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 PENCIL 245 belonged to the third class, knelt in the space between the doors of the church and the ambo, or desk where the epistle and gospeJ were read ; they were dismissed at the same time with the catechumens. The fourth degree of penitents were the consistentes (literally, co-standers), who stood with the faithful before the altar and remained throughout the service, but might neither make oblations with them nor receive the eucharist. During the term of penance expressions of joy were to be laid aside, gay dresses put off, and marriage, feasting, bath- ing, and various bodily gratifications abstained from. The men were to cut their hair and beards, and the women to appear with dishev- elled locks. The penitents were also expected to abound in good works, and be present, as far as it was permitted them, at every religious assembly. The collection of canons which ap- pointed the time and manner of penances for different sins was called the Penitential. The final readmission of penitents to communion was attended with certain forms, and in ordi- nary cases the officiating minister was a bishop, though the inferior clergy could admit a peni- tent from a low degree into a higher one. In the eastern church, the ceremonies of solemn penance were retained until about the close of the 4th century, and in the western church until near the end of the 7th. It gradually became customary for the bishops to commute the canonical penances for pious works more agreeable to the spirit of the age, such as pil- grimages, works of charity, and alms deeds, and these in tarn were exchanged for indul- gences. (See INDULGENCE.) In the Koman Catholic and eastern churches penance is one of the seven sacraments instituted for the re- mission of post-baptismal sins. It consists of three essential parts, contrition, confession to an authorized priest, and absolution, to which may be added a disposition on the part of the penitent to make satisfaction to God and man for his offences. A slight penance by way of satisfaction is always enjoined upon the peni- tent by the confessor ; and though a willing- ness to receive it is a requisite disposition on the part of the former, the neglect to fulfil it does not invalidate the sacrament. (See CON- FESSION, AUKICIJLAK.) PEKING, Pulo Penang ("Areca island"), or Prince of Wales's Island, an island belonging to Great Britain, situated at the N". entrance of the strait of Malacca, extending from lat. 5 14' to 529'N., and from Ion. 100 9' to 100 25' E. ; area, 107 sq. m. ; pop. in 1865, 59,956. George Town is the capital. The channel dividing the island from the mainland is navigable for large vessels, and varies in breadth from 2 to 7 m., the harbor of George Town being the N. part of it. The form of Penang is very irregular, and the coasts are bold and indented by several bays. There are many small streams. The surface is uneven, and intersected by a mountain range, the highest point of which, West hill, is about 2,600 ft. above the sea. The whole of the isl- and where not cultivated is densely wooded. Tin ore is said to be abundant in the mountains. Kice is grown in great quantities, and tapioca for the American market. Cocoanut planting is largely carried on, and many other tropical fruits and vegetables are grown; and the for- ests yield valuable teak and other timber. The original inhabitants were a few Malays; but since the British occupied the island, people from Hindostan, Burmah, Siam, China, and all the neighboring islands have settled upon it, nearly one third of the whole being Chinese. The island of Penang formerly belonged to the king of Queda in Malacca, but was given by him in 1785 as a marriage portion with his daugh- ter, who married Capt. Light, the master of a British ship trading in the straits. The English East India company acquired possession of it by purchase from Light in 1786, and appointed him governor ; and afterward, in consideration of an annual income paid to the king, the sover- eignty of the island and the opposite coast was ceded to them. (See STKAITS SETTLEMENT.) PENATES (Lat. penus, inmost), the household gods of the Eomans, who dwelt in the inner- most parts of the house, and were the guardians of the family (either the private family, or the state as the great family of citizens). The private penates had always their place at the hearth. In their honor a perpetual fire was kept burning ; every meal was a sacrifice, be- ginning with a purification and ending with a libation to them ; and at the departure or re- turn of any member of the household, the pe- nates were saluted in the same manner as the other dwellers in the house. The lares are probably to be numbered among the penates, although evidently not the only penates, as a family rarely had more than one lar, while the penates are never spoken of in the singular. Varro says the number and names of the latter were indefinite. The public penates of Rome, depicted as two young men holding lances, had a sanctuary near the centre of the city in a place called sub Velia. Sacrifices were made to them by generals when departing on their campaigns, and by consuls, praetors, and dicta- tors when entering upon their office. PENCIL, a name applied to instruments of various forms and material for writing, draw- ing, and painting. The first form of pencil is supposed to have been made of earth or chalk, and used by the early Greeks and Egyptians in monochromatic pictures. As early as the 4th century B. C. wet colors were used by the Greeks, and applied with a small pointed brush, called a pencil. Such pencils are made of the hairs of the camel, badger, sable, mink, kolin- ski, polecat, and goat, and the bristles of hogs. The finer hairs, as those of the sable, are ex- clusively used by artists. The hairs, selected and arranged with their points in the form of an acute cone, are bound with a thread and drawn through a goose quill, or a conical tin or silver tube, to which a wooden handle is fixed. Lead pencils, so called because made of graph-