ojects.--Rabelais,
_Gargantua_, i. (1533).

Supposed to be a satire on Charles V. of Spain.

=Picrochole's Counsellors.= The duke of Smalltrash, the earl of
Swashbuckler, and Captain Durtaille, advised King Picrochole to leave a
small garrison at home, and to divide his army into two parts--to send
one south, and the other north. The former was to take Portugal, Spain,
Italy, Germany (but was to spare the life of Barbarossa), to take the
islands of the Mediterranean, the Morea, the Holy Land, and all Lesser
Asia. The northern army was to take Belgium, Denmark, Prussia, Poland,
Russia, Norway, Sweden, sail across the Sandy Sea, and meet the other
half at Constantinople, when king Picrochole was to divide the nations
amongst his great captains. Echephron said he had heard about a pitcher
of milk which was to make its possessor a nabob, and give him for wife a
sultan's daughter; only the poor fellow broke his pitcher, and had to go
supperless to bed. (See BOBADIL.)--Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, i. 33 (1533).

A shoemaker bought a ha'p'orth of milk; with this he intended to
make butter, the butter was to buy a cow, the cow was to have a
calf, the calf was to be sold, and the man to become a nabob; only
the poor dreamer cracked the jug, and spilt the milk and had to go
supperless to bed.--_Pantagruel_, i. 33.

=Picts=, the Caledonians or inhabitants of Albin, _i.e._ northern
Scotland. The Scots came from Scotia, north of Ireland, and established
themselves under Kenneth M'Alpin in 843.

The etymology of "Picts" from the Latin _picti_ ("painted men") is about
equal to Stevens's etymology of the word "brethren" from _tabernacle_
"because we breathe-therein.[TN-93]

=Picture= (_The_), a drama by Massinger (1629). The story of this play
(like that of the _Twelfth Night_, by Shakespeare) is taken from the
novelette of Bandello, of Piedmont, who died 1555.

=Pi'cus=, a soothsayer and augur; husband of Canens. In his prophetic
art he made use of a woodpecker (_picus_), a prophetic bird sacred to
Mars. Circ['e] fell in love with him, and as he did not requite her
advances, she changed him into a woodpecker, whereby he still retained
his prophetic power.

"There is Picus," said Maryx. "What a strange thing is tradition!
Perhaps it was in this very forest that Circ[^e], gathering her
herbs, saw the bold friend of Mars on his fiery courser, and tried
to bewitch him, and, failing,