in a ship, the name of a rope almost like a pair of flags: it is frized both ends together, and then put almost double about any heavy thing that is to be hoisted in or out of the ship; having the hook of the runner hitched into it, to hoist it up by.

PARÇE, in heathen mythology, goddesses who were supposed to preside over the accidents and events, and to determine the date or period of human life.

The Parcae were three, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos; because, forsooth, all things have their beginning, progress, and end. Hence the poets tell us, the Parcae spun the thread of men's lives; that Clotho held the distaff, and drew the thread; Lachesis twirled the spindle, and spun it; and Atropos cut it. Clotho colum retinet, Lachesis net, Atropos occidit.

The ancients represent the Parcae divers ways: Ionian, in the shape of three poor old women, having large locks of wool, mixed with daffodils on their heads; one of which holds a distaff, the other a wheel, and the third a pair of scissors, wherewith to cut the thread of life. Others represent them otherwise: Clo- Parchment, the appearing in a long robe of divers colours, wearing a crown upon her head adorned with seven stars, and holding a distaff in her hand; Lachesis in a robe belted with flares, with several spindles in her hand; and Atropos, clad in black, cutting the thread with a pair of large scissors.

The ancients imagined that the Parcae used white wool for a long and happy life, and black for a short and unfortunate one. See Necesity in Mythology.