ess a magical influence,
particularly to charm away evil spirits, formed by placing the figure of
an equilateral triangle athwart another.

PENTAMERONE, a collection of tales in the Neapolitan dialect,
supposed to be told during five days by ten old women to a
pseudo-princess, and published at Naples 1637; is of great value to
students of folk-lore.

PENTATEUCH, the name given by Origen to the first five books of the
Bible, which the Jews call the Law or Five-fifths of the Law, the
composition of which has of late years been subjected to keen critical
investigation, and the whole ascribed to documents of different dates and
diverse authorship, to the rejection of the old traditional hypothesis
that it was the work of Moses, first called in question by Spinoza, and
shown to be untenable by JEAN ASTRUC (q. v.).

PENTECOST (i. e. fiftieth), a great feast of the Jews, so called
as held on the fiftieth day after the second of the Passover. It is
called also the Feast of Harvest, or Weeks of First-Fruits, the Passover
feast being connected with the commencement and this with the conclusion
of harvest. It is regarded by the Jews as commemorative of the giving of
the law on Mount Sinai, and will never cease to be associated in the
Christian memory with the great awakening from which dates the first
birth of the Christian consciousness in the Christian Church, the moment
when the disciples of Christ first realised in common that their Master
was not dead but alive, and nearer to them than He had been when present
in the flesh.

PENTELICUS, a range of mountains in Attica between Athens and
Marathon, famous for its quarries of fine white marble.

PENTHESILEA, the daughter of Ares and the queen of the Amazons; on
the death of Hector she came to the assistance of the Trojans, but was
slain by Achilles, who mourned over her when dying on account of her
beauty, her youth, and her courage.

PENTHEUS, a king of Thebes, opposed to the introduction of the
Bacchus worship into his kingdom, was driven mad by the god, and torn in
pieces by his mother and sisters, who, under the Bacchic frenzy, mistook
him for a wild beast.

PENTHIEVRE, DUC DE, the father-in-law of Philippe Egalite, and the
protector of Florian (1725-1793).

PENTLAND FIRTH is the strait between the Orkneys and the Scottish
mainland connecting the North Sea with the Atlantic, 12 m. long by 6
broad, and swept by a rapid current very dangerous to naviga