district. A good deal of teak and cutch is worked out. The cutch of the Yaw country is particularly esteemed. The average rainfall does not exceed 35 in. annually, and in many places water has to be carted for miles. West of the Pondaung ridge, however, under the Chin hills, the rainfall exceeds 50 inches. The heat in May and June is very great, and the thermometer rises considerably above 100° F. in the shade.
The great majority of the population is Burmese, but in Yaw there is a peculiar race called Taungthas, who claim to be quite distinct from both Burmese and Chins. In 1901 the Taungthas numbered 5700.
The headquarters town, Pakokku, stands on the right bank of the Irrawaddy, and has grown into importance since the British occupation. It is the great boat-building centre of Upper Burma. The population in 1901 was 19,456. It may be described as the emporium of the trade of the Chindwin and Yaw river valleys. The steamers of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company call here regularly, and it is the starting-point for the vessels plying on the Chindwin.
PAL, KRISTO DAS (1839–1884), Indian publicist, was born in
Calcutta in 1839, of the Teli or oil-man’s caste, which ranks low
in the Hindu social hierarchy. He received an English education
at the Oriental Seminary and the Hindu Metropolitan College,
and at an early age devoted himself to journalism. In 1861 he was
appointed assistant secretary (and afterwards secretary) to the
British Indian Association, a board of Bengal landlords, which
numbered among its members some of the most cultured men of
the day. At about the same time he became editor of the
Hindu Patriot, originally started in 1853 and conducted with
ability and zeal by Harish Chandra Mukerji until his death in
1861. This journal having been transferred by a trust deed to
some members of the British Indian Association, it henceforth
became to some extent an organ of that body. Thus Kristo
Das Pal had rare opportunities for proving his abilities and
independence during an eventful career of twenty-two years.
In 1863 he was appointed justice of the peace and municipal
commissioner of Calcutta. In 1872 he was made a member of
the Bengal legislative council, where his practical good sense and
moderation were much appreciated by successive lieutenant governors.
His opposition, however, to the Calcutta Municipal
Bill of 1876, which first recognized the elective system, was
attributed to his prejudice in favour of the “classes” against
the “masses.” In 1878 he received the decoration of C.I.E.
In 1883 he was appointed a member of the viceroy’s legislative
council. In the discussions on the Rent Bill, which came up for
consideration before the council, Kristo Das Pal, as secretary
to the British Indian Association, necessarily took the side of
the landlords. He died on the 24th of July 1884. Speaking
after his death. Lord Ripon said: “By this melancholy event we
have lost from among us a colleague of distinguished ability,
from whom we had on all occasions received assistance, of which
I readily acknowledge the value. . . . Mr Kristo Das Pal owed
the honourable position to which he had attained to his own
exertions. His intellectual attainments were of a high order,
his rhetorical gifts were acknowledged by all who heard him,
and were enhanced when addressing this council by his thorough
mastery over the English language.” A full length statue of
him was unveiled by Lord Elgin at Calcutta in 1894.
See N. N. Ghose, Kristo Das Pal, a Study (Calcutta, 1887).
PALACE (Lat. Palatium, the name given by Augustus to his residence on the Palatine Hill), primarily the residence of a
sovereign or prince, but in England, Spain and France extended
to the residence of a bishop, and in the latter country to buildings
appropriated to the public service, such as courts of justice, &c.
In Italy the name is given to royal residences, to public buildings,
and to such large mansions as in France are either known as
châteaux if in the country, or hôtels if in Paris.
The earliest palaces in Egypt are those built in the rear of the Temple of Karnak by Thothmes III. and near the Temple of Medinet Habu, both in Thebes; the earliest in Greece are those at Cnossus and Phaestus in Crete (c. 1500 B.C.), and at Tiryns in the citadel (c. 1200 B.C.). The most remarkable series are those erected by the Assyrians at Nimroud, Koyunjik and Khorsabad (859–667 B.C.), which were followed by the Persian palaces at Persepolis and Susa; the Parthian palaces at Al Hadhr and Diarbekr; and the Sassanian palaces of Serbistan, Firuzabad and Ctesiphon. The only palace known of the late Greek style is that found at Palatitza in Macedonia. Of the Roman period there are many examples, beginning with those on the Palatine Hill commenced by Augustus, continued and added to by his successors, Tiberius, Caligula, Domitian, Hadrian and Septimus Severus, which covered an area of over 1,000,000 sq. ft. The villa of Hadrian was virtually an immense palace, the buildings of which extended over 7 m. in length; of more modest proportions are the palace of Diocletian at Spalato and a fine example at Treves in Germany. The palace of the Hebdomon at Constantinople, and a fragment at Ravenna of Theodoric’s work, are all that remain of Byzantine palaces. Of Romanesque work the only examples are those at Gelnhausen built by Barbarossa, and the Wartburg in Germany. In the Gothic style in Italy, the best known examples are the ducal palace at Venice, and the Palazzi Vecchio and del Podesta (Bargello) at Florence; in France, the palace of the popes at Avignon, and the episcopal palaces of Beauvais, Laon, Poitiers and Lisieux; in England, the bishops’ palaces of Wells, Norwich, Lincoln, portions of Edward the Confessor’s palace at Westminster, and Wolsey’s palace at Hampton Court; while such great country mansions as the “castles” of Alnwick, Kenilworth, Warwick, Rochester, Raglan and Stokesay, or Haddon Hall, come in the same category though the name is not employed. Belonging to the Mahommedan style are the palaces of the Alhambra and the Alcazar in Spain. Of the Renaissance period, nimierous palaces exist in every country, the more important examples in Italy being those of the Vatican, the Quirinal and the Cancellaria, in Rome; the Caprarola near Rome; the palace of Caserta near Naples; the Pitti at Florence; the Palazzo del Te at Mantua; the court and eastern portion of the ducal palace of Venice, and the numerous examples of the Grand Canal; in France, the Louvre, the Tulleries (destroyed), and the Luxembourg, in Paris; Versailles and St Germain-en-Laye; and the châteaux of la Rochefoucauld, Fontainebleau, Chambord, Blois, Amboise, Chenonceaux and other palaces on the Loire; in Germany, the castle of Heidelberg, and the Zwinger palace at Dresden; in Spain, the palace of Charles V. at Grenada, the Escorial and the palace of Madrid; in England, the palace of Whitehall by Inigo Jones, of which only the banqueting hall was built, Windsor Castle, Blenheim, Chatsworth, Hampton Court; and in Scotland, the palaces of Holyrood and Linlithgow.
PALACIO VALDÉS, ARMANDO (1853–), Spanish novelist
and critic, was born at Entralgo, in the province of Asturias, on the 4th of October 1853. His first writings were printed in the Revista Europea. These were pungent essays, remarkable for independent judgment and refined humour, and found so much favour with the public that the young beginner was soon appointed editor of the Revista. The best of his critical work is collected in Los Oradores del Ateneo (1878), Los Novelistas españoles (1878), Nuevo viaje al Parnaso and La Literatura en 1881 (1882), this last being written in collaboration with Leopoldo Alas. In 1881 he published a novel. El Señorito Octavio, which shows an uncommon power of observation, and the promise of better things to come. In Marta y María (1883), a portrayal of the struggle between religious vocation and earthly passion, somewhat in the manner of Valera, Palacio Valdés achieved a very popular triumph which placed him in the first rank of contemporary Spanish novelists. El Idilio de un enfermo (1884), a most interesting fragment of autobiography, has scarcely met with the recognition which it deserves: perhaps because the pathos of the story is too unadorned. The publication of Pereda’s Sotileza is doubtless responsible for the conception of José (1885), in which Palacio Valdés gives a realistic picture of the manners and customs of seafaring folk, creates the two convincing characters whom he names José and Leonarda, and embellishes the whole with passages of animated description barely inferior to the finest penned by Pereda himself. The
