This decree was signed by Seraphim, metropolitan of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, by Philaret of Eief, Philaret of Moscow, and three prelates, besides two oth- er ecclesiastics. It was confirmed March 25, 1839, by the emperor's own hand, with these words: <;I thank God, and accept it." See Blackmore's Mouravieff, Russian Church, Append, iv, p. 430.
Polus, a Greek sophist, lived about B.C. 400. He was born in Agrigentum (Girgenti), and studied under the celebrated sophist Gorgias, a Sicilian like himself. In his dialogue Gorgias, or about Rhetoric, Plato intro- duces Socrates in discussion with some of his disciples, among whom is Polus. The point in contest is at first the nature of rhetoric, but as the debate progresses it expands its limits, and touches the question whether the unrighteous can be happy, and whether it is not preferable to suffer injustice rather than to inflict it. The notoriety of Polus rests exclusively on the part as- signed to him by Plato in this dialogue. There remains nothing of his writings. Yet he seems, as a true disci- ple of Gorgias, to have written a rhetorical treatise; for Plato puts the following words in the mouth of Socrates : " To tell you the truth, Polus, I do not consider truth as an art, but only as a thing which you boast of having made an art of, in a writing which I have of late pe- rused."
Polwhele, Richard, an English divine noted as an antiquarian, historian, poet, and miscellaneous writ- er, whose works are exceedingly voluminous, was born at Truro in 1760, where he was also educated, and where, when a boy, with the assistance of the celebrated Dr. Wolcott, then a physician in that town, he first essayed as a poet. He took holy orders, and finally settled in his native place, where he died in 1838. He is noted rather for his secular productions, though he published also on religious topics. His principal works are, The History of Cornwall (7 vols. 4to) : — The History of Dev- onshire (3 vols.): — Traditions and Hi ■■collections (2 vols.): — The Rural Rector (3 vols.) : — Biographical Sketches in Cornwall (3 vols.) : — A necdotes of Methodism : — Illus- trations of Scriptural Characters : — several volumes of Sermons; with numberless poems, and other writings of a miscellaneous character. See Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and A mer. A uthors, s. v.
Polyandry (from jroXi'e, many, and aviip, a man), that form of polygamy which permits a woman to have several husbands. See Marriage. The hot -bed of polyandry is Thibet. There a wife commonly is the wife of a whole family of brothers, the elder brother
POLYANDRY
3G0
POLYCARP
being chief husband, In the Bimalayan and sub- Himalayan regions adjoining and under the influence of Thibet it i- of frequent occurrence, in the same form as in the valley of Cashmere, in Ladakh, among the Koech, and among the Telingese. Farther south in India we find polyandry among the Tudas of the Neil- gherry Hills, the I oorgs ol Mysore, and the Nayara of Malabar. We find it again off the Indian Ceylon; and, going eastward, strike on it as anancienl
though now al -t superseded custom in New Zealand,
and in • or two of the Pacific islands. Going north- ward, we meel it again in the Aleutian Islands; and taking the continent t.> the wesl and north of 1 1 1 * - Aleu- tians, it i- found among the Koryaks, to the north of tin i Okhotsk Sea. < Irossing the Russian empire to the wesl side, we meel it among the Saporogian I and tlnis have traced it al points half round the globe. i qoI all. however. It i- found in Beveral parts : and it occurs again in manj parts of Amer- Ri .1 men. We have the authority of Humboldl for it- prevalence among the tribes on the Orinoco, and in the Bame form as in Thibet " Vmong the Ivaroes and the Maypures," he says, "brothers have often l»ut cue wife." Humboldl also vouches l"< »r it- former prevalence in Lancerota, one of the Canary Islands. Thus polyandry is a phenomenon of human life independent of race and country. See Latham, ■■-. Ethnology (1859),i,24, 28*; ii, 398, W6, 162; Humbold rralivt (Williams's translation,
I. v, pt ii, p. 549 ; and vol. i,chap. i, p. 84 ; Ham- ilton, .\.<r Account ofthi East Indies (Edinb. 1727), i. 274,308; Reade, Savagt \frica, p. 43 ; Brman, Travels in Siberia, ii, 531; Seignior Gaya, Marriage Ceremonies (translation) (2d ed. Lond. 1698), p. 70, 96; Emerson Teunant, Ceylon (3d ed. 1859), ii. 129; " I. Rupe," Grey's Polynesian Mythology (1855), p. 81; A ■ in //,, Himalayas (1860), p. 202 ; Vigne, i. :;7: .Urn r„,i! Asiat. Soc. of Bengal, ix, 834; .1 tiat. I: •■ at i /'. \ . 13.
ancient history we learn that the ana over which polyandry at on,- time existed was even more extended; while in certain cantons of Media, accord- Strabo (ii. 798; ami Bee Goguet, vol. iii, bk, vi, <■. p. polygynia was authorized by express law, which ordained every inhabitant to maintain at least seven wives; in other cantons precisely the opposite rule pre- vail..! a woman was allowed to have many husbands, ami they looked with contempl on those who had less ii informs us thai in hi- time polyandry of the Thibetan type prevailed among the Britons i /'■ co, hi.. \. .■. \iv i. We I'm. I direcl evidence of its existence anion- the Picts in the Irish Nennius (App. Ii), not to m. -nt ion the traces of it remaining in the Pictish laws ..i succession. Indeed, to pass over com- munities in which something like promiscuity of inter- eour-. between I «id to have prevailed