P. (continued 4)

When a girl of the town, or a notorious prostitute, was taken up, and ordered to be punished in a camp or garrison, she went through the same process; the drums beating the marionnetes, a sort of rogue’s march, during the execution of the sentence.

In offering a Military Dictionary to the American public, the editor cannot withhold his protest against the barbarous method of whipping, as not only inconsistent with every maxim adapted to military institution, but incompatible with the republican institutions of America, as well as those of ancient Rome. The subjection to such odious punishment is a fatal blow to the American militia, and one of the greatest obstacles to its respectability and efficiency; since in service the punishments must necessarily be and ought to be uniformly the same. A man who has been once punished by whipping, as practised in the military service in England, must be totally lost to every sentiment of feeling reconcilable with military spirit, or that sense of honor which can never exist but where there is self-respect. There can be no confidence between officers that flog and men that are flogged, and thus the fundamental spirit of all military institution is undermined, that is confidence reciprocal and earnest through every grade. It is sometimes said that discipline cannot be enforced without it; all Europe conquered at this moment, by an army in which even blows are not permitted, is a melancholy lesson contrasted with the brutal discipline of the cane and other ignominious practices, in the armies of Prussia, Austria, Russia, and England. Those who cannot enforce discipline without treating their fellow men as brutes, should distrust their own faculties or fitness, and examine into their own false pride, their petulance, perhaps too often their unacquaintance with the first principle of military discipline, that is a knowlege of mankind, or of the human mind; the springs by which the human character is most easily and effectually led on to acts of voluntary heroism and intrepidity, are never produced by the lash; but always to be commanded by generosity, by a kindness that costs nothing, and which if it were to cost something, if done with discrimination, is always repaid ten thousand fold by the affection, the gratitude, the attachment, and the devotion of the soldier. It is said that there are men who are not to be overcome by generosity, nor subdued even by the lash; then such men should be held up as an example for better men; they should not be suffered to mess, nor to associate with men of better temper; the good men should be noticed and those neglected, and if these courses failed, the public service would be benefitted by their discharge, more than by their continuance.

PURCHASE. The sale and purchase of commissions is countenanced by government, and the prices of those commissions are regulated by authority, yet there are various ways through which young men of fortune and connexions get over the heads of veteran officers in the British army. In 1809, the detection of a system of purchase from the concubines of the British commander in chief excited astonishment.

Purchase and sale are terms unknown in the British navy.

PURSE, (with the grand signor,) a gift, or gratification of 500 crowns.

Purse of money, (in the Levant) about 112l. sterling. It is so called, because all the grand signor’s money is kept in leather purses or bags of this value in the seraglio.

PURSEVANT, from the French poursuivant, a sort of serjeant at arms, who is ready to go upon any special occasion, or to carry any special message. His general office is to apprehend a person who has been guilty of an offence.

PURSUIT, the act of following with hostile intention.

PURVEYOR of Public Supplies, a civil officer whose duty it is to purchase what is required for public service, as military clothing, medicine, equipments; the troops of the United States have for a few years became worse clad than formerly, owing to the scandalous abuse of economy in the purveyor; and overlooked in the military department; a few years since no troops in the world were better provided for.

Purveyor, a person employed in the quarter-master or commissary general’s department in the British service. Likewise one belonging to a military hospital, whose duty it is to provide food and necessaries for the sick.

To PUSH, to make a thrust.

To PUSH back, to force an enemy to retreat.

A Push, a force impressed. As a push of the bayonet. This word is peculiarly applicable to the use that ought to be made of this formidable weapon.

PUSILLANIMOUS, cowardly, wanting spirit.

To PUT a horse, in horsemanship, signifies to break or manage him.

To PUT a horse upon his haunches, to force him to bend them in galloping in the manege, or upon a stop.

PUTTING-STONE, a great stone, which formerly was laid at the gate of a laird in Scotland, and by which he tried the bodily strength of each man in his clan.

PYKE, Ind. a person employed as a guard at night.

PYRAMID, (Pyramide, Fr.) This word is originally derived from the Greek, and takes its name from a resemblance to the spiral ascendancy of fire. It is the same as obelisk.

Geometrical Pyramid, a solid standing on a square basis, and terminating at the top in a point; or a body whose base is a polygon, and whose sides are plain triangles, their several tops meeting together in one point.

Pyramid, (in architecture,) a solid, massy edifice, which from a square, triangular, or other base, arises in gradual dimension to a vertex or point.

PYRAMIDAL numbers, (in arithmetic,) the sums of polygonal numbers, collected after the same manner as the polygon numbers themselves are extracted from arithmetical progression.

Pyramidal, -

Pyramidical,

Appertaining to, like to a pyramid.

PYRAMIDOID, from the Greek, is what is sometimes called a parabolic spindle, and is a solid figure formed by the revolution of a parabola round its base, or greatest ordinate.

Pyramids, of Egypt, are enormous piles of building, within three leagues of Grand Cairo, and are ranked among the seven wonders of the world.

The pyramids of Giza, the largest of which was originally built by Cheops, are supposed to have been erected about 14 years after the building of Solomon’s temple, about 2665 years ago. The pyramids are known by various names, viz.

Pyramids of Giza, (five in number) which are those already mentioned, and near which the French established a camp in 1799.

Pyramids of Saccara, (three in number.) These stand in the plain of Mummies, and are about 600 feet high.

Dashour Pyramids, (six in number,) stand in the same plain, and appear somewhat lower. The French general Friant, in 1799, pursued Murad Bey across this plain, leaving the pyramids on his left.

The Southern, or Great Pyramid. This pyramid has been called by Bruce, the traveller, the false pyramid. It stands in the plain of Mummies, and appears to be about 600 feet high.

Pyramids, in ruins. Two pyramids of smaller size, which stand near the Fiume mountains, close to Joseph’s canal.

Battle of the Pyramids, so called from having taken place close to the large pyramids in the plain of Mummies, at Waardam, within a few miles of Grand Cairo. A previous engagement had been fought on the 15th of July, 1799, between the Mamalukes under Murad Bey, and the French army, commanded by Bonaparte in person. The second battle, called the battle of the pyramids, put the French in possession of lower Egypt. The following short extract from the Epitome of Military Events, may not be uninteresting.

“The French army, which during its last marches had suffered excessive fatigue, halted at Waardam, in order to recruit its strength, remount the artillery, and clean the musquets that were so subject to take rust from the moist vapors of the Nile. On the 21st of July, 1799, the second battle called the battle of the pyramids, was fought. General Desaix, with his advanced guard, at first made a corps of Mamalukes fall back; the order of battle of the other divisions was nearly the same as on the 13th, being drawn up by echellons of square columns, so as to flank themselves between each other; and the line of battle, which was itself flanked by two villages. Each division was concentrated into a compact body, and formed a square having its baggage in the centre, and the artillery in the intervals of the battalions. This formidable disposition presented a double fire in flank and in front, and opposed an invincible obstacle to the impetuous, but unconnected charges of Murad Bey’s cavalry. To return to the action of the 21st, general Desaix’s advanced guard, and Regnier’s division, formed the right wing of the army, and were at first charged with the greatest impetuosity, by one half of the Mamaluke cavalry; the other half having remained to support the intrenchments of the village of Embabé.

“Notwithstanding this determination to anticipate the attack of the French columns, the rash valor of the Mamalukes again failed against those compact bodies, bristling with bayonets, and keeping up, within half musquet shot a most galling fire. While these charges were taking place against his right, and the Mamalukes were retreating in disorder, Bonaparte directing the two divisions of his centre against the intrenchments, ordered the village of Embabé to be turned by means of a ditch which masked this movement, and thus cut to pieces, or rather drove into the Nile, 1500 of the enemy’s cavalry.” In a map lately published by Heathes, the number is stated to have been 2000. The attack, which was extremely warm, was conducted by general Marmont. Forty pieces of cannon, the camp of the Mamalukes, their rich spoils, together with upwards of 400 camels, fell into the hands of the conquerors. See pages 119 and 120, of the Epitome of Military Events.

In the year 1801, a large army of Turks with a detachment of the British forces in Egypt, defeated the French close to the pyramids, and took possession of Grand Cairo. This battle eventually decided the fate of Egypt.

PYROBOLY, the art of gunnery, &c.

PYROBOLIST, (Pyroboliste, Fr.) a maker of fire-balls, &c.

PYROETS, in horsemanship, are motions either of one tread or pist, or of two treads or pists.

Pyroets of one tread, or what the French call de la tête à la queue, from the head to the tail, are entire and very narrow turns made by a horse upon one tread, and almost at one time, so that his head is placed where his tail was, without putting out his haunches.

Pyroets of two pists, are turns of two treads upon a small compass of ground almost of the length of the horse.

PYROTECHNIE, Fr. See Pyrotechny.

PYROTECHNY, in military matters, the doctrine of artificial fireworks, and firearms, teaching the structure and service, both of those used in war, for the attacking of fortifications, &c. as cannons, bombs, grenadoes, gunpowder, wildfire, &c. and those made for diversion, as serpents, St. Catherine’s wheel, rockets, &c.

PYROTECHNIC, of or appertaining to pyrotechny.