Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/186

 170 P A L P A L dial in the palace is commemorated in all three, and it is to be noticed that the three inscriptions do not translate one another. In private inscriptions a fourth tongue, the Hebrew, is also often found. For in Palermo, under the Norman kings, Christians of both ritesj Mussulmans, and Jews were all allowed to flourish after their several fashions. This distinguishes Palermo from some other Sicilian cities which belonged wholly or mainly to one people Greek, Latin, or Saracen. In many of the early churches of Palermo it is easy to see that they were first designed for the Greek rite, which was gradually supplanted by the Latin. The abiding connexion of Palermo with the races of south-eastern Europe comes out in several other shapes. In Saracen times there was a Slavonic quarter on the southern side of the city, and there is still a colony of United Greeks, or more strictly Albanians, who sought shelter from the Turks, and who keep their national religious usages. The series of Christian-Saracen buildings is continued in the country houses of the kings which surround the city, La Favara and Mirnnerno, the works of Roger, and the better known Ziza and Cuba, the works severally of &quot;William the Bad and William the Good. The Saracenic architecture and Arabic inscriptions of these buildings have often caused them to be taken for works of the ancient emL s ; but the inscriptions of themselves prove their date. Different as is their style, their mere shape is not very unlike that of a contemporary keep in England or Normandy. All these buildings are the genuine work of Sicilian art, the art which had grown up in the island through the presence of the two most civilized races of the age, the Greek and the Saracen. Later in the 12th century the Cistercians brought in a type of church which, without any great change, of mere style, has a very different effect, a high choir taking in some sort the place of the cupola. The greatest example of this is the neighbouring metro politan church of Monreale ; more closely connected with Palermo is the church of San Spirito, outside the city on the south side, the scene of the Vespers. Palermo is full of churches and monasteries of later date, as in Saracen times it was crowded with mosques. But only a few are of any architectural importance, and they often simply range with the houses. Domestic and civil buildings, from the 12th century to the loth, abound in Palermo, and they present several types of genuine national art, quite unlike anything in Italy. The later houses employ a very flat arch, the use of which goes on in some of the houses and smaller churches of the Renaissance, some of which are very pleasing. But the general aspect of the streets is later still, dating from mere Spanish times. Still many of the houses are stately in their way, with remarkable heavy balconies. The most striking point in the city is the central space at the cross ing of the main streets, called the Quattro Cantoni. Here the eye catches the mountains at three ends and the sea at the fourth. But none of the chief buildings come into this view, and the intersecting streets suggest a likeness, which is wholly deceptive, to the four limbs of a Roman Chester. Two indeed of the four are formed by the ancient Via Marmorea, but the Via Macqueda, which supplies the other two, was cut through a mass of small streets in Spanish times. The city walls remain during the greater part of their extent, but they are of no great interest. The gates also are modern. The best is Porta Nuova, near the king s palace, built in 1584 to commemorate the return of Charles V. fifty years earlier. The design is far better than could have been looked for at that time. Outside the walls, in the immediate neighbourhood of the city, there are, besides the royal country houses and the church of San Spirito, several buildings of the Norman reigns. Among these are the oldest church in or near Palermo, the Lepers church, founded by the first conqueror or deliverer, Count Roger, and the bridge over the forsaken stream of the Oreto, built in King Roger s day by the admiral George. There are also some later mediaeval houses and towers of some importance. These all lie on to the south of the city, to wards the hill called Monte Griffone (Griffon = Greek), and the Giant s Cave, which has furnished rich stores for the palaeontologist. On the other side, towards Pellegrino, the change in the ancient haven has caused a new one to grow up, but there is little of artistic or historic interest on this side. Besides works dealing with Sicily generally, the established local work on Palermo is Dcscrizionc di Palermo Antico, by Sulvatore Morso, Palermo.. 1827. Modern research and criticism have been applied in Die MiltclaUcrlichc Kunst in Palermo, by Anton Springer, Bonn, 1869; Ifistorischc Topographic von Panormux, by Julius Schubring, Liibeck, 1870; Studii di Storia Palcrmitana, by Adolf Holm,, Palermo, 1880. See also &quot; The Normans in Palermo,&quot; in the third series of Historical Essays, by E. A. Freeman, London, 1879. The description of Palermo in the second volume of Gsel- fels s guide-book, Unter-Italien und Sicilicn, Leipsic, leaves nothing to wish for. (E. A. F. ) PALES, an old Italian deity, worshipped in the festival of the Palilia at Rome on the 21st April. Like most of the ancient Italian deities, Pales is little more than a name to us ; the authorities are at variance whether the name belonged to a goddess or to a god. In this festival Pales was invoked to grant protection and increase to flocks and herds ; the worshippers entreated forgiveness for any unintentional profanation of holy places of which they might have been guilty, and sprang through fires of straw as a purificatory rite. The German Maifeuer, which remained in use till a very recent date, was a precisely similar custom ; the intention was to propitiate the wrath of the deity for any neglect of her service before the sum mer began, and so ensure her favour to the flocks. The foundation of Rome, dies natalis Romse, was commemorated on this same day, a custom still kept up. The name Palilia is often written, by dissimilation, Parilia. PALESTINE. As Palestine, geographically considered, Plate I forms the southernmost third of SYRIA, its general geogra phical relations, as well as its geological structure, its botany, etc., will be treated under that heading. In the matter of climate, on the other hand, it holds a more or less independent position; and this is more strikingly the case with its ethnographic characteristics, at least so far as the pre-Christian period is concerned. Purely historical questions have already been discussed in the article ISRAEL. By Palestine is to be understood in general the country seized and mainly occupied by the Hebrew people. That portion of territory is consequently excluded which they held only for a time, or according to an ideal demarcation (cf. Numbers xxxiv., from the older source) by which the land of the Israelites was made to extend from the &quot; river of Egypt &quot; to Hamath ; but, on the other hand, that other ancient tradition is accepted which fixes the extreme borders at Dan (at the foot of Hermon) in the north and at Beersheba in the south, thus excluding the Lebanon district and a portion of the southern doeert. In like manner, though with certain limitations to be afterwards mentioned, the country east of Jordan stretched from the foot of Hermon to the neighbourhood of the Arnon. Towards the west the natural boundary a purely ideal one so far as occupation by the Israelites was concerned was the Mediterranean, but towards the east it is difficult to fix on any physical feature more definite than the beginning of the true steppe region. That the territory of Israel extended as far as Salcah (east of Bosra at the foot of the Hauran Mountains) is the statement of an ideal rather