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Picador (Spanish). A horseman; one who in bull fights is armed with a gilt spear (pica-dorada), with which he pricks the bull to madden him for the combat.
This is a very nice, fancy etymology, but it's a bit baroque. The spanish word picar means "to prick" or "to puncture" (or lots of related poking verbs - it's also related to the word pike, the long spear used by infantry against cavalry), so someone who tortures the bull this way would be a picador - an ugly translation of which might be "pricker." So I have my doubts about the golden pike suggested in this etymology.
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Dear Hyla: Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable from which the quotations are
taken is over a hundred years old. So the obsolescence of some of the definitions
is actually a bit interesting.
And an important part of picador's job is to take a bit of steam out of the bull, to
make matador's job a bit less perilous. Without overdoing it, of course.
Toreador, Oh don't spit on the floor, Oh, use the cuspidor, that's what it's for, Oh.
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I don't think anybody uses palliate meaning to cloak today
Is this the same root for "palliative" remedies? Don't quite understand the connection if so.
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Now of little use. A formerly popular
carbonated beverage, Moxie contained itSo is Moxie the USn term for what we call Tonic Water (once Indian Tonic), Bill ? Gin & Tonic (G&T) ain't my favourite tipple, but a great many Brits would dispute Tonic's "uselessness". 
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the sacrifices of the animals--their burning thereof--was to have been fragrant and pleasing to God
Yes, but even better with a few spices thrown in, perhaps!
Dunno, WW, I expect the idea of the smell being pleasant to God is an overlay, a reasoning after the fact to explain an ancient rite.
I feel that the essence of sacrifice is giving up something rather than giving that thing to someone.
Effectively it's putting the sacrificed object (or deed) in a heavenly bank account, and there's similarly a hope for some interest at a later date when "what goes around comes around".
Modern-day acts of charity aren't as far removed as we may like to think.
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Philistines meaning the ill-behaved and ignorant. The word so applied arose in Germany from the
Charlies or Philisters
May well be, but Philistines were also residents of ancient Philistia (part of Palestine). This invites an unfortunate confusion of meanings, especially as the Bible doesn't give them a very good press.
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Also "phoebe" a bird's name, and also a girl's name. I think the bird was so named
because of its cryMy first association with Phoebe (my daughter's name, incidentally) is with the Moon Goddess: http://quarles.unbc.edu/midsummer/myth.html#PHOEBE
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from what you wrote about the idolatrous practices continuing in the villages, are we to understand that they didn't take place in the cities? Sounds fishy to me...
Saw a documentary last night about the first city/ies, and how rigidly behaviour had to be codified to enable people to live so close together. Before "settling down" people could just wander off and do their own thing if they didn't like their neighbours. Once they have a fixed abode and vested interests, everything changes.
Suppose pagans and heathens also include nomads, but a small community (village) would still have more freedom than a large community (town/city). I suspect the restrictiveness of a community (its dependence on rules) would be quite closely related to the amount of space available to an average individual within that community.
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In reply to:
So is Moxie the USn term for what we call Tonic Water (once Indian Tonic), Bill ?
actually, MoxieŽ is a sasparilla flavored drink(well, that's what I would call it), and definitely an aquired taste! 
http://www.xensei.com/users/iraseski/
worth going here just to hear the jingle! 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Dear etaoin: Moxie may now be flavored with sarsaparilla, but the original was so bitter
with quinine it was genuinely nasty until you believed the claims that it had ;health benefits.
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