PALK STRAIT, or PALR's PASSAGE, the northern portion of the passage between the s. coast of Ilindustan and the island of Ceylon. This passage is continued southward by the gulf of Manaar (q.v.). It is from 40 to 80 m. in width, and is 80 in. in length. It is so shallow—in sonic places being no more than two fathoms in depth—that it cannot by navigated in safety by large .vessels. In Palk strait there are several pearl fisheries.
PALL (Lat. paltium, also' palla, a cloak), the name given in English to two very dif fcrciit portions of the vesture employed in the religious use of the Roman and some other churches. One of these is the funeral pall, an ample covering of black velvet or other stuff, which is cast over the coffin while being borne to burial. The ends of the pall are held during the funeral procession by the most distinguished among the friends of the deceased, generally selected from among those unconnected by blood. In its second and
most strictly liturgical use, the word pall is applied to one of the coverings used at the altar in the celebration of the mass. Primitively, as appears from Optatus and other early writers, the altar was covered with a large linen cloth—called by the Latins NI liallt, and by the Greeks extremities of which were folded back so as to cover the bread and wine prepared for the celebration of the eucharist. In later times a sepa rate covering was employed for the sacramental chalice, to which latter the name pall is now reserved in the use of the Roman church. The modern Roman pall is a square piece of linen cloth—sometinres limber, sometimes made stiff by inserting pasteboard— sufficiently large to cover the mouth of the chalice. The upper surface is often of silk embroidered, or of cloth of gold. The surface in contact with the chalice must always be of linen.