interest are Billom, Chamalières, Courpière, Orcival, St Nectaire and St Saturnin, which possess churches in the Romanesque style of Auvergne. There are ruined feudal strongholds of great interest at Murols and Tournoël (near Volvic). Vic-le-Comte has a sainte-chapelle which is a beautiful example of the transition from Gothic to Renaissance architecture, and Aigueperse has a Gothic church of the 13th to the 15th century. Near Pontgibaud are the ruins (13th century) of the Carthusian abbey of Port St Marie.
PUYLAURENS, ANTOINE DE LAAGE, Duc de (d. 1635), French courtier, was born of an old Languedoc family. Attached to the household of Gaston, duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIII., he gained a complete ascendancy over the weak prince by pandering to his pleasures, and became his adviser in the intrigues against Cardinal Richelieu. It was Puylaurens who
arranged the escape of Gaston to Brussels in 1632 after the capture of Henri, duc de Montmorency, and then negotiated his return with Richelieu, on condition that he should be reconciled to the king. As a reward Richelieu gave him Aiguillon, erected into a duchy. But he plunged into new intrigues, and was imprisoned first in the Louvre in 1635, then in Vincennes, where
he died the same year.
PUZZLE, a perplexing question, particularly a mechanical toy or other device involving some constructional problem, to be solved by the exercise of patience or ingenuity. Some of the oldest mechanical puzzles are those of the Chinese, one of the most familiar being that known as the tangram (chi ch'iao t'ue), which consists of a square of wood or other material cut into five triangles, of different sizes, a small square and a lozenge, which can be so placed as to form over 300 different figures.
This puzzle is sometimes made of ivory carved with the delicate
workmanship for which the Chinese craftsmen are renowned,
and is enclosed in a carved box. Another well-known puzzle
is known as the “ Chinese rings,” consisting of a series of rings
running linked together on a bar, the problem being to take
them off the bar and replace them. The commonest of all
puzzles are coloured maps, pictures (“ jig-saw ”) or designs,
dissected into numerous variously shaped pieces, to be fitted
together to form the complete design. A great number of puzzles
are based on mathematical principles, such as the “ fifteen
puzzle,” the “ railway shunting puzzle,” and the like.
See W. W. Rouse Ball, Mathematical Recreations and Amusements 1892.
The etymology of the word “ puzzle ” is disputed. It has been usual to consider that the verb, which appears first at the end of the 16th century, is derived from the substantive, and that this is an aphetic form of “ apposal ” or “ opposal ” i.e. opposition, hence a question for solution, cf. Lydgate, Fall of Princes, quoted by Skeat (Etym. Dict. 1898). The New English Dictionary, however, takes it as clear from the chronological evidence and sense-development that the substantive is derived from the verb, which, in its earliest examples, means to put in embarrassing material circumstances, to bewilder, to perplex. This seems against making “ to puzzle ” a derivative of “ to pose,” i.e. “ oppose,” to examine by putting questions. Some connexion may be found with a much earlier word “ poselet,” confused, bewildered, which does not occur later than the end of the 14th century.
PWLLHELI (“ salt pit,” or “ pool ”), a municipal and contributory parliamentary borough (Carnarvon district), seaport and market-town of Carnarvonshire, North Wales, 20 m. S. of Carnarvon and 270 m. from London by rail. Pop. (1901), 3675. It is on the north side of Cardigan Bay, on the shore of Tremadoc Bay, with a sandy beach 4 m. in length and good bathing. It is the terminus of the Cambrian railway (the London & North-Western railway being 4 m. distant at Afonwen junction).
Pwllheli commands a good view of Merionethshire and of the
Snowdon range, with the entire sweep of Cardigan Bay, Carreg
yr ymbill (gimlet stone) at the mouth of the harbour, Abersoch
and St Tudwal's Islands. Many hundred acres of land have
been reclaimed from the sea here and along the coast of the bay;
there are costly embankments and good harbour age. The coast
is locally noted for fisheries (especially of lobsters and oysters)
and some ship-building is carried on. Pwllheli was incorporated
by Edward the Black Prince. At Nevin (Nefyn), 6 m. distant,
Edward I. held a tournament or revel, in 1284, on a magnificent
scale, to commemorate his conquest of Wales.
PYANEPSIA, or Pyanopsia (from Gr. πύανός=κύανός,
bean, and ἕψειν, to boil), an ancient festival in honour of
Apollo, held at Athens on the 7th of the month Pyanepsion
October. A hodge-podge of pulse was prepared into a stew and offered
to Apollo (in his capacity as sun god and ripener of fruits) and
the Horae, as the first-fruits of the autumn harvest. Another
offering on this occasion was the eiresiōnē. This was a branch
of olive or laurel, bound with purple or white wool, round which
were hung various fruits of the season, pastries, and small jars
of honey, oil and wine. It was intended as a thank-offering for
blessings received, and at the same time as a prayer for similar
blessings and protection against evil in future; hence, it was
called a suppliant branch (ἱκέτηρία). The name is generally
derived from εἶρος (wool) in reference to the woolen bands,
but some connect it with εἴρειν (to speak), the eiresiōnē
being regarded as the spokesman of the suppliants. It was
carried in procession by a boy whose parents were both alive
to the temple of Apollo, where it was suspended on the gate.
The doors of private houses were similarly adorned. The branch
was allowed to hang for a year, when it was replaced by a new
one, since by that time it was supposed to have lost its virtue.
During the procession a chant (also called eiresiōnē) was sung, the
text of which has been preserved in Plutarch (Theseus, 22):—
- "Eiresiōnē carries figs and rich cakes;
- Honey and oil in a jar to anoint the limbs;
- And pure wine, that she may be drunken and go to sleep".
The semi-personification of eiresiōnē will be noticed; and, according to Mannhardt, the branch "embodies the tree-spirit conceived as the spirit of vegetation in general, whose vivifying and fructifying influence is thus brought to bear upon the corn in particular."
Aetiologists connected both offerings with the Cretan expedition of Theseus, who, when driven ashore at Delos, vowed a thank-offering to Apollo if he slew the Minotaur, which afterwards took the form of the eiresiōnē and Pyanopsia. To explain the origin of the hodge-podge, it was said that his comrades on landing in Attica gathered up the scraps of their provisions that remained and prepared a meal from them.
See W. Mannhardt, Weld- und Feidkulte (1905), ii. 214, for an exhaustive account of the eiresiōnē and its analogies; J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough (1900), i. 190; J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to Greek Religion (1908), ch. 3; L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States (1907), iv. 286.
PYAPON, a town and district of Lower Burma. The town is situated on a river of the same name, one of the numerous mouths of the Irrawaddy, about 12 m. from the sea. Pop. (1901), 5883. The district, which was only formed in 1903, lies within the delta of the Irrawaddy. It is a vast plain, intersected by tidal creeks and subject to inundation at high spring tides. The swampy jungle is being rapidly reclaimed for rice cultivation, which is the sole crop. Area, 2137 sq. In.; pop.
(1901), 226,443, showing an increase of 63 % in the decade.
PYAT, FELIX (1810-1889), French Socialist, was born at Vierzon (Cher) on the 4th of October 1810, the son of a Legitimist lawyer. Called to the bar in Paris in 1831, he threw his whole energies into journalism. The violent personalities of a pamphlet entitled Marie Joseph Chénier et le prince des critiques (1844), in reply to Jules Janin, brought him a six months sojourn in La Pélagie, in the cell just quitted by Larnennais. He worked with other dramatists in a long series of plays, with an interval of six years on the National, until the revolution of 1848. George Sand, whom he had introduced in 1830 to the staff of the Figaro, now asked Ledru-Rollin to make him commissary-general of the Cher. After three months' tenure of this office he was returned by the department to the Constituent Assembly, where he Voted with the Mountain, and brought forward the celebrated motion for the abolition of the presidential office. About this time he fought a duel with Proudhon, who
