Prisoner (I^SX, assir, cVc^noc). Imprisonment does not appear to have been imposed by Moses as a punishment among the Hebrews, though he describes it as in use among the Egyptians (Gen. xxxix, '20, 21 ; xl, 1-4). He seems to have used it merely for the purpose of keeping the culprit safe until judgment was given (Lev. xxiv, 12). As execution immediately fol- lowed the sentence, there was little occasion for incar- ceration. The great variety in the names of prisons in the Hebrew would lead us to imagine that they were more frequently used in the latter than in the earlier periods of the Hebrew nation ; and that they were not only used in the detention of criminals, but as a means of punishment and correction (2 Chron. xvi, 10; 1 Kings xxii, 27 ; 2 Kings xxv, 29 ; Jer. xxxvii, 15, 21 ; lii, 31 ; Isa. xxiv, 22 ; xlii, 7 ; Matt, iv, 12 ; Acts xii, 4). Pris- oners were often confined in stocks, or with chains (Job xii, 27; xxxiii, 11 ; Jer. xl, 4); and the keepers of the prisons often had a discretionary power to treat their prisoners as they pleased. The torture was often ap- plied to extort a confession from the accused. In later periods the Jews confined those in prison who failed in the payment of their debts. They had the liberty to punish the debtor with stripes (YVisd. ii, 19; Matt, v, 26; xviii, 28-34). The Romans, in some instances. fastened their criminals by one or both hands to a sol- dier: such appear to have remained in their own houses (Acts xxviii, 16). It was not unfrequently the case that the keepers of prisons, when those who were com- mitted to their charge had escaped, were subjected to the same punishment which had been intended for the prisoners (xii, 19; xvi, 27). See Prison.
Pritchard, Martin, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church of some standing, was born in Ohio April 23, 1827 ; was converted and joined the Church at the age of seventeen. He obtained a good element- ary education, and for a number of years was engaged as a school-teacher. He was licensed as an exhorter when about twenty-three, and as a local preacher at the age of twenty-five. He joined the Nebraska Confer- ence in 1857, and at once entered upon his duties as an itinerant with that energy and devotion to his work which so signally characterized his whole career as a minister, and the fruits of his labor gave abundant proof that he was indeed called of God. He preached suc- cessively at Mount Pleasant, Peru, Belleview, Platte Valley, Pawnee City, Falls City, and a second time at
Peru. In 1870 he was appointed presiding elder of the Lincoln district, and at the next annual conference he was appointed presiding elder of the Nebraska district. At the Conference of 1875 he was appointed presiding elder of the Lincoln district, where he continued his earnest and faithful labors until about ten days before* his death, which occurred on March 24, 1877. He was' a member of the Book Committee four years, and was twice elected reserve delegate to the General Confer- ence. See Minutes of the A nnual Conferences, 1877, p. 142; N. Y. Christian Advocate. April 19, 1877.
Pritchard, Samuel, a Wesleyan missionary, was born in the first quarter of our century. He was con- verted in 1843, and feeling called of God to preach the glad tidings, he entered the itinerant ranks in 1852, and was sent to Biabou Circuit, in the island of St. Vincent. He was there only two years when he was seized with malignant yellow fever, and died Feb. 28, 1853. During the brief period of his ministerial labors he gained the affectionate regard of the community in which he resided. See Wesleyan May. 1853, p. 872.
Prithu is the name of several legendary kings of ancient India. It is, however, especially one king of this name who is the favorite hero of the Puranas. His father was Vena, an embodiment of the Hindu di- vinity Vishnu (q. v.). Vishnu perished through his wickedness ; for when he was inaugurated monarch of the earth, he caused it to be everywhere proclaimed that no worship should be performed, no oblations of- fered, and no gifts bestowed upon the Brahmins. The Rishis, or Saints, hearing of this proclamation, entreated the king to revoke it, but in vain : hence they fell upon him and slew him. But the kingdom now being with- out a king, as Vena had left no offspring, and the peo- ple being without protection, the sages assembled, and consulted how to produce a son from the body of the dead king. First, then, they rubbed his thigh ; from it, thus rubbed, came forth a being called Nishada; and by this means the wickedness of Vena having been ex- pelled, they proceeded to rub the right arm of the dead king, and by this friction engendered Prithu, who came forth resplendent in person, and in his right hand ap- peared the mark of the discus of Vishnu, which proved him to be a universal emperor, one whose power would be invincible even by the gods. The mighty Prithu soon removed the grievances of the people; he protected the earth, performed many sacrifices, and gave liberal gifts to the Brahmins. On being informed that in the in- terval in which the earth was without a king all vege- table products had been withheld, and that consequently the people had perished, he in great wrath marched for- ward to assail the earth. The earth, assuming the fig- ure of a cow, fled before him, but seeing no escape from the power of the king, at last submitted to him, and promised to renew her fertility, provided he made all places level. Prithu therefore uprooted mountains, levelled the surface of the earth, established boundaries of towns and villages, and induced his subjects to lake up their abode where the ground was made level. Then Prithu caused the earth to appear before his throne in the shape she had assumed, and commanded that any one who should apply to her with a wish, and bring a calf with him to milk her, should be granted his wish. This is the celebrated wonder-cow, about which the Brah- mins and the Kshatrias fought such tremendous battles that the gods found it necessary to intervene. Now the earth resumed her former liberality, the people were re- lieved of their want, and the young god, presented by Vishnu and Shiva with never-missing weapons, by the sun-god with an all-illuminating crown, by the sea-god with a parasol trimmed with pearls, walked through the world a conqueror in every battle, bestowing rain or sunshine at his will. He now prepared for invad- ing the empire of Indra, and for that purpose offered ninety-nine great sacrifices of horses; but when he was going to offer the hundredth, Indra managed to steal