Pan, that part of the lock of a musquet, pistol, &c. which holds the priming powder.
| PANACHE, | - | |
| PANNACHE, |
Fr. a plume, a bunch of feathers.
Panaches flottans, Fr. nodding plumes.
Pannaches likewise signifies in architecture, the triangular part of an arch that contributes towards the support of a turret or elevation which is raised above the dome of any particular edifice.
PANCARTE, Fr. an ancient exercise or tournament, which was performed in the Roman amphitheatre, when strong athletic men were opposed to all sorts of enraged animals.
PANDOURS, are Hungarian infantry. They wear a loose garment fixed tight to their bodies by a girdle, with great sleeves, and large breeches reaching down to their ankles. They use firearms, and are excellent marksmen: they also wear a kind of sabre, near four feet long, which they use with great dexterity.
| PANIC, | - | |
| PANIC fear, |
sudden consternation which seizes upon men’s fancies without any visible cause; a needless or ill grounded fright. The reason why these terrors are attributed to Pan, was, as some say, because when Osiris was bound by Typho, Pan and the satyrs appearing, cast him into a fright; or because he frightened all the giants that waged war against Jupiter: or as others say, that when Pan was Bacchus’s lieutenant general in his Indian expedition, being encompassed in a valley, with an army of enemies, far superior to them in number, he advised the god to order his men to give a general shout, which so surprised the opposite army, that they immediately fled from their camp. And hence it came to pass, that all sudden fears impressed upon men’s spirits, without any just reason, were, by the Greeks and Romans, called panic terrors. (See Polyænus Stratag. book I.) The custom of shouting seems to have been used by almost all nations, barbarous as well as civil; and is mentioned by all writers who treat of martial affairs. Homer has several elegant descriptions of it, particularly one in the fourth Iliad, where he resembles the military noise to torrents rolling with impetuous force from the mountains into the adjacent vallies. We have likewise had our war-hoops.
PANIER à mine, Fr. See [Bourriquet].