1824-26 with unequal
success, and a fifth in 1827 in quest of the North Pole _via_
Spitzbergen, in which he was baffled by an adverse current; received
sundry honours for his achievements; died governor of Greenwich Hospital,
and left several accounts of his voyages (1790-1855).

PARSEES (i. e. inhabitants of Pars or Persia), a name given to the
disciples of Zoroaster or their descendants in Persia and India, and
sometimes called Guebres; in India they number some 90,000, are to be
found chiefly in the Bombay Presidency, form a wealthy community, and are
engaged mostly in commerce; in religion they incline to deism, and pay
homage to the sun as the symbol of the deity; they neither bury their
dead nor burn them, but expose them apart in the open air, where they are
left till the flesh is eaten away and only the bones remain, to be
removed afterwards for consignment to a subterranean cavern.

PARSIFAL, the hero of the legend of the HOLY GRAIL (q. v.),
and identified with GALAHAD (q. v.) in the Arthurian legend.

PARSON ADAMS, a simple-minded 18th-century clergyman in Fielding's
"Joseph Andrews."

PARSONS, ROBERT, English Jesuit, born in Somersetshire, educated at
Oxford and a Fellow of Balliol College; he became a convert to Roman
Catholicism and entered the Society of Jesus in 1575; conceived the idea
of reclaiming England from her Protestant apostasy, and embarked on the
enterprise in 1580, but found it too hot for him, and had to escape to
the Continent; after this he busied himself partly in intrigues to force
England into submission and partly in organising seminaries abroad for
English Roman Catholics, and became head of one at Rome, where he died;
he appears to have been a Jesuit to the backbone, and to have served the
cause of Jesuitry with his whole soul (1546-1610).

PARTHENOGENESIS, name given to asexual reproduction, that is, to
reproduction of plants or animals by means of unimpregnated germs or ova.

PARTHENON, a celebrated temple of the Doric order at Athens,
dedicated to Athena, and constructed under Phidias of the marble of
Pentelicus, and regarded as the finest specimen of Greek architecture
that exists; it is 228 ft. in length and 64 ft. in height. Parthenon
means the chamber of the maiden goddess, that is, Athena.

PARTHENOPE, in the Greek mythology one of the three SIRENS
(q. v.), threw herself into the sea because her love for Ulysses was
not returned, and was drowned; her body