In knowledge’s road ye are but asses,
    While we on ponies ride before.
    Songs of Yale, 1853, p. 7.

PONY.  To use a translation.

We learn that they do not pony their lessons.—­Yale Tomahawk,
May, 1852.

  If you pony, he will see,
  And before the Faculty
  You will surely summoned be.
    Songs of Yale, 1853, p. 23.

POPPING.  At William and Mary College, getting the advantage over another in argument is called popping him.

POPULARITY.  In the college use, favor of one’s classmates, or of the members of all the classes, generally.  Nowhere is this term employed so often, and with so much significance, as among collegians.  The first wish of the Freshman is to be popular, and the desire does not leave him during all his college life.  For remarks on this subject, see the Literary Miscellany, Vol.  II. p. 56; Amherst Indicator, Vol.  II. p. 123, et passim.

PORTIONIST. One who has a certain academical allowance or portion. —­Webster.

See POSTMASTER.

POSTED. Rejected in a college examination.  Term used at the
University of Cambridge, Eng.—­Bristed.

Fifty marks will prevent one from being “posted” but there are always two or three too stupid as well as idle to save their “Post.”  These drones are posted separately, as “not worthy to be classed,” and privately slanged afterwards by the Master and Seniors.  Should a man be posted twice in succession, he is generally 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.