[Marabouts], a sect of religious devotees of a priestly order much venerated in North Africa, believed to possess supernatural power, particularly in curing diseases, and exercising at times considerable political influence; their supernatural power appears to come to them by inheritance.
[Maracaybo] (34), a Venezuelan town and fortress on the W. shore of the outlet of Lake Maracaybo; has handsome streets and buildings, and exports coffee and valuable woods; the lake of Maracaybo is a large fresh-water lake in the W. of Venezuela, connected with the Gulf of Maracaybo by a wide strait, across which stretches an effective bar.
[Maranatha] (lit. the Lord cometh to judge), a form of anathema in use among the Jews.
[Marañon], one of the head-waters of the Amazon, rising in Lake Lauricocha, Peru, and flowing N. and E. till it joins the Ucayali and forms the Amazon; the name is sometimes given to the whole river.
[Marat, Jean Paul], a fanatical democrat, born in Neuchâtel, his father an Italian, his mother a Genevese; studied and practised medicine, came to Paris as horse-leech to Count d'Artois; became infected with the revolutionary fever, and had one fixed idea: "Give me," he said, "two hundred Naples bravoes, armed each with a good dirk, and a muff on his left arm by way of shield, and with them I will traverse France and accomplish the Revolution," that is, by wholesale massacre of the aristocrats; he had more than once to flee for his life, and one time found shelter in the sewers of Paris, contracting thereby a loathsome skin disease; he was assassinated one evening as he sat in his bath by [Charlotte Corday] (q. v.), but his body was buried with honours in the Pantheon by a patriot people, "that of Mirabeau flung out to make room for him," to be some few months after himself cast out with execration (1743-1793).
[Marathon], a village, 22 m. NE. of Athens, on the sea border of a plain where the Greeks under Miltiades on a world-famous occasion defeated the Persians under Darius in 480 B.C.; the plain on which the battle was fought extends between mountains on the W. and the sea on the E.
[Marburg] (13), quaint university town of Hesse-Nassau, on the Lahn, 40 m. NE. of Limburg; has many old buildings; its Gothic church contains St. Elizabeth's tomb; Luther and Zwingli held a conference in the castle, 1529; William Tyndale and Patrick Hamilton were students at its university, which has now 97 teachers, 1000 students, and a fine library.
[Marceau], French general, born at Chartres; distinguished himself in the Republican army in La Vendée and Fleurus, and was killed at Altenkirchen when covering a retreat of the French army (1760-1796).
[Marcello, Benedetto], an Italian musical composer; composed music for an Italian version of the Psalms (1686-1739).
[Marcellus, Claudius], Roman general; in a war with the Gauls killed their chief Viridomarus with his own hands, whose spoils he dedicated as spolia opima (q. v.) to Jupiter; took Syracuse, which long baffled him through the skill of Archimedes, and fell fighting against Hannibal 208 B.C.; he was five times consul though but of plebeian birth.