Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/215

LEFT PELASGIAN 163 PELICAN genera. Most of the species are from the Cape of Good Hope, one is from the Canary Islands, one from Asia Minor, and a few from Australia. Extensively cultivated in England in flower pots in houses, in greenhouses, and in the open air. The genus readily forms hybrids, which most of the cultivated species are. They are popularly called geranium. PELASGIAN, one of an ancient and widely diffused prehistoric tribe which was the common parent of the Greeks and of the earliest civilized inhabitants of Italy. Most authors agree in repre- senting Arcadia as one of their principal seats. The term Pelasgi was used by the classic poets for the Greeks in gen- eral. PELEE, MONT, an active volcano on the island of Martinique in the French West Indies. Although previously known to be in action, it had not caused much destruction until 1902, when by its erup- tion it destroyed the city of St. Pierre with its 30,000 people. This occurred on May 8, 1902, and was accompanied by extraordinary electrical disturbances which were recorded at the antipodal re- gion of the earth in less than two min- utes' time. On August 30 of the same year the volcano, by another eruption, caused a loss of life estimated at 2,500 people in the villages situated on the neighboring islands. PELEUS, in mythology, a King of Thessaly. He married Thetis, one of the Nereids, the only one among mortals who married an immortal. Being accessory to the death of his brother Phocus, he re- tired to the court of Eurytus, who reign- ed at Phthia. He was purified of his murder by Eurytus, who gave him his daughter Antigone in marriage. Peleus subsequently killed Eurytus by accident, while in the chase of the Calydonian boar. This event obliged him to retire to lolchos, when the wife of Acastus, king of the country, brought certain charges against him, which caused him to be tied to a tree on Mount Pelion, that he might become the prey of wild beasts; but Jupiter, aware of the innocence of Pe- leus, ordered Vulcan to set him at lib- erty. Peleus revenged himself on Acas- tus, by driving him from his possessions and putting to death his wife. After the death of Antigone, Peleus fell in love with Thetis, who rejected his suit be- cause he was a mortal. Having offered a sacrifice to the gods, Proteus at length informed him that to obtain Thetis he must surprise her asleep in her grotto, near the shores of Thessaly. This ad- rice was followed; and Thetis, unable to escape from the grasp of Peleus, at last consented to marry him. Their nuptials were celebrated with the greatest sol- emnity by all the gods but the goddess of discord, who was absent. From the marriage of Peleus and Thetis was born Achilles. The death of Achilles was the source of so much grief to Peleus, that Thetis promised him immortality, and commanded him to retire to the grottos of the island of Leuce, where he would see and converse with the manes of his PELEW ISLANDS, or PALAU, a group in the Pacific formerly belonging to Spain, lying S. E. of the Philippines, at the W. extremity of the Caroline Archipelago, with which they are some- times classed. There are about 200 islands, mountainous, wooded, and sur- rounded with coral reefs. Total area, 170 square miles. The principal is Ba- belthouap or Babeltop. The soil is rich and fertile, and the climate healthy. Bread fruit, cocoanuts, sugar cane, palms, areca nuts, yams, etc., are grovvoi. Turtles, trepang, and fish abound od the coasts. The men go entirely naked and the women nearly so. The islands were discovered by the Spaniards in 1543, and visited again in 1696. In 1899 Spain sold this group, with the Carolines and all of the Ladrones excepting Guam, to Germany. PELIAS, in Greek mythology, son of Neptune, and King of lolchus. The leg- ends ascribe to him the Argonautic ex- pedition, for he wished to be rid of Ja- son.^ Medea bade his daughters cut him in pieces and boil him, to make him young again, but he died while undergoing the process. PELICAN, any bird of the genus Pele- camis, and especially the common peli- can, the onocrotalos of the Greeks and Romans, and the Pelecanus onocrotalus of modern science. Pelicans are large piscivorous water fowl, with an enor- mous pouch capable of being contracted when not in use as a depository for food. The species are widely distributed, and frequent the shores of the sea, rivers, and lakes, feeding chiefly on fish, which they hunt in shallow water, the pelican of the United States (P. ftiscus) being the only species which dives for its prey. The common pelican is about the size of a swan, though its enormous bill and loose plumage make it look considerably larger; it is white, slightly tinged with flesh color, and the breast feathers be- come yellow in old birds. It usually nests on the ground, in some retired spot near the water, and lays two or three