ts, the second by the black,
low-type Melanesians, the third by the light brown, tall Polynesians;
traces of extinct civilisation are found in Easter Island and the
Carolines; most of the islands are now in the possession of European
powers, and are more or less Christianised; New Zealand is one of the
most enterprising and flourishing colonies of Great Britain; everywhere
the native races are dying out before the immigration of Europeans.

POLYPHEMUS, in Homeric legend a son of Neptune, the most celebrated
of the Cyclops, a huge monster with one eye, who dwelt in Sicily in a
cave near AEtna, and whose eye, after making him drunk, Ulysses burnt out,
lest he should circumvent him and devour him, as he had done some of his
companions.

POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL, an institution for teaching the practical arts
and the related sciences, especially such as depend on mathematics.

POLYTHEISM, a belief in a plurality of gods each with a sphere of
his own, and each in general a personification of some elemental power
concerned in the government of the world.

POMBAL, MARQUIS DE, a great Portuguese statesman, born in Coimbra;
was Prime Minister of Joseph I.; partial to the philosophic opinions of
the 18th century, he set himself to fortify the royal power, to check
that of the aristocracy, and to enlighten the people; he was the
pronounced enemy of the Jesuits, reformed the University of Coimbra,
purified the administration, encouraged commerce and industry, whereby he
earned for himself at the hands of the people the name of the Great
Marquis; on the accession of Maria, Joseph's daughter and successor, he
was, under Jesuit influence, dispossessed of power, to die in poverty
(1699-1782).

POMERANIA (1,521), a Prussian province lying between the Baltic and
Brandenburg, with West Prussia on the E. and Mecklenburg on the W., is a
flat and in some parts sandy country, with no hills, many lakes, and a
large lagoon, the Stettiner Haff, into which the chief river, the Oder,
falls; the islands of Wallin, Usedom, and Ruegen belong to the province;
the main industry is agriculture, principal products rye and potatoes;
poultry-rearing and fishing are extensively carried on; there are
shipbuilding, machine-works, sugar and chemical factories; Stettin, the
capital, and Stralsund are important trading centres; a university is at
Greifswald; the Slavic population embraced Christianity in the 12th
century; shortly afterwards the duke joi