PYIVOMANCY, among the classical ancients, a species of divination by means of the fire of the sacrifice; in which, if the flames immediately took hold of and con sumed the victims, or if they were bright and pure, or if the sparks rose upward in a pyramidal form, success was said to be indicated. If the contrary took place, misfortunes were said to be presaged.
PYR/Illi1C DANCE, called by the Ro mans l'yrrhiea Saltatio, a species of war like dance, said to have been invented by Pyrrhus to grace the funeral of his father Achilles, though this point is in volved in obscurity. This dance consist ed chiefly in such an adroit and nimble turning of the body as represented an attempt to avoid the strokes of an enemy in battle, and the motions necessary to perform it were looked upon as a kind of training for the field of battle. This dance is supposed to be described by Homer as engraved on the shield of Achilles. Lord Byron describes the Snliotes as still per forming this dance.
PYRIt'IIONISTS, a sect of ancient philosophers, so called from Pyrrho, a native of Elis, in Peloponnesus. The
opinions of these philosophers, who were also called skeptics, terminated in the incomprehensibility of all things, in which they found reason both for affirming and denying; they accordingly seemed to be always in search of truth, without ever acknowledging that they had found it : hence the art of disputing upon all things, without ever going further than suspend ing our judgments, is called pycrhon PrfILAGO REANS, a sect of ancient philosophers, so called from being the followers of Pythagoras of Samos, who lived in the reign of Tarquin, the last king of Rome. The doctrine of metemp sychosis, or the transmigration of souls through different orders of animal exist ence, is the main feature by which the Pythagorean philosophy is popularly known. It is, however, by no means certain that the genuine Pythagoreans held this doctrine in a literal sense. It may have been only a mythical way of communicating their belief in the indi viduality and post mortem duration of the soul.