its breast to feed its young with its own blood, and which became the image of the Christ who shed His blood for His people.
[Pelides], a patronymic of Achilles, as the son of Peleus.