Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/365

 P A S P A S 343 in by the Capparids and no other order. The ovary of passionflowers is one-celled with three parietal placentas, and bears at the top three styles, each capped by a large button-like stigma. The ovary ripens into a berry-like, very rarely capsular, fruit with the three groups of seeds arranged in lines along the walls, but embedded in a pulpy arillus derived from the stalk of the seed. This succulent berry is in some cases highly perfumed, and affords a delicate fruit for the dessert-table as in the case of the &quot; granadilla,&quot; P. quadrangularis, P. edulis, P. macrocarpa, and various species of Tacsonia known as &quot; curubas &quot; in Spanish South America. The fruits in question do not usually exceed in size the dimensions of a hen s or of a swan s egg, but that of P. macrocarpa is a gourd-like oblong fruit attaining a weight of 7 to 8 Ib. Many species are cultivated for the beauty of their flowers, and one or two species are nearly hardy in south and western Britain and Ireland, the commonest, P. ccerulea, being, singular to say, a native of southern Brazil. Many species of the Tacsonia would probably prove equally hardy. The name passionflower -flos passionis arose from the supposed resemblance of the corona to the crown of thorns, and of the other parts of the flower to the nails, or wounds, while the five sepals and five petals were taken to symbolize the ten apostles, Peter, who denied, and Judas, who betrayed, being left out of the reckoning. In some of the botanical books of the 16th and 17th centuries curious illustrations of these flowers are given, in which the artist s faith or imagination has been exercised at the expense of actual fact. PASSION PLAYS. See DRAMA, vol. vii. p. 404. On the Oberammergau Passion Play, see OBERAMMERGAU. PASSION WEEK, the fifth week in Lent, begins with Passion Sunday (Dominica Passionis or de Passione Domini), so called from very early times because with it begins the more special commemoration of Christ s passion. In non-Catholic circles Passion Week is often identified with HOLY WEEK (q.v.), but incorrectly. PASSOVER AND FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD. It is explained in the article PENTATEUCH (p. 511) that the ancient Israelites were accustomed to open the harvest season by a religious feast. No one tasted the new grain, not even parched or fresh ears of corn, till the first sheaf had been presented to Jehovah, and then all hastened to enjoy the new blessings of divine goodness by eating unleavened cakes, without waiting for the tedious process of fermenting the dough. This natural usage became fixed in custom, and at a comparatively early date a new significance was added to it by a reference to the exodus from Egypt, when, as tradition ran, the people in their hasty departure had no time to leaven the dough already in their troughs. The two elements of a thankful recogni tion of God s goodness in the harvest, which every one was eager to taste the moment that Jehovah had received His tribute at the sanctuary, and of grateful remembrance of the first proof of His kingship over Israel, went very fittingly together. A similar combination is found in the thanksgiving of Deut xxvi. 5 sq, in the law, Deut. xxiv. 19-22, and elsewhere; the yearly blessings of the harvest were the proof of the continued goodness of Him who brought Israel forth from Egypt to set him in a fruitful and pleasant land The feast of unleavened bread (Hebrew nfVO, maccoth}, with the presentation of the harvest sheaf, which is its leading feature, presupposes agriculture and a fixed resi dence in Canaan. In the pastoral life the same religious feelings find their natural expression in thank-offerings for the increase of the flocks and herds, consisting of sacrifices &quot;of the firstlings of the flock and the fatlings thereof,&quot; such as Gen. iv. 4 makes to date back from the very beginnings of human history. The firstlings answer to the first fruits ; the increase of cattle falls mainly in the spring ; and spring is also the time of the best pasture in a climate where the harvest-tide lies between Easter and Whitsunday, the time therefore when a fat sacrifice can be selected and when vows would generally be fulfilled ; especially as the latter, among the pastoral Hebrews as among the Arabs, would frequently have reference to the multiplication of the flock. Abel s sacrifice of firstlings and fatlings corresponds in fact exactly to the old Arabic fara and itira, the former of which was the firstborn of the herd and the latter a sacrifice offered in the spring month Rajab in fulfilment of a vow conditional on the good increase of the herd. 1 The accumulation of the sacrifices of firstlings and fatlings at one season of the year would readily give rise to a spring feast, and it appears from the Jehovist that something of this kind existed before the exodus (see PENTATEUCH), and gave occasion to the request of Moses for leave to lead the people out into the wilderness to sacrifice to Jehovah. Pharaoh s refusal was appropriately punished by the destruction of the firstborn of man and the firstlings of beasts in Egypt. The recollection of this fact reacted on the old Hebrew usage, and supplied a new reason for the sacrifice of all male firstlings after the Israelites were settled in Canaan (Exod. xiii. 11 sq.). Up to the time of Deuteronomy this sacrifice was not tied to any set feast (contrast Exod. xxii. 30 with Deut. xv. 20) ; the old sacrificial spring feast, like the Arabic feast of Rajab, was not wholly dependent on the firstlings, but might also be derived from vows. But when Israel was thoroughly united under the kings the tendency plainly lay towards a concentration of acts of cultus in public feasts at the great sanctuaries; and the final result of this tendency, which appears to some degree in earlier laws, but reached its goal only through the Deuteronomic centralization of all sacrifices at the one sanctuary, was that the spring pastoral feast coalesced with the agricultural Ma^coth, and that its sacrifices were swollen by the prohibition of continued private sacrifices of the male firstlings. This is the form of the Deutero nomic passover (Deut. xvi. 1 sq. ). The passover is a sacrifice drawn from the flock or the herd, presented at the sanctuary and eaten with unleavened bread. It is slain on the evening of the first day of the feast, so that the sacrificial feast is nocturnal ; and the pilgrims may return to their homes next morning, but the abstinence from leaven lasts seven days, and the seventh day, observed as a day of rest, is the asereth or closing day of the feast. The passover is now viewed specially as a commemoration of the Exodus; and by and by, in Exod. xii. 27, its name (Heb. np.3 f Gr. -n-do-xa-, Lat. pascha) is explained from Jehovah &quot; passing over &quot; the Israelites when he smote Egypt. That this was the original meaning is by no means clear ; there is no certain occurrence of the name before Deuteronomy (in Exod. xxxiv. 25 it looks like a gloss), and the corresponding verb denotes some kind of religious performance, apparently a dance, in 1 Kings xviii. 26. A nocturnal ceremony at the consecration of a feast is already alluded to in Isa. xxx. 29, who also perhaps alludes to the received derivation of PIDS in ch. xxxi. 5. But the Deuteronomic passover was a new thing in the days of Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 21 sq.}. It underwent a farther modification in the exile, when sacrifices in the proper sense of the word were impossible, but the com memorative side of the feast was perpetuated in the house hold meal of the paschal lamb, eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Exod. xii. from the Priestly Code). The paschal lamb is quite different from the paschal 1 Zuzeni on Harith s Mo all., 1. 69; Bokhari, vi. 207 (Bulak vocalized edition).