Pachomius

“ Then Pachomius said unto himself 'Such a woman is a plague for the whole Egyptian land,' and after cutting his beard and anointing himself he mounted a crocodile, which by prayer he had made subservient to himself, and on its scaly back was carried down the Nile ”

“ The Rule of Pachomius.
Palladius, the author of the history of monasticism, known as the Historia Lausiaca, was an Origenist, pupil of Evagrius Ponticus, and later bishop in Asia Minor. He is not to be confused with Palladius of Helenopolis, who lived about the same time, in the first part of the fifth century. The work of Palladius receives its name from the fact that it is dedicated to a high official, Lausus by name. Palladius made a careful study of monasticism, travelling extensively in making researches for his work. ”

“ Nothing in the wonderful history of the hermits of Egypt is so incredible as their number. But the most weighty authorities agree in establishing it. It was a kind of emigration of towns to the desert, of civilization to simplicity, of noise to silence, of corruption to innocence. The current once begun, floods of men, of women, and of children threw themselves into it, and flowed thither during a century, with resistless force. Let us quote some figures. Pachomius, who died at fifty-six, reckoned three thousand monks under his rule ”

“ Pachomius drew up rules for the guidance of his monastery in the Egyptian language. These rules, which are extant in Greek and Latin translations (Migne, Patrol. Graec., xl. p. 947; Hieron., Op., ii. p. 53 sq.) , demand a very diligent study of the Scriptures from the brethren, even from novices before admission into the order. Again and again directions are given relating to the use of manuscripts. These notices indeed refer chiefly to the Thebaid, which was the great seat of the Egyptian monasteries ”

“ Pachomius founded the first female cloister with definite rules, the superior of which was his own sister. From that time there sprang up a host of women’s cœnobite unions. The lady superior was called Ammas, “mother;” the members, μοναχαί, sanctimoniales, nonnæ, which was a Coptic word meaning chaste. The patroness of female monachism in the West was St. Paula of Rome, who was the scholar and friend of Jerome. Accompanied by her daughter Eustochium, she followed him to Palestine, and founded three nunneries at Bethlehem. ”

“ It was not uncommon for an abbot to command five thousand monks. St. Serapion boasted of ten thousand. Altogether, so we are told, there were in the fifth century more than one hundred thousand persons in the monasteries, three-fourths of whom were men.
The rule of Pachomius spread over Egypt into Syria and Palestine. It was carried by Athanasius into Italy and Gaul. It existed in various modified forms until it was supplanted by the Benedictine rule.
Leaving Egypt, again we cross the Mediterranean into Asia Minor. ”

“ The next great event in the history of Christian monasticism in Egypt was the founding, about 320, of the famous Monastery of Tabenna, near the modern town of Denderah, in Upper Egypt, by Pachomius, who was born a few years before the close of the third century. When he had finished his discipleship, an Angel appeared to him and told him to go and collect the wandering monks, to live with them, and to lay down such laws as he should tell him for their guidance. ”

“ In answer to his questions she told Pachomius that she was the daughter of the Calumniator, and that she had received power to fight against him.
Another survival of the old Egyptian belief in the power of men, under certain circumstances, to cast spells is recorded in the history of Apollo (Vol. I, p. 351) . The ten villages which were round about his place of abode, near Hermopolis, i.e., the city of the god Thoth, were filled with men who worshipped a wooden idol, and they carried him in procession from village to village, whilst the priests and people danced before him. ”

“ At the same time he is called a son of the Sun and the Moon, and it was owing to his good will and creative power that men and women were formed, and maize and fruits given them upon which to subsist.
Another more powerful god, however, by name Pachacamac, also a son of the Sun and Moon, and hence brother to Con, rose up against him and drove him from the land. The men and women whom Con had formed were changed by Pachacamac into brutes, and others created who were the ancestors of the present race. ”

“ Shall it be written of me, The holy Pachymius abode in the precepts of the eremites so long as he dwelt in the desert where no water was, but as soon as he came within sight of a bath, he stumbled and fell?”
“Oh, father,” urged they, “savoureth not this of vaingloriousness? The demon in the guise of an angel of light, as thou so well saidest even now. Be strong. Quit thyself valiantly. Think of the sufferings of the primitive confessors.” ”

“ Julius Cæsar Scaliger, and Isaac Casaubon, and Adrian Spigelius utterly deny the Being of Pygmies, and look upon them as a Figment only of the Ancients, because such little Men as they describe them to be, are no where to be met with in all the World. The Learned Bochartus tho' he esteems the Geranomachia to be a Fable, and slights it, yet thinks that what might give the occasion to the Story of the Pygmies, might be the Nubæ or Nobæ ”

“ When their education has made further progress they will be more mannerly, and will comprehend the folly of pestering an unintellectual old gentleman like this worthy Pachymius with beauty for which he has no eyes, and gold for which he has no use, and dainties for which he has no palate, and learning for which he has no head. But I’ll wake him up!” And waving his pupils away, the paedagogic fiend placed himself at the anchorite’s ear, and shouted into it—
“Nonnus is to be Bishop of Panopolis!” ”

“ Grazing temples, skimming pyramids, the party came to ground in the precincts of Panopolis, just in time to avoid the rising moon that would have betrayed them. The demon immediately disappeared. Apollo hastened off to demand an explanation from Nonnus, while Pachymius repaired to a neighbouring convent, peopled, as he knew, by a legion of sturdy monks, ever ready to smite and be smitten in the cause of orthodoxy. ”

“ An analysis of external and cranial characters of pygmy mice (see Figure 12) reveals that both species are essentially largest to the north and smallest to the south. There are exceptions to this cline in both species. For example, B. taylori analogous is a large subspecies; it lives allopatrically in the southern part of the range of the species. B. musculus pallidus is not the largest subspecies; it lives allopatrically in the northern part of the range of the species. ”

“ This opposition to Viracocha, god of the waters, puts us on the traces of Pachacamac's original significance. He must have been a god of fire, and especially of the internal fire of the earth, which displays itself in the volcanos and warms the spirit of man. He was a kind of Peruvian Dionysus. There was something gloomy and violent about his worship. He demanded human victims. The valley of Rimac really means the valley of the Speaker, of him who answers when questioned. There was a kind of oracle inspired by the god of internal fire there. ”

“ Such similarities of crania between Calomys and Baiomys may reflect convergence, but the total of internal and external morphological characters shared, I think reflects true relationships.
Peromyscus has a large number of living and extinct species and exhibits a wide range of morphological variation, whereas Baiomys has a small number (7) of species and exhibits a narrow range of morphological variation. The small number of known species of pygmy mice suggests their conservatism in elaboration of morphological characters. ”

“ PACHYMERES, GEORGIUS (1242-c. 1310) , Byzantine historian and miscellaneous writer, was born at Nicaea, in Bithynia, where his father had taken refuge after the capture of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204. On their expulsion by Michael Palaeologus in 1261 Pachymeres settled in Constantinople, studied law, entered the church, and subsequently became chief advocate of the church (πρωτέκδικος) and chief justice of the imperial court (δικαιοφύλαξ) . ”

“ But these Indian Historians having related so many extravagant Romances of the Pygmies, as to render their whole History suspected, nay to be utterly denied, that there were ever any such Creatures as Pygmies in Nature, both by Strabo of old, and most of our learned men of late, I have endeavoured to assert the Truth of their being, from a Text in Aristotle; which being so positive in affirming their Existence, creates a difficulty, that can no ways be got over by such as are of the contrary Opinion. ”

“ In the area where the two species of pygmy mice occur together, there seems to be a disparity in numbers between them. Hooper (1952a:91) has recorded the collection of both B. musculus and B. taylori in a single trap line. A series of pygmy mice collected from San Gabriel, Jalisco, contained one taylori and 33 musculus; another sample from La Resolana, Jalisco, had a ratio of 25 taylori to 6 musculus. The disparity in numbers where the two species occur together has been further substantiated by collections of the University of Kansas. ”

“ The other large fossil Pachyderms, belonging to the two existing genera of Rhinoceros and Hippopotamus, are found « 792 » very extensively distributed in alluvial debris, in the ossiferous breccia of caverns, and in other pleistocene deposits; and their remains are frequently dug up in the superficial marls, clays, gravel, and sand of England. As the teeth of these animals will occasionally be met with by the collector, a brief explanation of their form and structure may be useful. ”

“ One morning he awoke to find the web of the sun spread where it is today—a miraculous net, señor, and as the sun dips beneath the lake, babies in the web are transported to its effulgent halls—and the women are content——”
“They believe it?”
The high priest lifted his hands.
“Señor, they must, else they would go mad and die. All humanity must have some religion, or the horrors of life will overcome them. Pachacamac is the god of the living, not the god of the dead.” ”

“ The Pacha is not like the traveller, or any other man. He is a monster with three separate heads, in each of which are six eyes—three upon each side. Thus with eighteen eyes he can see everything and every country at once. He has three enormous mouths, which are furnished with teeth like those of a crocodile, and he devours human flesh. ”

“ On the basis of internal morphological characters studied (auditory ossicles, hyoid apparatus, and baculum) , Baiomys seems to be more closely related to a South American hesperomine, perhaps Calomys, than to any North American cricetine.
10. Pygmy mice were more widely distributed in the past than they are at present. Part of the ancestral stock of the pygmy mice may have emigrated from North America into South America in a brief period in the Pliocene; if so, it is easy to understand why certain South American hesperomines resemble Baiomys. ”

“ The Council of Ten kept to itself the chief influence in the election of this bishop; he was to be the auxiliary of the Patriarch of Venice for the Greek colony. The first so chosen was Pachomios, exiled Metropolitan of Zakynthos and Kephallenia. He made a Catholic profession of faith, was approved by the local Patriarch, and began his work at Venice in 1557. At first there was no difficulty about the ordination of these Greek bishops; there were plenty of exiled Metropolitans from the Levant who were glad to get the post. They were paid generously by the Government. ”

“ Athwart all these lower myths, survivals from the savage stage, comes what Garcilasso regards as the philosophical Inca belief in Pachacamac. This deity, to Garcilasso's mind, was purely spiritual: he had no image and dwelt in no temple; in fact, he is that very God whom the Spanish missionaries proclaimed. This view, though the fact has been doubted, was very probably held by the Amautas, or philosophical class in Peru. (1) Cieza de Leon says "the name of this devil, Pachacamac, means creator of the world". Garcilasso urges that Pachacamac was the animus mundi ”

“ This is the place where the Pygmies are; this is no fable, saith Aristotle, as 'tis that they are a Dwarfish Race of Men; that they speak the Indian Language; that they are excellent Archers; that they are very Just; and abundance of other Things that are fabulously reported of them; and because he thought them Fables, he does not take the least notice of them, but only saith, This is no Fable, but a Truth, that about the Lakes of Nile such Animals, as are called Pygmies, do live. ”

“ Goodwin, who kindly compared the three specimens with the type of nebulosus, mentioned (in. litt.) that the skull of the type has a slenderer rostrum. Included in the series of skulls of B. m. pallidus from 3 mi. W Mitla are several adults (not seen by Goodwin) with slender rostra. B. m. nebulosus is judged to be a synonym of B. m. pallidus.
Populations of pygmy mice occurring in partially isolated areas of highland in Oaxaca seem to me to be incipient subspecies.
Specimens examined.—Total 824 all from the Republic of México and distributed as follows: Puebla: 2 mi. ”

“ Then a short, fat, middle-aged man strolled casually on to the platform and everyone clapped violently—so it was Pachmann: a dirty greasy looking fellow with long hair of dirty grey colour, reaching down to his shoulders and an ugly face. ”

“ There is no hereditary chief. In many cases a group of pygmies simply cluster round a skilful hunter. In the case of the Mambute pygmies, a chief is succeeded, not by his son, but by his best friend. There are no governmental laws. Murder in the Ituri forest is punished by the next-of-kin lying in wait for the culprit and killing him.
The Negrilloes are fond of music and have numerous folk-songs. ”