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POLTAVA. 212 POLYBIUS. horned cattle, is of great importance, since oxen arc used ehietly as draught animals and for agricultural purposes. The government has few manufacturing in- dustries, and thej- are connected with agriculture or gardening. 'I'he principal manufactures are flour, oil, tobacco, sugar, spirits, etc. Population, in 1897, 2,794,727, over 95 per cent. Little Rus- sians, Jews, I'oles, and Germans. Capital, Pol- tava. The Russians began to settle in the region in the tenth century, but their settlements were destroyed during the Mongol invasion and the territory was taken possession of by Lithu- ania in the fourteenth century. Later it passed to Poland. By the Andrussovo Treaty |1(>()7) it fell to Russia. The |)resent government was formed in 1802. POLTAVA, or PULTOWA. The capital of the government of the sanu' name. Little Russia, on the Vurskla River, about 70 miles .southwest of Kharkov (llap: Russia, D .5). Outside of the town is situated a monastery dating from 1().50. Near it is the monument commemorating the vic- tory of the Russians over the Swedes, and known as the Swedish Tomb. The educational institti- tions of the town comprise two gymnasia, a real- schule. a cadet corps, an institute for daughters of noblemen, a seminary for priests, and a num- ber of .Jewish schools. Industrially the town is only of slight importance, and its fairs have practically lost their former significance. Popu- lation, in 1897, ,53,0ti0. including a considerable number of .Jews. Poltava is famous as the scene of the signal victory of the Russians under Peter the (!reat over the Swedes under Charles XIL, on July 8. 1709. POLY.ffi'NTJS (Lat., from Gk. TloUaivoc, Polyainox) (c.8r)-c.l70) . A Greek rhetorician of the second century. He was Ixirn in Mace- donia, lived in Rome, and about l(i3 wrote in Greek a work entitled Hiratagemata. Of its eight books, two are lost. The sources also are mostly gone, so that the work contains much historical information for which there is no other authority. It was edited bv Casaubon (1.589) and bv Wiilf- flin (1887). POLYANDRY (from Gk. noXvavSpia, poly- andiid. populnusncss, from ro/ioi'tSpof, polyandros. having many men, from iroAiV, polys, much. many + dw/^j, ani'r, man). That form of mar- riage and the family in which a woman has more than one husband at a time. There are two well-marked types of polyandry, in one of which, called Xair polyandry, the husbands are usually not related to one another, and the Tibetan, or fraternal polyandry, in which the husbands are brothers. Either of these forms may shade into a relationship which would have to he described as a combination nf polyandry and polygyny, each husband having more than one wife, as each wife has more than one hus- band. A family scheme similar to this existed in the Hawaiian Islands when they first became known to Eurojieans, and was there known as the Punaluan family, and this name has been adopted into ethnologj'. In one or another form polyan- dry has been widely distributed. It has only late- ly disappeared from Ceylon. New Zealand, New Caledonia, and elsewhere in the Pacific islands. It is still found in the Aleutian Islands, among the Koryaks north of the Okhotsk, and among the Zaporogian Cossacks. In Africa it is found among the Hottentots, among the Damaras, and among mountain tribes of the I'antu race, and traces of it remain among the llovas of Mada- gascar. Csesar notes its existence in his day among the Picts and the Irish, and many evi- dences of its former occasional existence in other -ryan stocks and throughout the Semitic and the Haniitic races have been brought together by Mc- Lennan, Spencer, and W. Robertson Smith. The studies of McLennan led him to the con- clusion that polyandry, originating in poverty and female infanticide, was the first form of mar- riage, in a true sense of the word. (See .Mar- RI.GE.) Westermarck and Crawley among influ- ential writers have disputed Mcl^'nnan's tlicories, but the investigations of Spencer and (iillen among the native tribes of Central Australia have tended to confirm them in some important par- ticulars. Apparently the earliest relations of men and women in primitive hordes were such that in a nominal sense all women were wives of all men, but that, so far from actual promiscuity being the practice, a temporary mating was usual. That this arrangement was not in fact exclusive of ])olyandry. as Westermarck has regarded it, is shown by Australian customs, where a wife who consorts with the elder of two or more brothers so long as he is present in camp consorts with a younger brother during the absence of the elder. It is impossible to say with certainty whether the Nair polyandry of Southern India or the Tibetan polyandry is the older. Probably the Punaluan relationship preceded the ])olyanilry in i which one wcinian is shared by two or more men without any corresponding polygyny, and. if so, fraternal |)oIyandry is older than that in which i husbands are unrelated. The .Jewish custom of i the Levirate, or obligation to marry a brother's widow, has been regarded as a survival of poly- ; andry, but, as Spencer has showni (Principles of Hociolof/y) . it admits of another explanation. For bibliography, see M.rriage. POL'YAN'THTJS (Neo-Lat., from Gk. -oUav. dor, having many flowers, from -o/if, polys, much, many + avftor^, anthos, flower). A hardy perennial plant — often called garden polyanthus —much prized and cultivated in gardens. It has ! been develo])ed from Primula variabilis, which ' itself is a hybrid between the common primrose ll'rimida rulr/aris) and the Knglish cowslip {I'rimuln officinalis) . The numerous flowers are borne above the foliage in an umbel supimrted on a common leafless flower stem, or scape. It ex- hibits a great variety of delicate and beautiful colors. The varieties arc innumerable. If a par- ' ticular color is to be preserved the plants are propagated by divisions. A rich soil, shade, and moisture are most suitable. POLYB'ITJS (Lat.. from Gk. noXcfiios. Poly- bios) (c.2(J.5-c.l20 B.C.). The chief Greek his- torian of the Hellenistic period, born at Mega- lopolis, in Arcadia. He was the son of Lycortas, a general of the Achiean League and an intimate friend of Philopcemen. His birth and great talent early secured him important jiolitical positions in his native city. In B.C. 181 he was chosen as member of the embassy which was to visit Alex- andria, but which was afterwards given up; and in 109 he held the office of hipparch in the Achwan League. After the conquest of Macedonia in 168, he was one of the thousand noble and influential Achoeans who were taken to Rome as hostages.