Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/349

* POBTUGUESE LITERATURE. 295 PORT. graphico-critico sohre os mplhores poetas Portu- gueses (Lisbon. 1850-56) ; Andrade Ferreira and C. Castello Braneo, Curso de litteratura portu- gueza (Lisbon, 1875-76) ; Almeida-Garrett, Par- naso lusita)w (Paris, 1826) ; Bellcniiann. Die alten Liederbucher der Fortugiesen (Berlin, 1840) ; F. Diez, Ueber die erste portugiesische Kunst- und Hofpoesie (Bonn. 186.3) ; R. Pinto de ilattos, ilaiwal bibliographico portuguez (Opor- to, 1878) ; F. de S. Boaventura. Collecrao dc in- editos portuguezes dos seculos XIV. e XV. (Coim- bra, 1829) ; I. F. da Silva, Diccionario bibliogra' phico portuguez (Lisbon, 1858-70), with supple- ment by Brito Aranha (Lisbon, 1883-90) ; J. H. da Cunha Eivara, Catalogo dos inanuscriptos da Bibliotheca Eborense (Evora, 1850-70) : F. F. de la Figani6re, Bibliographia historiea portiiguezn (Lisbon, 1850) ; Pinheiro, Curso de litteratura nacional (Rio de .Janeiro, 1862) : M. Formont, Le mouiemcnt poetique eoiitemporain en Portu- gal (Lyons, 1893) ; Stoick, Aus Portugal und Brasilien (Miinster, 1892) ; J. Leite de Vascon- cellos, Cancioneiro portuguez (Oporto, 1880). PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. The popu- lar name of certain remarkable siphonophores (q.v. ) of the genus Physalia. The pneumatophore or float is an oblong, crested bladder, flattened on the lower side, from which are freely pendent the various individuals of the colony. The most notable of these are the long capturing filaments, which are extraordinarily extensible and con- tractile, and are very richly supplied with the nettle-cells, so characteristic of coelenterates (q.v.). In a specimen the float of which is 8 inches long, these fila- ments trail out to a dis- tance of fully 20 feet. The batteries of nettle- cells are so numerous and so powerful that fishes of considerable size are paralyzed and devoured, the latter process, however, being chiefly performed by other individuals which are specially devoted to the process of digestion. The nettle-cells of an average sized specimen of Physalia are power- ful enough to produce gi'eat and sometimes se- rious discomfort to hu- man beings, if they come in contact with the hands or arms ; and this is tlie case with dead specimens picked up from the beach. The most common Portuguese man-of-war in the western Atlantic is Physalia pelagica, which has the float six or eight inches long and two or three inches high. The float is a bright, iridescent blue, shading in some places into purple, with the lower part and edges red. The individuals of the colony are chiefly red. though various parts are blue. The float contains a gas, possibly air, which seems to be secreted by glan- dular epidermal epithelium at its bottom. The gas can be expelled through an air-pore, by which ^"i^. Y POHTUGCESE MAN-OF-WAR. a, ywimming bell : //, crest of same zolds ; d, (t«utacles). reproductive nutritive zoids the interior is always in communication with the outside. By contraction of its float, the animal can sink below the surface, to which it rises again during calm weather. Portuguese men-of-war are found chiefly in the warm seas, and in some places in the tropics large numbers are blown ashore when the wind has blo^m landward for an unusual length of time. They are also carried northward in the Gulf Stream, and during the latter part of the summer are often seen oft' the southern coast of Xew England. PORTUGUESE POLITICAL PARTIES. See Political Parties, paragraph Portugal. PORTUGUESE VERSION. See Bible. PORTUGUESE WEST AFRICA. A Portu- guese colony on the west coast of Africa. See ANGOLA. PORTUTfUS, or PORTUM'NUS (Lat., from porta, door, partus, port). The Roman divinity, originally of doors, then of harbors, and hence represented with a key. His festival, the Portunalia, was celebrated annually on .ugust 17th at his temple on the Tiber. PO'RUS I Lat.. from Gk. IXwpos, Poros ) "( ?-B.c. 317). An Indian king, the most powerful of those conquered by Alexander the Great (q.v.). His kingdom lay in the north of India between the Hydaspes and Acesines (the modern Jhelam and Chenab), and he was a monarch of much im- portance and ancient lineage. When Alexander reached the Jlielam in his invasion of India in the spring of B.C. 326, he found Porus awaiting him with a strong army on the site of the modern town of Mong. After some delay the ^Macedonian force succeeded in crossing the river by stratagem followed by open approach, and a fierce battle ensued, in which Porus was wounded and made captive. When the conqueror retired from India in the following year, he left Porus as ruler over the lands west of the .Jhelam, comprising seven nations, and in addition made him an ally of his former enemy and rival Taxiles, probably Ambhi, Raja of Takshasila. After the death of Alex- ander. Porus seems to have extended his power over Sindh by expelling Peithon, the Greek ruler. In 317 Porus was assassinated by Eudemus, who had been made satrap of the Punjab by Alexander to administer its afJairs with Taxiles. The name Porus obviously represents the Sanskrit Pan- rava, or member of the race of Puru. a legendary monarch of the so-called lunar d^-nasty. whose descendants are represented by the Sanskrit writ- ings as dwelling in the north of India. The same name was borne by at least two other kings, one a nephew and enemy of the great Porus. He was driven by Alexander from his country of Gandaris (Sanskrit Gandhara) , on the left bank of the Indus. There was also a Porus, King of iladura, who sent gifts and an embassy to the En:peror Augustus. Consult jrCrindle, Iniasion of India hg Alexander the Great (2d ed., Westminster, 1896). PORT,, John- (c.1570-1635). An English col- onist and geographer. He graduated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1592, studied history and geography for a time after 1597 under Hakluyt. and in 1600, at Haklurt's sug- gestion, made a translation of the Geographi- eal Historie of Africa written in Arabicke and Italian bg John Leo, a More, which at that period was considered the only original authority con-