The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 296

MAESTRICHT (33), capital of Dutch Limburg, on the Maes, 57 m. E. of Brussels; has manufactures of gla.s.s, earthenware, and carpets; near it are the vast subterranean quarries of the Pietersberg, opened by the Romans.

MAETERLINCK, MAURICE, Belgian dramatist, born at Ghent; earned his fame by "La Princesse Maleine," produced in Paris 1890, and followed by "L'Intruse," "Les Aveugles," and several other plays; his essays show religious sympathies; _b_. 1864.

MAFEKING, a station in NE. of British Bechua.n.a.land, on the Transvaal frontier, on the railway from Cape Town.

MAFFIA, a Sicilian secret society which aims at boycotting the law-courts, superseding the law, and ruling the island; its chief weapon is the boycott; violence is only resorted to for vengeance; funds are raised by blackmail; popular support enables it to control elections, avoid legal proceedings, and influence industrial questions. The Italian government try in vain to put it down.

MAGDALA, an Abyssinian hill fortress on a lofty plateau 300 m. S. of Ma.s.sowah; captured by Lord Napier, who had been sent in 1868 to rescue certain British subjects held prisoners there, and which he succeeded in doing.

MAGDALENE, MARY, a Galilaean, belonging to Magdala, on the Sea of Galilee, who followed Christ, stood by the cross, prepared spices for His sepulchre, to whom He first appeared after His resurrection, and who is supposed by some recent critics to be the sole voucher for His rising again.

MAGDEBURG (202), on the Elbe, 75 m. SW. of Berlin, is the capital of Prussian Saxony, one of the most important fortresses, the chief sugar market of Germany, and the seat of large iron manufactures; it has also distilleries and cotton mills, and is a busy railway centre; it is a place of ancient date and historical interest.

MAGELLAN, FERDINAND, Portuguese navigator; served his country first in the East Indies and Morocco, but dissatisfied with King Manuel's treatment of him, offered himself to Spain; under Charles V.'s patronage he and Ruy Falero set out to reach the Moluccas by the west in 1519; he reached the Philippines, and died in battle in Matan; on this voyage he discovered the MAGELLAN STRAIT, 375 m. long and 15 m. wide, between the South American mainland and Tierra del Fuego; he gave name to the Pacific from the calm he exceptionally, it appears, experienced on entering it (1470-1521).

MAGELLANIC CLOUDS, two ma.s.ses of stars and nebulae seen in the southern hemisphere, not far from the South Pole.

MAGENDIE, FRANcOIS, a celebrated French physiologist, born at Bordeaux; was the author of several works on physiology, made important discoveries in connection with the animal system, and was an unscrupulous vivisectionist (1783-1855).

MAGENTA (6), Italian town, 15 m. W. of Milan, where Macmahon defeated a superior Austrian force in 1859.

MAGGIORE, LAGO (i. e. the Greater Lake), a large lake in the N. of Italy, partly in Switzerland, 37 m. in length, and 8 m. in greatest breadth, the river Ticino flowing through it. THE BORROMEAN ISLANDS (q. v.) occupy a western arm of the lake.

MAGI, a priestly caste in the East, const.i.tuting the "learned"

cla.s.s, as the Druids in the West: the custodiers of religion and the rites connected therewith, and who gave themselves up to the study of sciences of a recondite character, but with a human interest, such as astrology and magic, and who were held in great reverence by, and exercised a great influence over, the people.

MAGI, THE THREE, the "wise men from the East" mentioned in Matt.

ii.--Melchior, an old man, who brought gold, the emblem of royalty; Gaspar, a youth, who brought frankincense, the emblem of divinity; Balthazar, a Moor, who brought myrrh, the emblem of humanity--and who were eventually regarded as the patron saints of travellers.

MAGIC, the pretended art to which extraordinary and marvellous effects are ascribed, of evoking and subjecting to the human will supernatural powers, and of producing by means of them apparitions, incantations, cures, &c., and the practice of which we find prevailing in all superst.i.tious ages of the world and among superst.i.tious people. See SUPERSt.i.tION.

MAGINN, WILLIAM, a witty, generous-hearted Irishman, born in Cork; a man of versatile ability, who contributed largely to _Blackwood_, and became editor of _Fraser's Magazine_, in the conduct of which latter he gathered round him as contributors a number of the most eminent literary men; the stories and verses he wrote gave signs of something like genius (1793-1842).

MAGLIABECCHI, an inordinate bookworm, born in Florence; became librarian of the Grand-Duke; his book-knowledge was as unbounded as his avidity for knowledge; his memory was extraordinary; he carried in his head the page of a pa.s.sage in a book as well as the pa.s.sage itself in the _ipsissima verba_, (1633-1714).

MAGNA CHARTA, "the great charter," extorted from King John by the barons of England at Runnymede on June 5, 1215, that guaranteed certain rights and privileges to the subjects of the realm, which were p.r.o.nounced inviolable, and that established the supremacy of the law over the will of the monarch.

MAGNA GRaeCA, the ancient name of the southern part of Italy, so called in early times as it was extensively colonised by Greeks.

MAGNET, the name given to loadstone as first discovered in Magnesia, a town in Asia Minor; also to a piece of iron, nickel, or cobalt having similar properties, notably the power of setting itself in a definite direction; also a coil of wire carrying an electric current, because such a coil really possesses the properties characteristic of an iron magnet.

MAGNETIC INDUCTION, power in a magnet of imparting its qualities to certain other substances.

MAGNETISM, the branch of science devoted to the study of the properties of magnets, and of electric currents in their magnetic relations; sometimes also used to denote the subtle influence supposed to lie at the root of all magnetic phenomena, of the true nature of which nothing is known. See ANIMAL MAGNETISM.

MAGNIFICAT, THE, a musical composition embracing the song of the Virgin Mary in Luke I. 46-55, so called from the first word of the song in the Vulgate; it belongs to, and forms part of, the evening service.

MAGNUSSEN, FINN, a Scandinavian scholar and archaeologist, born in Iceland; became professor of Literature at Copenhagen in 1815; distinguished for his translation and exposition of the "Elder Edda"

(1781-1847).

MAGYARS, a people of Mongolian origin from the highlands of Central Asia that migrated westward and settled in Hungary and Transylvania, where they now form the dominant race.

MAHaBHaRATA, one of the two great epic poems of ancient India, a work of slow growth, extending through ages, and of an essentially encyclopaedic character; one of the main sources of our knowledge of the ancient Indian religions and their mythologies; it is said to consist of upwards of 100,000 verses.

MAHaDeVA, the great G.o.d of the Hindus; an appellation of SIVA (q. v.), as Mahadevi is of Durga, his wife.

MAHaNADe, a great Indian river which, after flowing eastward for over 500 m., the last 300 of which are navigable, falls into the Bay of Bengal near Cape Palmyras; its volume in flood is enormous, and renders it invaluable for irrigation.

MAHATMA, one who, according to the Theosophists, has pa.s.sed through the complete cycle of incarnation, has thereby attained perfection of being, and acquired the rank of high priesthood and miraculous powers in the spirit world, one, it would seem, of "the spirits of just men made perfect."

MAHDI (i. e. religious leader), a name given to any Mohammedan fanatic who arises in the interest of the Mohammedan faith, summons the Moslems to war, and leads them to repel the infidel; a kind of Mohammed Messiah armed with the sword for the conquest of the world to the faith.

MAHDI, MOHAMMED AHMED, a Mohammedan fanatic, born in Dongola, and who, at the head of an army of dervishes, raised his standard for the revival of Islam in the Soudan; he was unsuccessfully opposed by the Egyptians, and Khartoum, occupied by them, fell into his hands, to the sacrifice of General Gordon, just as the British relief army under Lord Wolseley approached its walls in 1885, a few months after which he died at Omdurman.

MAHDISM, a hope cherished by devout Moslems of a Mahdi to come who will lead them on to victory against the infidel and to the conquest of the world.