[Manchuria] (21,000), a Chinese province lying between Mongolia and Corea, with the Amur River on the N. and the Yellow Sea on the S., is five times the size of England and Wales; the northern, central, and eastern parts are mountainous; the Sungari is the largest river; the soil is fertile, producing large crops of millet, maize, hemp, &c., but the climate in winter is severe; pine forests abound; the country is rich in gold, silver, coal, and iron, but they are little wrought; beans, silk, skins and furs are exported; the imports include textiles, metals, paper, and opium; the Manchus are the aristocracy of the province; Chinese settlers are industrious and prosperous; the chief towns are Moukden (250) in the S., Kirin (75) on the Sungari, and New-Chwang (60) on the Liao River, a treaty-port since 1858; Russian influence predominates in the province since 1890.
[Mandæans], a community found working as skilled artisans in the Persian province of Khuzistan, and in Basra on the Euphrates; are a religious sect; called also Sabians, and holding tenets gathered from Christian, Jewish, and heathen sources, resembling those of the ancient Gnostics; their priesthood admits women; their chief rite is baptism, and hence their old name, Christians of St. John the Baptist.
[Mandalay] (189), capital of Upper Burma, on the Irawadi, in the centre of the country, 360 m. N. of Rangoon; was seized by the British in 1885. The Aracan Pagoda, with a brazen image of the Buddha, attracts many pilgrims, and Buddhist monasteries cluster outside the town. There are silk-weaving, gold, silver, ivory, and wood work, gong-casting and sword-making industries. Great fires raged in it in 1886 and 1892.
[Mandarin], the name given by foreigners, derived from the Portuguese, signifying to "command," to Chinese official functionaries, of which there are some nine orders, distinguished by the buttons on their caps, and they are appointed chiefly for their possession of the requisite qualifications for the office they aspire to.
[Mandeville, Bernard de], a cynical writer, born at Dordrecht, Holland; bred to medicine; came to London to practise; wrote in racy English the "Fable of the Bees," intended to show, as Stopford Brooke says, how the "vices of society are the foundation of civilisation," or as Professor Saintsbury says, how "vice makes some bees happy, and virtue makes them miserable"; the latter calls him "The Diogenes of English Philosophy"; he affirmed that "private vices are public benefits," and reduced virtue into a form of selfishness; his satire is directed against the ethics of [Shaftesbury] (q. v.) (1670-1733).
[Mandeville, Sir John], English adventurer, named of St. Albans, who from his own account travelled over thirty years in the East, and wrote a narrative of the marvels he experienced in a book of voyages and travels published in 1356; the authorship of this book has been questioned, but on this point there is no doubt that, as Professor Saintsbury says, "it is the first book of belles-lottres in English prose."
[Mandingoes], a negro race in Senegambia, and farther inland around the Quorra; are numerous and powerful, and arranged in separate nationalities so to speak.
[Manes], the general name given by the Romans to the departed spirits of good men, who are conceived of as dwelling in the nether world, and as now and again ascending to the upper.
[Manes, Mani], or Manichæans, the founder of the [Manichæans] (q. v.), a native of Persia, and who died A.D. 274.
[Manetho], an Egyptian priest and historian, of the 3rd century B.C.; wrote a history of Egypt in Greek, derived from study of sacred monumental inscriptions, which is extant only in fragments.