PIBROCH, says Dr Beattie, in his Essay on Music, is a species of tune peculiar to the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland. It is performed on a bagpipe, and differs totally from all other music. Its rhythm is so irregular, and its notes, especially in the quick movement, so mixed and huddled together, that a stranger finds it almost impossible to reconcile his ear to it, so as to perceive its modulation. Some of these pibrochs, being intended to represent a battle, begin with a grave motion resembling a march, then gradually quicken into the onset; run off with noisy confusion and turbulent rapidity, to imitate the conflict and pursuit; then swell into a few flourishes of triumphant joy; and perhaps close with the wild and slow wailings of a funeral procession.
PIC DE L'ETOILE, Læ, a small island in the South Pacific Ocean, so named by M. Bougainville in 1768, from its shape. It is one of the group called by Cook the New Hebrides. Long. 169. E. Lat. 14. 29. S.