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poet, Dr. Southey's predecessor in the laureate ship, was born in London in 1745. After receiving a private education, he went to Magdalen College Oxford, and took the honorary degree of master of arts in 1766, and that of doctor of laws in 1772. He was for some time in the Berkshire militia, and embarrassed himself by standing a contest for the representation of the county. In 1790 he became poet laureat; and in 1792 a police magistrate. He died August 11th, 1813. His principal works are, 1. Farringdon Hill, a poem. 2. Six odes of Pindar, translated into English verse. 3. The Progress of Refinement, a poem. 4. Poems on various subjects, 2 vols. 5. A Translation of the Poetics of Aristotle. 6. Lenore, a tale from the German of Burger. 7. The Democrat, 2 vols. 8. The Aristocrat, 2 vols. 9. Alfred, an epic poem. 10. Another collection of poems, 2 vols. Comments on the Commentators on Shakspeare, 8vo. 12. A translation of the hymns and epigrams of Homer.

11.

PYGMALION, in fabulous history, a king of Cyprus, who, being disgusted at the dissolute lives of the women of his island, resolved to live in perpetual celibacy; but, having made a statue of ivory, he so much admired it that, at the high festival of Venus, he fell down before the altar of that goddess, and besought her to give him a wife like the statue he had made. At his return home he embraced his ivory statue, when he perceived that it became sensible by degrees, and was at last a living maid, who found herself in her lover's arms the moment she saw the light. Venus blessed their union; and in nine months she was delivered of a son, named Paphos.

PYGMALION, king of Tyre, son of Belus, and brother of queen Dido, who founded Carthage. He succeeded his father, but became odious by his avarice and cruelty; and murdered Sichæus, the husband of Dido, in a temple of which he was priest, on which Dido fled with her husband's treasure. He died in his fifty-first and fortyseventh of his reign.-Virg. Æn. i. 347. Justin, 18. c. 5.

PYG'MY, n. s. Fr. pygmée; Gr. яνyμaιoç. A dwarf; one of a nation fabled to be only three spans high; any little thing or person.

They, less than smallest dwarfs in narrow room, Throng numberless like that pygmean race Beyond the Indian mount.

Milton.

If they deny the present spontaneous production of larger plants, and confine the earth to as pygmy births in the vegetable kingdom as they do in the other; yet surely in such a supposed universal decay of nature, even mankind itself that is now nourished, though not produced, by the earth, must have degenerated in stature and strength in every generation. Bentley.

Can place or lessen us or aggrandise? Pugmies are pygmies still, tho' perched on Alps, And pyramids are pyramids in vales. Young. PYLADES, a son of Strophius, king of Phocis, by a sister of Agamemnon. He was educated with his cousin Orestes, with whom he formed the most inviolable friendship, and whom he assisted to revenge the murder of Agamemnon, by assassinating Clytemnestra and Egysthus. He also accompanied him into Taurica Chersonesus; and Orestes rewarded him for his services by

giving him his sister Electra in marriage. Pylades had by her two sons, Medon and Strophius. The friendship of Orestes and Pylades became proverbial.

PYLORUS. See ANATOMY.

PYLOS, an ancient town of Messenia, on the west coast of Peloponnesus, at the foot of Mount galaus, opposite the island Sphacteria, in the Ionian Sea; seated on the promontory of Coryphasion, a name also given to the town. It was built by Pylus, at the head of a colony of Leleges from Megara, who were dispossessed of it by Neleus, the father of Nestor, who called it Nelea. PYR'AMID, n. s. PYRAMIDAL, adj. PYRAMIDICAL, PYRAMID'ICALLY, adv. PYRAMIS, n. s.

Fr. pyramide; Gr. πυραμις. From πυρ fire; because fire ascends in the figure of a cone. A solid geometrical figure, whose base is a polygon, and whose sides are plain triangles, their points meeting in one: the two adjectives and adverbs corresponding: pyramis is an obsolete form of the noun substantive.

Know, Sir, that I will not wait pinioned at your master's court; rather make my country's high py. ramids my gibbet, and hang me up in chains.

Shakspeare. Antony and Cleopatra.

The form of a pyramis in flame, which we usually see, is merely by accident, and that the air about, by quenching the side of the flame, crusheth it, and extenuateth it into that form, for of itself it would be round, and therefore smoke is in the figure of a pyramis reversed; for the air quencheth the flame,

and receiveth the smoke.

An hollow crystal pyramid he takes, In firmamental waters dipt above,

Bacon.

Dryden.

Of it a broad extinguisher he makes, And hoods the flames. The pyramidical idea of its flame, upon occasion Locke. of the candles, is what is in question. Of which sort likewise are the gems or stones, that are here shot into cubes, into pyramidal forms, or into angular columns. Woodward.

Olympus is the largest, and therefore he makes it the basis upon which Ossa stands, that being the next to Olympus in magnitude, and Pelion being the least, is placed above Ossa, and thus they rise pyramidically. Broome's Notes on Odyssey.

Virtue alone outbuilds the pyramids; Her monuments shall last when Egypt's fall. Young.

PYRAMID, in geometry, a solid figure, whose base is a polygon, and whose sides are plain triangles, their several points meeting in one, called the vertex of the pyramid.

Hence the superficies of a given pyramid is easily found by measuring these triangles separately; for their sum, added to the area of the base, is the surface of the pyramid required. It is no less easy to find the solid content of a given pyramid; for, the area of the base being found, let it be multiplied by the third part of the height of the pyramid, or the third part of the base by the height, and the product will give the solid content, as is demonstrated by Euclid, lib. xii. prop. 7.

PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT. These celebrated buildings, ranked by the most ancient historians among the wonders of the world, have for many ages excited the attention of the curious and the criticism of the learned. The pyramids of Gee

za or Gizeh, so denominated from a village of that name on the banks of the Nile, are the largest, and are distant from that river about eleven miles. The three which most attract the notice of travellers stand near one another on the west side of the river, almost opposite to Cairo, and not for from the spot whereon stood the ancient Memphis. The great appearance of antiquity which they display favors the supposition that the whole of these wonderful works must have been constructed at an earlier period than any other edifices that are to be seen in Egypt. Homer is silent respecting them; but his silence is no proof that they were not in existence in his time. In the time of Herodotus as little was known concerning the second pyramid as before the late opening, with this exception, that in his time it was understood to be nearly in the state in which it was left when closed by the builders. These three pyramids are named after three kings, whose tombs they are supposed to be, viz. Cheops, Cephrenes, and Mycerinus. Of these the largest, that of Cheops, was faced with white marble, as was also the second, and its four sides face the four cardinal points. The ascent to the top is by steps, the lowermost being nearly four feet high and three broad; the second of the same dimensions, but retiring inward from the first nearly three feet; and in the same manner the third row is placed upon the second, and the rest in the same order to the top, which terminates in a small flat or square; and they are so disposed that a line stretched from the bottom to the top would touch the angle of every step. From the time of Herodotus to the present day tnis pyramid has been measured by a great number of travellers and learned men, and their different calculations have only increased the uncertainty. The following table will show, at least, how difficult it is to come at the truth.

GREAT PYRAMID.

Width of one
of its sides.
French feet.
800
600

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600 and a fraction

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700

708

704

same chalky stone of which they are composed is the produce of the district in which they stand.

The second pyramid stands at about a bowshot from the first, towards the south. Herodotus says, after having measured both, that it falls short of the other in magnitude; that it has no subterraneous chambers: and that the Nile is not conveyed into it by a channel, as he affirms it was into the former, but that it is of an equal altitude. Diodorus informs us that it resembles the first in its architecture, but is inferior to it in magnitude; each side of the base containing a stadium, or 600 Grecian feet in length: so that by his computation each side is less than that of the former in length by 100 feet. Pliny makes the difference to be greater by forty-six feet.

On the north and west sides of this second pyramid are two very elaborate pieces of architecture, cut out of the rock in a perpendicular direction and squared by a chisel, about thirty feet in depth and about 1400 in length; supposed to be designed for the lodgings of the Egyptian priests.

The third pyramid stands at about the distance of a furlong from the second, on an advantageous rising of the rock, so that at a distance it appears equal to the former, though in fact much lower. Herodotus says that it is 300 feet on every side, and built of Ethiopic marble. Diodorus gives the same dimensions of its base, and adds that the walls were raised fifteen stories with black stone, like Thebaic marble, and the rest finished with such materials as the other pyramids are built with; that this, though exceeded by the two former in magnitude, yet far excels them in respect to the structure, art, and magnificence of the marble; and that, on the side towards the north, the name of Micerinus, the founder, is engraved but this inscription has been effaced by time. Pliny writes to the same effect, except that he makes this pyramid 363 feet between the angles.

Very important discoveries in the interior of these enormous masses have been made within our own time by Messrs. Davison and Caviglio, and by M. Belzoni. The most celebrated, and perhaps the most arduous of M. Belzoni's labors, was the opening of the pyramid of Cephrenes. 750 Herodotus was informed that this pyramid had no interior chambers, and this no doubt operated 710 in preventing that curiosity which had long be648 fore opened the pyramid of Cheops. The account 684 of his discovery we cannot give better than in

682

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Belzoni's own words.

On my return to Cairo, I again went to visit the celebrated pyramids of Ghiza; and, on viewing that of Cephrenes, I could not help reflecting how many travellers of different nations, who had visited this spot, contented themselves with looking at the outside of this pyramid, and went away without enquiring whether any, and what chambers, exist in it; satisfied perhaps with the report of the Egyptian priests, that the pyramid of Cheops only contained chambers in its interior.' I then began to consider about the possibility of opening this pyramid; the attempt was perhaps presumptuous; and the risk of un

dertaking such an immense work without success deterred me in some degree from the enterprise. I am not certain whether love for antiquity, an ardent curiosity, or ambition, spurred me on most in spite of every obstacle, but I determined at length to commence the operation. I soon discovered the same indications which had led to the development of the six tombs of the kings in Thebes, and which induced me to begin the operation on the north side. It is true, the situations of the tombs at Thebes, their form and epochs, are so very different from those of the pyramids, that many points of observation made with regard to the former, could not apply to the latter; yet I perceived enough to urge me to the enterprise. I accordingly set out from Cairo on the 6th of February, 1818, under pretence of going in quest of some antiquities, at a village not far off, in order that I might not be disturbed in my work by the people of Cairo. I then repaired to the Kaiya Bey, and asked permission to work at the pyramid of Ghiza in search of antiquities. He made no objection, but said that he wished to know if there was any ground about the pyramid fit for tillage; I informed him that it was all stones, and at a considerable distance from any tilled ground. He nevertheless persisted in enquiring of the cashief of the province, if there was any good ground near the pyramids; and, after receiving the necessary information, granted my request.

"Having thus acquired permission, I began my labors on the 10th of February, at a point on the north side in a vertical section at right angles to that side of the base. I saw many reasons against my beginning there, but certain indications told me that there was an entrance at that spot. I employed sixty laboring men, and began to cut through the mass of stones and cement which had fallen from the upper part of the pyramid, but it was so hard joined together, that the men spoiled several of their hatchets in the operation; the stones which had fallen down along with the cement having formed themselves into one solid and almost impenetrable mass. I succeeded, however, in making an opening of fifteen feet wide, and continued working downwards in uncovering the face of the pyramid; this work took up several days, without the least prospect of meeting with any thing interesting. Meantime I began to fear that some of the Europeans residing at Cairo might pay a visit to the pyramids, which they do very often, and thus discover my retreat, and interrupt my proceedings.

On the 17th of the same month we had made a considerable advance downwards, when an Arab workman called out, making a great noise, and saying that he had found the entrance. He had discovered a hole in the pyramid into which he could just thrust his arm and a djerid of six feet long. Towards the evening we discovered a larger aperture, about three feet square, which had been closed in irregularly, by a hewn stone; this stone I caused to be removed, and then came to an opening larger than the preceding, but filled up with loose stones and sand. This satisfied me that it was not the real but a forced passage, which I found to lead inwards and towards the VOL. XVIII.

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south; the next day we succeeded in entering fifteen feet from the outside, when we reached a place where the sand and stones began to fall from above. I caused the rubbish to be taken out, but it still continued to fall in great quantities; at last, after some days labor, I discovered an upper forced entrance, communicating with the outside from above, and which had evidently been cut by some one who was in search of the true passage. Having cleared this passage, I perceived another opening below, which apparently ran towards the centre of the pyramid. "In a few hours I was able to enter this passage, and found it to be a continuation of the lower forced passage, which runs horizontally towards the centre of the pyramid, nearly all choked up with stones and sand. These obstructions I caused to be taken out; and at halfway from the entrance I found a descent which also had been forced; and which ended at the distance of forty feet. I afterwards continued the work in the horizontal passage above, in hopes that it might lead to the centre; but I was disappointed, and at last was convinced that it ended there; and that, to attempt to advance in that way would only incur the risk of sacrificing some of my workmen; as it was really astonishing to see how the stones hung suspended over their heads, resting, perhaps, by a single point. Indeed one of these stones did fall, and had nearly killed one of the men. I therefore retired from the forced passage, with great regret and disappoint

ment.

Notwithstanding the discouragements I met with, I recommenced my researches on the following day, depending upon my indications. I directed the ground to be cleared away to the eastward of the false entrance; the stones, encrusted and bound together with cement, were equally hard as the former, and we had as many large stones to remove as before. By this time my retreat had been discovered, which occasioned me many interruptions from visitors: among others was the abbé de Forbin.

On February 28th we discovered a block of granite in an inclined direction towards the centre of the pyramid, and I perceived that the inclination was the same as that of the passage of the first pyramid, or that of Cheops; consequently I began to hope that I was near the true entrance. On the 1st of March we observed three large blocks of stone one upon another, all inclined towards the centre: these large stones we had to remove as well as others much larger as we advanced, which considerably retarded our approach to the desired spot. I perceived, however, that I was near the true entrance, and, in fact, the next day about noon, on the 2nd of March, was the epoch at which the grand pyramid of Cephrenes was at last opened, after being closed up for so many centuries that it remained an uncertainty whether any interior chambers did or did not exist. The passage I discovered was a square opening of four feet high and three and a half.wide, formed by four blocks of granite; and continued slanting downward at the same inclination as that of the pyramid of Cheops, which is an angle of 26°. It runs to the length or 104 feet five inches, lined the whole way with

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granite. I had much to do to remove and draw up the stones which filled the passage down to the portcullis or door of granite, which is fitted into a niche also made of granite. I found this door supported by small stones within eight inches of the floor, and in consequence of the narrowness of the place it took up the whole of that day and part of the next to raise it sufficiently to afford an entrance; this door is one foot three inches thick, and, together with the work of the niche, occupies six feet eleven inches, where the granite work ends: then commences a short passage, gradually ascending towards the centre, twenty-two feet seven inches, at the end of which is a perpendicular of fifteen feet: on the left is a small forced passage cut in the rock, and also above, on the right, is another forced passage which runs upwards and turns to the north thirty feet, just over the port-cullis. There is no doubt that this passage was made by the same persons who forced the other, in order to ascertain if there were any others which might ascend above, in conformity to that of the pyramid of Cheops. I descended the perpendicular by means of a rope, and found a large quantity of stones and earth accumulated beneath, which very nearly filled up the entrance into the passage below which inclines towards the north. I next proceeded towards the channel that leads to the centre, and soon reached the horizontal passage. This passage is five feet eleven inches high, three feet six inches wide, and the whole length, from the above-mentioned perpendicular to the great chamber, is 158 feet, 8 inches. These passages are partly cut out of the living rock, and at half-way there is some mason's work, probably to fill up some vacancy in the rock; the walls of this passage are in several parts covered with inrcustations of salts.

'On entering the great chamber, I found it to be forty-six feet three inches long, sixteen feet three inches wide, and twenty-three feet six inches high; for the most part cut out of the rock, except that part of the roof towards the western end. In the midst we observed a sarcophagus of granite, partly buried in the ground, to the level of the floor, eight feet long, three feet six inches wide, and two feet three inches deep inside, surrounded by large blocks of granite, being placed apparently to guard it from being taken away, which could not be effected without great labor; the lid of it had been opened; I found in it only a few bones of a human skeleton, which merit preservation as curious reliques, they being in all probability those of Cephrenes, the reported builder of this pyramid. On the wall of the western side of the chamber is an Arabic inscription, a translation of which has been sent to the British Museum. It testifies that, this pyramid was opened by the Masters Mahomet El Aghar and Otman, and that it was inspected in presence of the Sultan Ali Mahomet the 1st, Ugloch.' There are also several other inscriptions on the walls, supposed to be Coptic; part of the floor of this chamber had been removed in different places, evidently in search of treasure, by some of those who had found their way into it. Under one of these stones I found a piece of metal something like the thick part of

an axe, but it is so rusty and decayed that it is almost impossible to form a just idea of its form. High up and near the centre there are two small square holes, one on the north and the other on the south, each one foot square; they enter into the wall like those in the great chamber of the first pyramid. I returned to the before-mentioned perpendicular, and found a passage to the north in the same inclination of 26° as that above: this descends forty-eight feet six inches, where the horizontal passage commences, which keeps the same direction north fifty-five feet, and half-way along it there is on the east a recess of eleven feet deep. On the west side there is a passage, twenty feet long, which descends into a chamber thirty-two feet long and nine feet nine inches wide, eight and six feet high; this chamber contains a quantity of small square blocks of stone, and some unknown inscriptions written on the walls. Returning to the original passage, and advancing north, near the end of it is a niche to receive a port-cullis like that above. Fragments of granite, of which it was made, are lying near the spot; advancing still to the north I entered a passage which runs in the same inclination as that before-mentioned, and at fortyseven feet six inches from the niche it is filled up with some large blocks of stone, put there to close the entrance which issues out precisely at the base of the pyramid. According to the measurements, it is to be observed that all the works below the base are cut into the living rock, as well as part of the passages and chambers before-mentioned. Before I conclude I

have to mention that I caused a range of steps to be built, from the upper part of the perpendicular to the passage below, for the accommodation of visitors.

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It may be mentioned that, at the time I excavated on the north side of the pyramid, I caused the ground to be removed to the eastward between the pyramid and the remaining portico which lies nearly on a line with the pyramid and the sphinx. I opened the ground in several places, and in particular at the base of the pyramid; and in a few days I came to the foundation and walls of an extensive temple, which stood before the pyramid at the distance of only forty feet. The whole of this space is covered with a fine platform, which no doubt runs all round the pyramid. The pavement of this temple, where I uncovered it, consists of fine blocks of calcareous stone, some of which are beautifully cut and in fine preservation; the blocks of stone that form the foundation are of an immense size. I measured one of twenty-one feet long, ten feet high, and eight in breadth (120 tons weight each); there are some others above ground in the porticoes which measured twentyfour feet in length, but not so broad nor so thick.'

The great pyramid of Gizeh was explored with extraordinary labor and peril by Mr. Davison, British Consul at Algiers, who accompanied Wortley Montague to Egypt, in the year 1763; and, in order to apprehend the importance of the recent discoveries, it is necessary to understand the extent to which that gentleman had carried his researches.

One of his principal objects was to ascertain the depth of what had hitherto been denominated the Well. After descending, by means of a rope tied about his body, to the bottom of the first shaft, he found, on the south side, at the distance of eight feet from the lower extremity of that shaft, a second opening which reached in a perpendicular direction to the depth of only five feet; and, at the distance of four feet and a half from the bottom of this shaft, he found a third opening, which was so much closed up by a large stone at the mouth as barely to admit the body of a man. Having with the utmost difficulty prevailed upon the Arabs who accompanied him to come down and hold the rope by which he was suspended, he proceeded in his descent, and about half way down he came to a grotto nearly fifteen feet long, four or five feet wide, and as high as a man of ordinary stature. From this place the shaft took a sloping direction for a little way, and then becoming more perpendicutar, he at length reached the bottom which was completely closed with sand and rubbish. Here he found a rope ladder, which had been used by Mr. Wood (author of the Ruins of Palmyra and Balbec), who had proceeded no farther than the grotto; and, though it had been left there sixteen years before, was as fresh and strong as if perfectly new. The depth of the first of these shafts was twenty-two feet, of the second twentynine, and of the third ninety-nine, making, with the addition of the five feet between the first and second shafts, a total descent of 155 feet.

Upon a subsequent visit, Mr. Davison next proposed to explore an opening which he had discovered at the top of the gallery: and for this purpose provided himself with several short ladders, capable of being fastened to one another by wooden pins, so as to extend, when thus united, to the length of twenty-six feet. Having mounted by the assistance of this ladder to the opening which he had observed, he found a passage two feet four inches square, which turned immediately to the right; but, on account of the dust and bats-dung with which it was covered to the depth often of a foot, it was with the greatest difficulty, and the constant hazard of suffocation, that he crawled along with his face to the ground. Upon reaching the end of this passage, he found on the right a straight entrance into a long, broad, and low room; and, both by the length and direction of the passage through which he had entered, he knew it to be situated immediately above the large room, usually called the king's chamber. This chamber is four feet longer than the one below, but exactly of the same breadth, and its covering is composed of eight stones of beautiful granite. This place could not be found by Niebuhr, though informed of its situation by Mr. Meynard who had accompanied Mr. Davison, and has never been visited since the time of the last-mentioned traveller, till the date of those recent discoveries which we now proceed to describe.

Captain or Mr. Caviglia, the master of a mercantile vessel in the Mediterranean trade, set out from Cairo on the 8th of January 1817, with a resolution to employ his utmost exertions in exploring the numerous passages and interior re

cesses of the pyramids of Ghizeh. Conceiving that the descent of the Well in the great pyramid had never been thoroughly prosecuted, he entered the shaft, as Mr. Davison had done, with a lamp in his hand and a rope about his middle. He describes the different shafts nearly in the same manner as that gentleman does, but discovered the additional fact, that the interior was lined with masonry above and below the grotto, for the purpose, as was supposed, of supporting one of those insulated beds of gravel, which are frequently found in rock. He found nothing at the bottom but loose stones and rubbish; and was compelled, by the excessive heat and foul air, to reascend the shaft with all possible expedition; but, before he reached the grotto, all his lights were extinguished in rapid succession. Neither this experience of the enervating heat and impure air of these subterranean channels (which have often been known to cause the stoutest man to faint, even in getting up as far as the gallery), or the various histories current in Cairo of persons who were supposed to have perished in these attempts, could deter this enterprising traveller from renewing his researches, with a degree of perseverance as unexampled as his success was unexpected. Having remarked that the ground at the bottom of the Well gave a hollow sound under his feet, he was convinced that there must be some concealed outlet below; and, having pitched his tent in front of the pyramid, he hired a number of Arabs to draw up the rubbish from the spot with baskets and cords. With the aid of an order from the Kiaya- Bey, and the payment of enormous wages, it is still,' says Mr. Salt, almost inconceivable how he could so far surmount the prejudices of these people as to induce them to work in so confined a space, where a light after the first half hour would not burn, and where, consequently, every thing was to be done by feeling and not by sight; the heat at the same time being so intense, and the air so suffocating, that, in spite of all precautions, it was not possible to stay below an hour at a time, without suffering from its pernicious effects. At length, indeed, it became so intolerable that one Arab was brought up nearly dead, and several others on their ascending fainted away; so that, at last, in spite of the command laid upon them, they almost entirely abandoned their labor, declaring that they were willing to work but not to die for him.'

Disappointed in this pursuit, Mr. Caviglia applied his endeavours to clear the principal entrance of the pyramid, which had from time immemorial been so much obstructed as to render it necessary for those who entered the passage to creep on their hands and knees by this means he hoped to admit a freer passage for the air into the interior. In the course of these labors he made the unexpected discovery that the main passage leading from the entrance continued downwards, with the same degree of inclination, the same dimensions, and the same finish of work at the sides, as at the beginning of the channel. Having cleared out this inclined passage to the length of 150 feet, the air became so impure, and the heat so suffocating, that he experienced the same difficulties in pre

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