Page:EB1911 - Volume 21.djvu/138

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PENTATEUCH—PENTECOST
123


In the male, on the contrary, this orifice is situated in the anterior half of the body, not far behind the mouth. The orifice leads into a large pouch lodging a pair of very long penes, which are coiled up when not in use. The two testicles, which extend far back into the posterior part of the body, are long and tubular. Anteriorly their vasa deferentia soon unite into a common duct, which opens into the pouch containing the penes. Also communicating with this pouch is a pair of long slender flagelliform tubes, of which the function is unknown.

The structure of the adult Linguatula or Pentastomum, above described, does not supply convincing evidence of relationship with the Acari. At the same time some Acari, like Eriophyes (Phytoptus) and Demodex, have the body elongated and annulated, but in these groups the elongation of the body is caudal or post-anal, as is attested by the position of the anus far forwards on its ventral surface. Again, the adult Pentastomum shows no trace of appendages, unless the two pairs of chitinous hooks are to be regarded as the vestiges of jaws or ambulatory limbs. In the embryo, however, what have been regarded as remnants of limbs may be seen.

In the mature stage Pentastomida live in the respiratory passages of mammalia, principally in the nasal cavities. The remarkable life-history of one species, Linguatula taenioides, has been worked out in detail and presents a close analogy to that of some Cestodes. The adults live in the nose of dogs, where they have been known to survive over fifteen months. Each female lays a vast number of eggs, about 500,000 being the estimated amount. These are expelled along with mucus by the sneezing of the host. If they fall on pasture land or fodder of any kind and are eaten by any herbivorous animal, such as a hare, rabbit, horse, sheep or ox, the active embryos or larvae are set free in the alimentary canal of the new host.

Fig. 1.—Linguatula taenioides, Rud. adult.

Fig. 2.—The same, in the first larval stage; under side.

a . . . a, Leg-like processes.

These larvae are minute oval creatures with a comparatively short apically fringed caudal prolongation and furnished with two pairs of short two-clawed processes, which may represent the limbs of anthropods and possibly the two pairs of legs found in Acari of the family Eriophyidae. The larva is also armed anteriorly with a median piercing probe and a pair of sharp hooks by means of which it perforates the walls of the alimentary tract and makes its way into the body cavity, lungs or liver. Here it becomes encysted, and losing its boring apparatus and claw-bearing processes remains for a time quiescent. After a series of moults it passes into the second larval stage, somewhat like the parent but differing in having each integumental ring armed with a fringe of backwardly directed short bristles. This sexually immature stage, regarded at one time as representing a distinct species and named Linguatula denticulata, is reached in about six or seven months and measures from 6 to 8 mm. in length. In the event of the host escaping being killed and eaten it is believed that some of these larvae wander about or ultimately make their way to the exterior, possibly through the bronchi, nevertheless it seems to be certain that they can only reach sexual maturity in the nasal passages of some carnivorous animal, and the chance of attaining this environment is afforded when the viscera of the host are devoured by some flesh-eating mammal.

The adult female of L. taenioides measures about 4 in. long and the male barely one-fourth of that. The adult and immature stages are, however, by no means confined respectively to carnivorous and herbivorous species of mammals. The adult stage, for example, has been found in the nasal passages of sheep, goats, horses and even of man, and the larval stage in the pleural and peritoneal cavities of dogs and cats.  (R. I. P.) 


PENTATEUCH, the name found as early as in Tertullian and Origen corresponding to the Jewish תםשה חזםש׳ החזדה (the five-fifths of the Torah, or Law), and applied to the first five books of the Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy). The several books were named by the Jews from their initial words, though at least Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy had also titles resembling those we use, viz. הםש הפקזד׳ם ,הזדח בהנ׳ם (Αμμεσφεκωδειμ, Origen, in Eus., H. E. vi. 25), and םשנה חזדה. The Pentateuch, together with Joshua, Judges and Ruth, with which it is usually united in Greek MSS., makes up the Octateuch; the Pentateuch and Joshua together have recently been named the Hexateuch. On the critical questions arising from the Pentateuch or Hexateuch, see Bible and the articles on the several books.

PENTECOST, a feast of the Jews, in its original meaning a “harvest feast,” as consisting of the first-fruits of human toil (Exod. xxiii. 16), extending over the seven weeks which fairly correspond with the duration of the Canaanite harvest. Hence it was the closing feast of the harvest gladness.

The agricultural character of this feast clearly reveals its Canaanite origin (see Hebrew Religion). It does not, however, rank equal in importance with the other two agricultural festivals of pre-exilian Israel, viz. the Maṣṣōth or feast of unleavened cakes (which marked the beginning of the corn-harvest), and the Asīph (“ingathering,” later called succōth, “booths”) which marked the close of all the year's ingathering of vegetable products. This is clear in the ideal scheme of Ezekiel (xlv. 21 seq.) in which according to the original text, Pentecost is omitted (see Cornill's revised text and his note ad loc.). It is a later hand that has inscribed a reference to the “feast of weeks” which is found in our Massoretic Hebrew text. Nevertheless occasional allusions to this feast, though secondary, are to be found in Hebrew literature, e.g. Isa. ix. 3 (2 Heb.) and Ps. iv. 7 (8 Heb.).

In both the early codes, viz. in Exod. xxiii. 16 (E) and in Exod. xxxiv 22 (J, in which the harvest festival is called “feast of weeks”) we have only a bare statement that the harvest festival took place some weeks after the opening spring festival called Maṣṣōth. It is in Deut. xvi. 9 that we find it explicitly stated that seven weeks elapsed between the beginning of the corn-harvest (“when thou puttest the sickle to the corn”) and the celebration of the harvest festival (Ḳāṣīr). We also note the same generous inclusion of the household slaves and of the resident alien as well as the fatherless and widow that characterizes the autumnal festival of “Booths.”

But when we pass to the post-exilian legislation (Lev. xxiii. 10–21; cf. Num. xxviii. 26 seq.) we enter upon a far more detailed and specific series of ritual instructions. (1) A special ceremonial is described as taking place on “the morrow after the Sabbath,” i.e. in the week of unleavened cakes. The first-fruits of the harvest here take the form of a sheaf which is waved by the priest before Yahweh. (2) There is the offering of a male lamb of the first year without blemish and also a meal offering of fine flour and oil mixed in defined proportions as well as a drink-offering of wine of a certain measure. After this “morrow after the Sabbath” seven weeks are to be reckoned, and when we reach the morrow after the seventh Sabbath fifty days have been enumerated. Here we must bear in mind that Hebrew numeration always includes the day which is the terminus a quo as well as that which is term. ad quem. On this fiftieth day two wave-loaves made from the produce of the fields occupied by the worshipper (“your habitations”) are offered together with seven unblemished lambs of the first year as well as one young bullock and two rams as a burnt offering. We have further precise details respecting the sin-offering and the peace-offerings which were also presented.[1] This elaborate ceremonial connected with the wave-offering (developed in the post-exile period) took place on the morrow of the seventh Sabbath called

  1. On the critical questions involved in these ritual details of Lev. xxiii. 18 as compared with Num. xxviii. 27–30 cf. Driver and White in S. B. O. T., note on Lev. xxiii. 18.