P The sixteenth letter of the English alphabet, the fifteenth
in the Latin and the sixteenth in the Greek alphabet, the
latter in its ordinary form having the symbol for x before
o. In the Phoenician alphabet, from which the Western
alphabets are directly or indirectly derived, its shape, written
from right to left, is 
. In the Greek alphabet, when written
from left to right, it takes the form 
or 
, the second form being
much rarer in inscriptions than the first. Only very rarely and
only in inscriptions of the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. are rounded
forms 
, 
found. In Italy the Etruscan and Umbrian form 
(written from right to left), though more angular than the
Phoenician symbol, resembles it more closely than it does the
Greek. The earliest Roman form—on the inscription found in
the Forum in 1899—is Greek in shape 
, though the second leg
is barely visible. The Oscan 
is identical with the rarer Greek
form. As time goes on the Roman form becomes more and more
rounded 
, but not till Imperial times is the semicircle completed
so as to form the symbol in the shape which it still retains 
.
The Semitic name Pē became in Greek πϵῖ, and has in the course
of ages changed but little. The sound of p throughout has been
that of the breathed labial stop, as in the English pin. At the
end of English words like lip the breath is audible after the
consonant, so that the sound is rather that of the ancient Greek
ϕ, i.e. p-h, not f, as ϕ is ordinarily now pronounced. This sound
is found initially also in some dialects of English, as in the Irish
pronunciation of pig as p-hig. For a remarkable interchange
between p and qu sounds which is found in many languages, see
under Q. (P. Gi.)
PAARL, a town of the Cape Province, South Africa, 36 m. by
rail E.N.E. of Cape Town. Pop. (1904), 11,293. The town is
situated on the west bank of the Berg river, some 400 ft. above
the sea. It stands on the coast plain near the foot of the
Drakenstein mountains. West of the town the Paarl Berg rises
from the plain. The berg is crowned by three great granite
boulders, known as the Paarl, Britannia and Gordon Rock.
The town is beautifully situated amid gardens, orange groves
and vineyards. The chief public buildings are the two Dutch
Reformed churches, the old church being a good specimen of
colonial Dutch architecture, with gables, curves and thatched
roof. Paarl is a thriving agricultural and viticultural centre,
among its industries being the manufacture of wine and brandy,
wagon and carriage building and harness making. South-east
of the town are granite quarries. The wines produced in the
district are among the best in South Africa, ranking second only
to those of Constantia.
The Paarl is one of the oldest European towns in South Africa. It dates from 1687, the site for the new settlement being chosen by the governor, Simon van der Stell. It was named Paarl by the first settlers from the fancied resemblance of one of the boulders on the top of the hill, when glistening in the sun, to a gigantic pearl. Shortly afterwards several of the Huguenots who had sought refuge at the Cape after the revocation of the edict of Nantes were placed in the new settlement. The present inhabitants are largely descended from these Huguenots.
PABIANICE, a town of Russian Poland, in the government of Piotrkow, 30 m. N.W. of the town of Piotrkow, and 10 m. S.S.W. from Lodz railway station. Pop. (1897), 18,251. It lies amidst extensive forests round the head-waters of the Nér, which were the hunting-grounds of the Polish kings. It has woollen, cloth and paper mills, and manufactures agricultural implements.
PABNA, or Pubna, a town and district of British India, in the Rajshahi division of Eastern Bengal and Assam. The town is situated on the river Ichhamati, near the old bed of the Ganges. Pop. (1901), 18,424. The district of Pabna has an area of 1839 sq. m. Pop (1901), 1,420,461, showing an increase of 4·8% in the decade. It is bordered along its entire east face by the main stream of the Brahmaputra or Jamuna, and along its south-west face by the Ganges or Padma. It is entirely of alluvial origin, the silt of the annual inundations overlying strata of clay on sand. Apart from the two great bordering rivers, it is intersected by countless water-channels of varying magnitude, so that during the rainy season every village is accessible by boat and by boat only. Almost the whole area is one green rice-field, the uniform level being broken only by clumps of bamboos and fruit-trees, which conceal the village sites. The district is a modern creation of British rule, being first formed out of Rajshahi district in 1832, and possesses no history of its own. The two staple crops are rice and jute. Sirajganj, on the Brahmaputra, is the largest mart for jute in Bengal. The Eastern Bengal railway cuts across the south-west corner of the district to Sara, where a bridge crosses the Ganges. The district was affected by the earthquake of the 12th of June 1897, which was most severely felt at Sirajganj.
PABST, FREDERICK (1836–1904), American brewer, was born at Nicholausreith, in Saxony, on the 28th of March 1836. In 1848 he emigrated with his parents to Chicago. There he became, first a waiter in an hotel, then a cabin-boy on a Lake Michigan steamer, and eventually captain of one of these vessels. In this last capacity he made the acquaintance of a German, Philip Best, the owner of a small but prosperous brewery at Milwaukee, and married his daughter. In 1862 Pabst was taken into partnership in his father-in-law’s brewery, and set himself to work to study the details of the business. After obtaining a thorough mastery of the art of brewing, Pabet turned his attention to extending the market for the beer, and before long had raised the output of the Best brewery to 100,000 barrels a year. The brewery was eventually converted into a public company, and its capital repeatedly increased in order to cope with the continually increasing trade.
PACA, the Brazilian name for a large, heavily-built, short-tailed rodent mammal, easily recognized by its spotted fur. This rodent, Coelogenys (or Agouti) paca, together with one or two other tropical American species, represents a genus near akin to the agoutis and included in the family Caviidae. Pacas may be distinguished from agoutis by their heavier and more compact build, the longitudinal rows of light spots on the fur, the five-toed hind-feet, and the peculiar structure of the skull, in which the cheek-bones are expanded to form large capsules on the sides of the face, each enclosing a cavity opening on the side of the cheek. Their habits are very similar to those of agoutis, but when pursued they invariably take to the water. The young, of which seldom more than one is produced at a birth, remain in the burrows for several months. The flesh is eaten in Brazil. Males may be distinguished from females by the skull, in which the outer surface of the cheek-bones is roughened in the former and smooth in the latter sex. The paca-rana (Dinomys branicki), from the highlands of Peru, differs, among other features, by its well-developed tail and the arrangement of the spots. (See Rodentia.)
Pacatus Drepanius, Latinus (or Latinius), one of the Latin panegyrists, flourished at the end of the 4th century A.D. He probably came from Aginnum (Agen), in the south of France, in the territory of the Nitiobriges, and received his education in the rhetorical school of Burdigala (Bordeaux). He was the contemporary and intimate friend of Ausonius, who dedicated two of his minor works to Pacatus, and describes him as the greatest Latin poet after Virgil. Pacatus attained the rank of proconsul of Africa (A.D. 390) and held a confidential position at the imperial court. He is the author of an extant speech (ed. E. Bährens in Panegyrici latini, 1874, No. 12) delivered in the senate house at Rome (389) in honour of Theodosius I. It contains an account of the life and deeds of the emperor, the special subject of congratulation being the complete defeat of the usurper Maximus. The speech is one of the best of its
