PUNCH,

The well-marked peculiarities in the original personification of P., which were a high back, distorted breast, and long nose, were intended to give an increased zest to his witticisms; but these features have been much exaggerated in the now so well-known illustrations of the popular periodical which bears his name.

The performance of P., as generally represented, requires the assistance of only two persons-one to carry the theatre and work the figures, the other

after fish at dinner, for which purpose it is bottled, and when wanted, is iced, either by placing the bottles in rough ice, or by pounding and mixing in fine ice. The principal varieties of punch, in addition to this, are rum, gin, and brandy punches, in which only one of the spirits mentioned is used, and champagne, milk, orange, raspberry, tea, wine punches.

PUNCH, a tool for cutting circular or other shaped pieces out of metal, wood, or other materials. The simplest form of this instrument is shewn in fig. 1, which consists of a piece of steel

formed at one end into a hollow cylinder, a, the end of which at b is ground to a very sharp cutting edge. The other end of the punch at c is made strong and thick, to receive blows from a hammer, and to serve as a handle. When the instrument is in use, the cutting-edge, a, is applied to the surface which is to be perforated, and a blow sufficiently hard is struck on the end of the handle, c, when a circular piece of the material is cut out and left in the hollow part, a, which can be removed at the upper end of the opening at d. The mode of manufacturing such tools is very simple. A piece of square steel-bar is taken, the thickness of which must correspond with the thickness of the handle at c, fig. 1, for which fig. 2 may be taken as the

to bear the box of puppets, blow the trumpet, and sometimes keep up the dialogue with the hero of the piece. The movements of the puppets are managed simply by putting the hands under the dress, making the second finger and thumb serve for the arms, while the forefinger works the head.

next stage, the edges, a, a, fig. 4, are brought up; and finally, a mandril is put into the groove thus made, and the edges are brought together, and welded :

α

Fig. 4.

PUNCH, a beverage introduced into England from India, and so called from being usually made of five (Hindu, pantsh) ingredients--arrack, tea, sugar, water, and lemon-juice. As now prepared, punch may be described as a drink, the basis of which is alcohol, of one or more kinds, diluted with water, flavoured with lemon or lime-juice and spices, and sweetened with sugar; sometimes other ingredients are added according to taste, especially wine, ale, and tea. The mixture is usually compounded in a large china bowl made for the purpose, and is served out in glasses by means of a ladle. It is the mandril is then withdrawn, and the tool goes to much more rarely seen now than formerly, which be ground and finished. It will be obvious that, by is not to be regretted, for a more unwholesome skill, punches may be made which will make holes or intoxicating beverage could hardly be com- of almost any shape. The enormous development pounded. The ordinary mixed punch consists of the of our iron manufactures has necessitated the use of following ingredients: the juice of three lemons machine-tools in the place of those made for the squeezed out into a large jug, and one lemon cut into hand, and none of the very ingenious inventions for slices, with the rind on for flavour, twelve ounces of this purpose have played a much more important loaf-sugar, and two quarts of boiling water; after part than the punching-machines, for without them being infused half an hour, and strained off, the liquid the labour of drilling holes in iron plates for is poured into the punch-bowl, and half a pint of rum such objects as steam-boilers, iron ships, bridges, and of brandy are added. A favourite mode of and other great works, would have been so great drinking this composition at present is as a liqueur as to have effectually prevented them from being

PUNCTUATION-PUNJAB.

undertaken. The punching-machine invented by Messrs Roberts and Nasmyth, with recent modifications and improvements, is in very general use in all our great engineering works; its essential parts are the punch, lever, and the spring. The punch is simply a piece of tough, hard steel of a cylindrical form, and of the size of the intended holes; it fits into a socket, which is suspended over a fixed iron plate or bench, which has a hole exactly under the punch, and exactly fitting it. In the socket which holds the punch is a coiled iron spring, which holds up the punch, and allows it to descend when the power is applied, and returns it when the pressure is relieved. The lever, when in action, presses on the top of the punch, and the plate of metal which is to be perforated being placed on the iron bench, receives the pressure of the punch with sufficient force to press out a disc of metal exactly the diameter of the punch, which falls through the hole in the iron bench. The lever is moved by a cam The lever is moved by a cam on a powerful wheel, which presses upon it until it can pass; then the lever being relieved, the punch is drawn up by the spring in its socket, ready to receive the action of the cam when the revolution of the wheel again brings it to bear on the lever. The punch itself is always solid, differing entirely in this respect from the hand-tools. This useful machine will perforate thick plates of iron, such as are used for shipbuilding, almost as quickly as a workman with an ordinary hand-punch could perforate thin plates of tin; the holes made are quite true, and are ready to receive the rivets.

PUNCTUATION, the division of a writing into sentences, and the subdivision of these into parts by means of certain marks called points, a great help to the clear exhibition of the meaning and to the pleasant reading of what is written. The ancients were not acquainted with the use of points, or used them very little, and only for oratorical purposes. Punctuation, according to the grammar and sense, is said to have been an invention of the Alexandrian grammarian, Aristophanes; but was so much neglected and forgotten, that Charlemagne found it necessary to ask Warnefried and Alcuin to restore it. It consisted at first of a point called the stigma, and sometimes a line, variously formed and introduced. The system of punctuation now in use was introduced by the Venetian printer, Manutius, in the latter part of the 15th c.; the example was soon and generally followed, and little change has since been found requisite.

PU'NDLER, the name which in Scotland used to be given to a person employed on an estate as hedger, ditcher, forester, and general guardian, in absence of the proprietor. The office of a pundler was probably analogous to that of poynder. In a few cases, the term pundler is still employed.

the compulsory payment of money, and failing which, with the deprivation of property and liberty. As the legal consequence of crimes, punishment consists chiefly of the infliction of pain on the body, and this ranges from capital punishment or death, down to imprisonment for a term of years, and, in some cases, whipping is added; and in military and naval offences, flogging. Capital punishment is inflicted only in case of treason and murder (but there are other instances under naval or army discipline), and in the form of Hanging (q. v.). In crimes of less degree, imprisonment, or Penal Servitude (q. v.) for a term of years, is the punishmen.. As a general rule, the judge has a discretion to fix the punishment within two defined limits. In the great mass of the smallest crimes, which are cognis able by justices of the peace, and are frequently termed offences punishable summarily, the usual punishment is a fine or penalty, i. e., a sum of money is ordered to be paid by the offender, and if he do not pay it, his goods are sold to make up the sum ; failing which, he is committed to the house of correction for a short period of 3, 6, or 12 months; but, in some of the cases, imprisonment and hard labour are imposed in lieu of a fine. The crown can put an end to a sentence of punishment by a free pardon, or may commute a sentence of death to imprisonment for life.

PUNISHMENT, FUTURE. See HELL.

United States army, by sentence of court-martial, are— PUNISHMENTS, MILITARY AND NAVAL, of the diet, not exceeding 14 days; solitary confinement, death; confinement; confinement on bread-and-water not exceeding 14 days, with intervals, in both cases, of not less than the same period; hard labour; ball and chain; forfeiture of pay and allowances, discharge from sioned officer, reduction to the ranks. The commander the service, and reprimand; and, when a non-commisof a vessel of the navy cannot inflict any other punishment upon a commissioned or warrant officer except a private reprimand, suspension from duty, arrest, or confinement, neither of which can continue longer than 10 days, except a longer term be necessary to bring the offender to a court-martial, nor upon petty officers, &c. any punishment except a reduction in any rating of his own establishing, confinement with or without irons, solitary confinement, deprivation of liberty on shore, and extra duties.

PU'NJAB (the Pentapotamia of the Greeks, derives its name from two Persian words, signifying 'five rivers') is an extensive territory in the northwest of Hindustan, watered by the Indus, and its five great affluents-the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej, and forms a British possession the Suliman Mountains, on the N. by Cashmere, and since February 1849. It is bounded on the W. by on the E. and S. E. by the Sutlej, which, in its PU'NIC WARS, the name commonly given to lower course, is called the Ghara. In shape, the the three great wars waged for supremacy between territory of the P. resembles an isosceles triangle, Rome and Carthage. The Latin word punicus, or the apex of which is at the junction of the Indus ponicus, was the name given by the Romans to the and the Punjnud, in lat. about 29° N.; and the Carthaginians, in allusion to their Phoenician descent. base, about 450 miles in length, runs along the For an outline of the struggle between the two rival Himalayas. The sides are about 600 miles in length. powers, see CARTHAGE, ROME, HAMILCAR, HANNI- According to the latest returns published in the BAL, and the SCIPIOS.-The Romans, who believed, last statistical tables from official tables in The Statesnot without reason, that the Carthaginians never man's Year-Book for 1871, the area of the Punjab is sincerely meant to keep any treaty of peace, employed the phrase punica fides, Punic faith,' to de-193,645 square miles; and the population 22,680,448. de-The physical character of the northern contrasts note a false and faithless spirit. strikingly with that of the southern districts. In the north, the whole surface is traversed by spurs from the Himalayas, which enclose deep valleys. In the south, the surface is unbroken by any important eminence, with the exception of the Salt Range, about 2000 feet high, between the Indus and the Jhelum. The country, divided into five doabs.

PU'NICA. See POMEGRANATE. PUNISHMENT, in Great Britain, usually means tne deprivation of property or liberty, or the infliction of pain on the body of one who commits a criminal offence. It is not applicable, generally, to civil actions, though these are also followed with

PUNKAH-PURÂN’A.

years.

or interfluvial tracts, and frequently spoken of as in the case of a female, one under the age of 12 the plains of the Indus, has a general slope towards the south-west. The climate in the plains is most oppressively hot and dry in summer, indicating in Lahore 112°, in a tent artificially cooled; but cool, and sometimes frosty, in winter. Little rain falls except in the districts along the base of the Himalayas. The soil varies from stiff clay and loam to The soil varies from stiff clay and loam to sand; but, in general, is sandy and barren, intermixed with fertile spots. The rivers afford abundant means of irrigation. The indigenous vegetation of the P. is meagre. Trees are few in number and small, and fuel is so scarce, that cow-dung is much used in its stead. With an efficient system of agriculture, however, the territories of this part of India might be rendered very productive. Of the ordinary crops, wheat of excellent quality is produced in considerable quantities, and indigo, sugar, cotton, tobacco, opium, buckwheat, rice, barley, millet, maize, and numerous vegetables and fruits are grown. The manufacturing industry of this region is very considerable, and is carried on for the most part in the great towns, as Amritsir (q. v.), Lahore (q. v.), Multan (q. v.), &c. Spices and other groceries, dye-stuffs, cloths, metals, and hardware, are imported from the more eastern provinces of British India; and grain, ghee, hides, wool, carpets, shawls, silk, cotton, indigo, tobacco, salt, and horses are exported. The inhabitants are of various races, chiefly Jats, Gujurs, Rajputs, and Patans. Two-thirds of the whole population are Moslems, and of the remaining third, one half are Hindus, and the other half Sikhs. The Jats are the most prominent of the races of the P., and are said to have formed the 'core and nucleus of the said to have formed the 'core and nucleus' of the Sikh nation and military force. Of the history of the P., all that is important will be given under the heading SIKHS.

PU'NKAH, a gigantic fan for ventilating apartments, used in India and tropical climates. It consists of a light frame of wood, covered with calico, from which a short curtain depends, and is suspended by ropes from the ceiling; another rope from it passes over a pulley in the wall to a servant stationed without; the servant pulls the punkah backwards and forwards, maintaining a constant current of air in the chamber.

PUNT, a heavy, oblong, flat-bottomed boat, useful where stability and not speed is needed. Punts are much used for fishing. Some are fitted for oars; but the more usual mode of propulsion is by poles operating on the bottom. Punting is a very laborious exercise.

PUOZZOLA'NO. See CEMENTS.

PU'PA (Lat. a girl, or a doll), the second stage of insect life after the hatching of the egg. The first stage after the egg is that of Larva (q. v.). In those insects of which the metamorphosis is complete (see INSECTS), the pupa is generally quite inactive, and takes no food. This is the case in the Lepidoptera, the pupa of which is called a Chrysalis or Aurelia, and in the Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and Diptera. Manifestations of life may indeed be produced by touching, or in any way irritating, the pupa, but it is incapable of locomotion and of eating. It is quite otherwise with the pupa of other orders, which are often very voracious, and resemble the perfect insect in almost everything but that the wings are wanting. The peculiarities of the pupa are noticed in the articles on the different orders and genera of insects.

PUPIL. See EYE.

PUPIL, in the Law of Scotland, means, in the case of a male, one who is under 14 years of age;

PU'PPET, a name (derived from the Lat. pupus, a child or boy, Fr. poupée, a doll) signifying a childlike image. The Italian fantoccini (from fantino, a child), and the French Marionettes (q. v.) are other names for puppets. Puppet-plays, or exhibitions in which the parts of the different characters are taken by miniature figures worked by wires, while the dialogue is given by persons behind the scenes, limbs have been found in the tombs of ancient are of very ancient date. Figures with movable Egypt and Etruria. Originally intended to gratify children, they ended in being a diversion for adults. In China and India they are still made to act behind a curtain ("Ombres Chinoises'). In Italy dramas either as movable figures or as shadows and France puppet-plays were at one time carried to a considerable degree of artistic perfection, and even Lessing and Goethe in Germany thought the subject worth their serious attention. In England, they are mentioned under the name of Motions by many of our early authors, and frequent allusions occur to them in the plays of Shakspeare, Ben exhibitions of this kind consisted of representations Jonson, and the older dramatists. Jonson, and the older dramatists. The earliest of stories taken from the Old and New Testament, or from the lives and legends of saints. They thus seem to have been the last remnant of the Moralities his contemporaries that the most popular of these of the 15th century. We learn from Ben Jonson and exhibitions at that time were the Prodigal Son, and Nineveh with Jonas and the Whale. Puritans, with all their hatred of the regular stage, Even the did not object to be present at such representations. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, puppet-plays were exhibited in Fleet Street and Holborn Bridgelocalities infested by them at the period of the Restoration. The most noted exhibitions of the kind were those of Robert Powel in the beginning of the 18th century. (See Chambers's Book of Days, vol. ii. 167.) So recently as the time of Goldsmith, scriptural Motions' were common, and, in She Stoops to Conquer, reference is made to the display of Solomon's Temple in one of these shows. The regular performances of the stage were also sometimes imitated; and Dr Samuel Johnson has observed, that puppets were so capable of representing even the plays of Shakspeare, that Macbeth might be represented by them as well as by living actors. These exhibitions, however, much degenerated, and latterly consisted of a wretched display of wooden figures barbarously formed, and decorated without the least degree of taste or propriety, while the dialogues were jumbles of absurdities and nonsense.

The mechanism of puppet-plays is simple. The exhibiter is concealed above or below the stage, works the figures by means of wires, and delivers the dialogues requisite to pass between the characters. The exhibition of Punch (q. v.) is perhaps the only example of this species of acting which exists in this country at the present time.

PURAN'A (literally old,' from the Sanscrit pura, before, past) is the name of that class of religious works which, besides the Tantras (q. v.), is the main foundation of the actual popular creed of the Brahminical Hindus (see HINDU RELIGION under INDIA). According to the popular belief, these works were compiled by Vyasa (q. v.), the supposed arranger of the Vedas (q. v.), and the author of the Muhabharata (q. v.), and possess an antiquity far beyond the reach of historical computation. A critical investigation, however, of the contents of the existing works bearing that name must necessarily

PURĀN'A.

lead to the conclusion, that in their present form The modern age of this latter literature, in the they do not only not belong to a remote age, but form in which it is known to us, is borne out by can barely claim an antiquity of a thousand years. the change which the religious and philosophical The word Puran'a occurs in some passages of the ideas, taught in the epic poems and the philosophical Mahabharata, the law-books of Yajnavalkya and Sutras, have undergone in it; by the legendary Manu (q. v.); it is even met with in some Upa- detail into which older legends and myths have nishads and the great Brahman'a portion of the expanded; by the numerous religious rites-not White-Yajur Veda; but it is easy to shew that in countenanced by the Vedic or epic works-which all these ancient works it cannot refer to the are taught, and, in some Purân'as at least, by the existing compositions called P., and therefore that historical or quasi-scientific instruction which is no inference relative to the age of the latter can imparted, in it. To divest that which, in these be drawn from that of the former, whatever that Purân'as, is ancient, in idea or fact, from that may be. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that which is of parasitical growth, is a task which there are several circumstances tending to shew Sanscrit philology has yet to fulfil; but even a that there existed a number of works called P., superficial comparison of the contents of the present which preceded the actual works of the same P. with the ancient lore of Hindu religion, name, and were the source whence these probably philosophy, and science, must convince every one derived a portion of their contents. The oldest that the picture of religion and life unfolded by known author of a Sanscrit vocabulary, Amara- them is a caricature of that afforded by the Vedic Sinha, gives as a synonym of P. the word Pancha-works, and that it was drawn by priestcraft, lakshan'a, which means that which has five interested in submitting to its sway the popular (panchan) characteristic marks' (lakshan'a); and mind, and unscrupulous in the use of the means the scholiasts of that vocabulary agree in stat- which had to serve its ends. The plea on which ing that these lakshan'as are: 1. Primary crea- the composition of the Purân'as was justified even tion, or cosmogony; 2. Secondary creation, or the by great Hindu authorities-probably because they destruction and renovation of worlds; 3. Gene- did not feel equal to the task of destroying a system alogy of gods and patriarchs; 4. Manwantaras, or already deeply rooted in the national mind, or reigns of Manus; and 5. The history of the princes because they apprehended that the nation at large of the solar and lunar races. Such, then, were the would remain without any religion at all, if, without characteristic topics of a P. at the time, if not of possessing the Vedic creed, it likewise became Amara-Sinha himself-which is probable—at least deprived of that based on the Purân'as-this plea of his oldest commentators. Yet the distin- is best illustrated by a quotation from Sâyan'a, guished scholar most conversant with the existing the celebrated commentator on the three principal Purân'as, who, in his preface to the translation of Vedas. He says (Rigv., ed. Müller, vol. i. p. 33): the Vishn'u-P., gives a more or less detailed account Women and S'udras, though they, too, are in want of their chief contents (Professor H. H. Wilson), of knowledge, have no right to the Veda, for they observes, in regard to the quoted definition of are deprived of (the advantage of) reading it in the commentators on Amara-Sinha, that in no one consequence of their not being invested with the instance do the actual Purân'as conform to it sacred cord; but the knowledge of law (or duty) exactly; that 'to some of them it is utterly inap- and that of the supreme spirit arises to them by plicable; to others, it only partially applies.' To means of the Purân'as and other books (of this the Vishn'u-P., he adds, it belongs more than to any kind).' Yet to enlighten the Hindu nation as to other P.; but even in the case of this P. he shews whether or not these books-which sometimes are that it cannot be supposed to be included in the even called a fifth Veda-teach that religion which is term explained by the commentators. The age contained in the Vedas and Upanishads, there would of Amara-Sinha is, according to Wilson, the last be no better method than to initiate such a system half of the century preceding the Christian era; of popular education as would reopen to the native others conjecture that it dates some centuries later. mind those ancient works, now virtually closed to it. On the supposition, then, that Amara-Sinha himself implied by Pancha-lakshan'a the sense given to this term by his commentators, there would have been Purân'as about 1900 or 1600 years ago; but none of these have descended to our time in the shape it then possessed.

Various passages in the actual Purân'as furnish proof of the existence of such elder Purân'as. The strongest evidence in this respect is that afforded by a general description given by the Matsya-P. of the extent of each of the Purân'as (which are uniformly stated to be 18 in number), including itself; for, leaving aside the exceptional case in which it may be doubtful whether we possess the complete work now going by the name of a special P., Professor Wilson, in quoting the description from the Matsya-P., and in comparing with it the real extent of the great majority of Purân'as, the completeness of which, in their actual state, does not admit of a reasonable doubt, has conclusively shewn that the Matsya-P. speaks of works which are not those we now possess. We are then bound to infer that there have been Purân'as older than those preserved, and that their number has been 18, whereas, on the contrary, it will be hereafter seen that it is very doubtful whether we are entitled to assign this number to the actual P. literature.

Though the reason given by Sayan'a, as clearly results from a comparison of the Purin'as with the oldest works of Sanscrit literature, is but a poor justification of the origin of the former, and though it is likewise indubitable, that ever at his time (the middle of the 15th c. A.D.), they vere, as they still are, not merely an authoritative source of religion for women and S'ûdras,' but for the great majority of the males of other castes also, it nevertheless explains the great variety of matter of which the present Purân'as are composed, so great and so multifarious indeed, that, in the case of some of them, it imparts to them a kind of yclopædical character. They became, as it seems, the source of all popular knowledge; a substitute to the masses of the nation, not only for the theologica literature, but for scientific works, the study of vhich was gradually restricted to the leisure of the learned few. Thus, while the principal subjects taught by nearly all the P. are cosmogony, religion, including law, and the legendary matter which, to a Hindu, assumes the value of history, in some of them we meet with a description of places, which gives to them something of the character of geography; while one, the Agni-P., also pretends to teach archery, medicine, rhetoric, prosody, and grammar; though it is needless to add that that teaching has no real worth.

PURA N'A.

The number of the actual Purân'as is stated to be 18, and their names, in the order given, are the following: 1. Brahma-; 2. Padma-; 3. Vishn'u-; 4. S'iva-; 5. Bhagavata-; 6. Nâradiya-; 7. Mârkan'd'eya-; 8. Agni-; 9. Bhavishya-; 10. Brahma-15. Aditya-; 16. Mûhes'wara-; 17. BhâṆavata- (probvaivartta-; 11. Linga-; 12. Varaha-; 13. Skanda-; 18. Vas'ishtha- Upapurân'a. Another list, differing ably, however, a misreading for Bhargava); and 14. Vâmana-; 15. Kûrma-; 16. Matsya-; 17. Garu- from the latter, not in the number, but in the names, d'a-; and 18. Brahmân'da-Purân'a. In other lists, from the latter, not in the number, but in the names, the Agni-P. is omitted, and the Vayu-P. inserted of the Upapurân'as, is likewise given in Professor Wilson's Preface to the Vishn'u-Purân'a. Many instead of it; or the Garuda and Brahman'da are omitted, and replaced by the Vayu and Nr'isinha of these Upapurân'as are apparently no longer procurable, while other works so called, but not inPurân'as. Of these Purân'as, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 17, cluded in either list, are sometimes met with; for and probably 1, are Purân'as of the Vaishnava sect; instance, a Mudgala and Ganes'a Upapurân'a. The 4, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, of the S'aiva sect; 7 is, in one character of the Upapurân'as is, like that of the portion of it, called Devîmâhâtmya, the text-book Purân'as, sectarian; the S'iva- Upapurân'a, for of the worshippers of Durgâ; otherwise, it has little of a sectarian spirit, and would therefore neither instance, inculcates the worship of S'iva, the Kálikabelong to the Vaishnava nor to the S'aiva class; 14, Upapuran'a that of Durgâ or Devi. as Professor Wilson observes, divides its homage between S'iva and Vishn'u with tolerable impartiality; it is not connected, therefore, with any sectarial principles, and may have preceded their introduction.' The Bhavishya-P. (9), as described of them. Of the Purân'as, the original text of three