PAWTUCICET, a t. of Rhode Island, on both sides of the Pawtucket river, 4 m. n. of Providence. A fall of 50 ft. on the river, and its proximity to the sea, caused it to be selected by Samuel Slater, in 1790, as the site of the first cotton factory in the United States. It now contains 13 cotton mills, machine shops, and manufactures of yarn, fire-engines, belting. jewelry, etc. There are 18 churches, 3 banks, 2 newspapers, a public library, with extensive steamboat and railway connections. Pop. '70, 6,619; '75, 18,464. A part of North Providence was annexed to Pawtucket in 1874.
PAX, called also PacrrteALE and OSCULATORIUM (Lat. osculor, I kiss), the "kiss of peace." and also a sacred utensil, employed in some of the solemn services of the Catholic church in the ceremony of giving the so-called "kiss of peace" during the mass. The practice of saluting each other—the men, men, and the women, women—during public worship, and particularly in the agape, or love-feast, is frequently alluded to by ancient writers, as Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. xv., and St. Augustine, Serm. 227. All the ancient liturgies, without exception, refer to it as among the rites with which the eucharist was celebrated; but they differ as to the time and the place in the eucharistic service in which it is introduced. In the eastern liturgies it is before, in the western
after the offertory (q.v.); and in the Roman it immediately precedes the communion. The ceremony commences with the celebrating bishop or priest, who salutes upon the check the deacon; and by him the salute is tendered to the other members, and to the first dignitary of the assistant clergy. Originally, the laity also were included, but this has long since been abandoned. It is when the mass is celebrated by a high dignitary that the utensil called the pax is used. The pax is sometimes a crucifix, sometimes a reliquary, sometimes a tablet with a figure sculptured or enameled upon it. Having been kissed by the celebrant, and by him handed to the deacon, it is carried by the latter to the rest of the clergy. In ordinary cases the pax is given by merely bowing, and approaching the cheek to the person to whom it is communicated. The pax is omitted in the mass of Maundy-Thursday (q.v.), to express horror of the treacherous kiss of Judas.