ly recommended to try the air of some Small College, or
devote his energies to some other walk of life.--_Bristed's Five
Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 74.

POSTMASTER. In Merton College, Oxford, the scholars who are
supported on the foundation are called Postmasters, or Portionists
(_Portionistae_).--_Oxf. Guide_.

The _postmasters_ anciently performed the duties of choristers,
and their payment for this duty was six shillings and fourpence
per annum.--_Oxford Guide_, Ed. 1847, p. 36.

POW-WOW. At Yale College on the evening of Presentation Day, the
Seniors being excused from further attendance at prayers, the
classes who remain change their seats in the chapel. It was
formerly customary for the Freshmen, on taking the Sophomore
seats, to signalize the event by appearing at chapel in grotesque
dresses. The impropriety of such conduct has abolished this
custom, but on the recurrence of the day, a uniformity is
sometimes observable in the paper collars or white neck-cloths of
the in-coming Sophomores, as they file in at vespers. During the
evening, the Freshmen are accustomed to assemble on the steps of
the State-House, and celebrate the occasion by speeches, a
torch-light procession, and the accompaniment of a band of music.

The students are forbidden to occupy the State-House steps on the
evening of Presentation Day, since the Faculty design hereafter to
have a _Pow-wow_ there, as on the last.--_Burlesque Catalogue_,
Yale Coll., 1852-53, p. 35.

PRAESES. The Latin for President.

"_Praeses_" his "Oxford" doffs, and bows reply.
_Childe Harvard_, p. 36.

Did not the _Praeses_ himself most kindly and oft reprimand me?
_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 98.

--the good old _Praeses_ cries,
While the tears stand in his eyes,
"You have passed and are classed
With the boys of 'Twenty-Nine.'"
_Knick. Mag._, Vol. XLV. p. 195.

PRAYERS. In colleges and universities, the religious exercises
performed in the chapel at morning and evening, at which all the
students are required to attend.

These exercises in some institutions were formerly much more
extended than at present, and must on some occasions have been
very onerous. Mr. Quincy, in his History of Harvard University,
writing in relation to the customs which were prevalent in the
College at the beginning of the last century, says on this
subject: "Previous to the accession of Leverett to the Presidency,
the practice of obligin