Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/17

* PICTONES. PIDDOCK. Pictish to the preCeltie longlieads in Britain. In Caesar's time the language of the Pictones was Gaulish, but originally they spoke Iberian. Con- sult Keane, Man: Past and Present (Cambridge, 180!)). PICTOU, pik-tOo'. The capital of Pictou County and a port of entry on the north coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, 84 miles north-northeast of Halifax (Map: Nova Scotia, G 4). It stands in a fertile and well-cultivated district, with ex- tensive coal mines and quarries of building stone in the vicinity, and is the terminus of a branch of the Intercolonial Railway. It has a safe and well-ecpiipped harbor and exports large quanti- ties of coal, building stone, dried fish, and po- tatoes. -An important lobster culture establish- ment is maintained here. The chief building is the Pictou Academy, founded in 1818. The town dates from 1763, and replaced an Indian village. The United States is represented bv a consular agent. Population, in 1891, 2998; in 1901, .3235. PICTS. An ancient people of the Stone Age (Long Barrow Period) inliabiting the whole of Great Britain. They were dolichocephalic and of rather low stature {'i feet 5 inches), dark in com- plexion, and are supjjosed to have been Iberians or, according to Sergi, long-headed Mediterraneans from Africa s])caking Celtic. They were sup- planted or incorporated b^' the succeeding Teu- tonic invasions in the primitive period of the English nation. The name oi'iginated from the custom of the Picts of staining or tattooing the skin. It is pretty generally agreed by scholars that the Southein Welsh, the Firbolg (q.v.) of Western Ireland, and perhaps the short and dark remnants in Scotland represent survivals of the Picts. The language is not only extinct, but has left no literature and only scant traces in jiiaee names. Concerning their history noth- ing definite is known until a.d. 297, w'hen we find the name Picti used by the orator Kumenius. They called themselves Cruitlinir/h (q.v.) and oc- cupied at that period the north and the centre of the Highlands. The Romans waged continu- ous war with the Picts and built large walls to keep them out of the conquered provinces. The Saxons at first did not come into contact with this race, but as they pushed farther northward they also encountered the Picts, and in 085 were defeated by their King Brude. After this a con- tinuous border warfare was carried on with varying results. Gradually the Picts were con- verted to Christianity, and their King Angus MacFergus (731-761) ruled over the whole of Scotland. Soon thereafter this race disap])eared as a separate entity, and in the middle of the ninth century Kenneth MacAlpine, as King of the Scots, ruled over all the different races. It must be .stated that concerning nearly everything which pertains to the Picts long dis- putes have been carried on by scholars. Consult: Skene. Celtic Hmllnml (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1870- 80) ; Innes, A Critinil Essai/ on the Aneirtit In- habitants of the Xorthcrn Parts of I}ritain or Scotland (Edinburgh, 1885): MacRitchie, "Mod- ern Views of the Picts," in Thr Monthlji Rciieir. vol. ii. (London, lOOl). PICTS' HOUSES. The small stone houses built underground in Scotland probably as places of concealment during wars or other dangers, and the chambered tumuli found in the north of the British Isles, of which Mousa and ^laeshow. in the Orkneys, are types. In popular tradition they have been attributed to the Picts. PICTURED ROCKS. A series of sandstone eliti's 300 feet in height, stretching for five miles along the shore of Lake Superior, about 45 miles east of Marquette. They present a remarkable variety of form and color, and are diversified by a number of waterfalls. The wigwam of Nokomis or Hiawatha stood on the site of Munising Har- bor. PICTURES, Restoration of. See Restora- tion OF Pakntixg.s. PICTURE-WRITING. See Hieboglyphics. PICUDA, pi koTi'da. The largest and nmst voracious of the barracudas (q.v.), of which several species inhabit the American tropical seas. The great barracuda, 'picuda,' or 'becuna' (Hphyrwna picuda) reaches a length of 6 feet, and is highly valued as food. It is silvery in c(dor, with dark blotches along the sides, and some inky sjjots. Other s|x;cies are known as 'picudilla,' 'guaguanche,' 'spet,' etc., and the larger ones are sometimes dangerous to bathers, attacking them as fiercely as a shark. PICULET (diminutive of picule, from Lat. picus, woodpecker) . Any one of a group of about thirty species of tropical birds, which form a subfamily (Picumnina>) of woodpeckers. They are small, plainly colored, usually marked with black, and with red or yellow on the head, and differ from typical woodpeckers in having short rounded tails without spinous shaft-tips, and the nostrils hidden by bristles. Most of them are Central and South American birds. See Plate of Woodpeckers. PI'CUS. A legendary king of Lavinium, father of Faunus and grandfather of Latinus. He was gifted w-ith pi'ophecy, a warrior and states- man. Because he aroused the jealousy of the sorceress Circe, she changed him to a wood- pecker ( Lat. picvi ). The whole storv' is late and may have arisen from a folk-tale about the bird sacred to the great god Mars. PIDDIG, pe-deg'. A town of Northern Luzon, Philippines, in the Province of Ilocos Xorte. It is situated on the Guisi River, 8 miles east of Laoag (Map: Philippine Islands, El). Popula- tion, 10,840. PIDBOCK (of uncertain etymology). A bi- valve mollusk of the genus Pholas. related to the ship-worms (q.v.). The shell is thin, white, and very hard, and beset with calcareous inequalities, connected by fine transverse parallel ridges, form- ing a kind of rasp, used by the aninuil for boring a hole, in rock, wood, or other substances in which it lives. The animal itself is club-shaped, with large, long siphons, united almost to the end, and a short foot. The shell is two or three inches in length, gaping at both ends and pro- vided with two accessory valves. The siphons are two or three times as long as the shell and are extended to the ojiening of the hole in which the animal lives. Several species occur on the east- ern coast of America, living buried in mud or day. The commonest species is Pholas truncata, which lives in cl.iy or peat banks between tide.s, and burrows into them to a depth of a foot or more. A larger and finer species is Pholas cos- tnta. found only in deep water. Two or three species are used in Great Britain for bait and