youth he fought on the side of the Phrygians against the Amazons. He had fifty sons and fifty daughters, and possessed immense wealth. He appears only twice on the scene of action during the war—to make arrangements for the duel between Paris and Menelaus, and to beg the body of Hector for burial from Achilles, whom he visits in his tent by night. He was said to have been slain by Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, during the sack of Troy (Virgil, Aeneid, ii. 512). See under Troy, on the legends.
PRIAPEIA, a collection of poems (about eighty in number) in various metres on the subject of Priāpus. It was compiled from literary works and inscriptions on images of the god by an unknown editor, who composed the introductory epigram. From their style and versification it is evident that the poems belong to the best period of Latin literature. Some, however, may be interpolations of a later period. They will be found in F. Bücheler's Petronius (1904), L. Müller's Catullus (1870), and E. Bährens, Poetae latini minores, i. (1879).
PRIAPULOIDEA, a small group of vermiform marine
creatures; they have been usually placed in the neighbourhood of
the Gephyrea, but their position is uncertain and it is doubtful
if they are to be regarded as coelomate animals. They are
cylindrical worm-like animals, with a median anterior mouth quite
devoid of any armature or tentacles. The body is ringed, and
often has circles of spines, which are continued into the slightly
protrusible pharynx. The alimentary canal is straight, the
anus terminal, though in Priapulus one or two hollow ventral
diverticula of the body-wall stretch out behind it. The nervous
system, composed of a ring and a ventral cord, retains its
Priapulus caudatus
Lam. (Nat. size.) a,
Mouth, surrounded by
spines.
primitive connexion with the ectoderm.
There are no specialized sense-organs or
vascular or respiratory systems. There is
a wide body-cavity, but as this has no
connexion with the renal or reproductive
organs it cannot be regarded as a coelom,
but probably is a blood-space or
haemocoel.
The Priapuloidea are dioecious, and their male and female organs, which are one with the excretory organs, consist of a pair of branching tufts, each of which opens to the exterior on one side of the anus. The tips of these tufts enclose a flamecell similar to those found in Platyhelminths, &c., and these probably function as excretory organs. As the animals become adult, diverticula arise on the tubes of these organs, which develop either spermatozoa or ova. These pass out through the ducts. Nothing is known of the development. There are three genera: (i.) Priapulus, with the species P. caudatus, Lam., of the Arctic and Antarctic and neighbouring cold seas, and P. bicaudalus, Dan., of the north Atlantic and Arctic seas; (ii.) Priapuloides australis, de Guerne, of the southern circumpolar waters and (iii.) Halicryptus, with the species H. spinulosus, v. Sieb., of northern seas. They live in the mud, which they eat, in comparatively shallow waters up to 50 fathoms.
Authorities.—Apel, Zeitschr. wiss. Zool. (1885), vol xlii.; Scharff, Quart. Journ. Mic. Sci. (1885), vol. xxv.; Ehlers, Zeitschr. wiss. Zool. (1861), vol. xi.; Schauinsland, Zool. Anz. (1886), vol. ix.; De Guerne, Mission scientifique du Cap Horn (1891), vol vi.; Michaelsen, Jahrb. Hamburg-Aust. (1888), vol. vi. (A. E. S.)
PRIĀPUS, in Greek mythology, son of Dionysus (or Adonis or Hermes) and Aphrodite (or Chione). He is unknown to Homer and Hesiod. The chief seat of his worship was the coast of the Hellespont, especially at Lampsacus, which claimed to be his birthplace. Thence his cult extended to Lydia, and by way of the islands of Lesbos and Thasos to the whole of Greece (especially Argolis), whence it made its way to Italy, together with that of Aphrodite. Priapus is the personification of the fruitfulness of nature. Sailors invoked him in distress and fishermen prayed to him for success. He gradually came to be regarded as the god of sensuality. His symbol was the phallus, an emblem of productivity and a protection against the evil eye. The first fruits of the gardens and fields, goats, milk and honey, and occasionally asses, were offered to him. He was sometimes represented as an old man, with a long beard and large genitals, wearing a long Oriental robe and a turban or garland of vine-leaves, with fruit and bunches of grapes in his lap. Amongst the Romans, rough wooden images, after the manner of the hermae, with phallus stained with vermilion, were set up in gardens. His image was placed on tombs, as symbolizing the doctrine of regeneration and a future life, and his name occurs on sepulchral inscriptions. In his hand he carried a bill-hook or club, while a reed on his head, shaking backwards and forwards in the wind, acted as a scarecrow.
PRIBILOF ISLANDS (often called the Fur Seal Islands, Russian equivalent, “ Kotovi ”), a group of four islands, part of Alaska, lying in Bering Sea in about 56° 50' N. and 170° W., about 200 m. N. of Unalaska and 200 m. S. of Cape Newenham, the nearest point on the mainland. The principal islands are St Paul (about 35 sq. m.; 13 m. long, from N.E. to S.W.; maximum width about 6 m.; named from St Peter and St Paul's Day, on which it was discovered) and St George (about 27 sq. m.; 10 m. long, maximum width, 4 m.; probably named after Pribilof's ship) about 30 m. S.E.; Otter and Walrus islets, the former covering about 4 sq. m., and the latter merely a reef covering about 64 acres, are near St Paul. In 1907 the native population was 263—170 on St Paul and 93 on St George. Only agents of the United States or employes of the lessees are permitted as residents on the islands. The islands are hilly and volcanic—Bogoslof, a crater on St Paul, is 600 ft. high—without harbours, and have a mean annual temperature of about 35.7° F., and a rainfall of about 35 in. There are only two seasons—rainy summers lasting from May to October, and dry winters from November to April. The flora is restricted to ferns, mosses and grasses, though there are some creeping willows and small shrubs. The largest seal rookery, containing about 80% of the seals in the Pribilofs, is on St Paul. The seals found here are a distinct variety (Callorhinus alascanus) with much better fur than that of any other variety. Besides the fur seal there are blue and grey foxes (more on St George than on St Paul), and on St George Island and on the Walrus reef there are great bird rookeries—the breeding places of immense numbers of gulls, sea-parrots, auks, cormorants and arries (Lomvia arra).
The islands were first sighted in 1767 by Joan Synd, and were visited in 1786 by Gerasim Pribiloff, who discovered the fur seal rookeries for which they became famous. From Russia the islands passed with Alaska to the United States in 1867. From 1870 to 1890 the United States government leased the islands to the Alaska Commercial Company. In 1890–1910 the North American Commercial Company held the monopoly. But the industry shrank considerably owing to pelagic sealing. The season during which land hunting is allowed on the islands includes June, July, September and October. (See also Seal and Bering Sea Arbitration.)
PŘIBRAM, a town of Bohemia, Austria, 39 m. S.W. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900), 13,576, together with the adjoining township of Birkenberg, 19,119, almost exclusively Czech. It lies in a valley between the hills of Birkenberg and Heiliger Berg, and in its neighbourhood are the lead and silver mines which belong to the Austrian government and are worked in nine shafts, two of which, the Adalbert shaft (3657 ft.) and the Maria shaft, (3575 ft.) are the deepest in the world. The mines have been worked for several centuries, but their actual prosperity dates from 1770, when the sinking of the Adalbert shaft began. They yield yearly an average of 80,000 ℔ of silver and 1900 tons of lead. At the top of the Heiliger Berg (1889 ft.) is a church with a wonder-working image of the Virgin, which is the chief place of pilgrimage in Bohemia.
PRICE, BARTHOLOMEW (1818-1898), English mathematician and educationist, was born at Coln St Denis, Gloucestershire,
