MAIL. (1) (Through Fr. maille, from Lat. macula, a spot or hole, the mesh of a net), properly a metal ring or link which, joined closely with other links, formed the fabric of body and other armour in the middle ages, till it was superseded by plate-armour. The word “mail,” properly applied to this form of chain-armour, is also used of armour generally, whether plate or chain, and is also transferred to the horny defensive coverings of animals, such as the tortoise, crab, &c. (see [Arms and Armour]). (2) (O. Eng. mál, speech; probably the same as O. Saxon mahal, assembly; in meaning connected with O. Norse mále, stipulation), a Scots law term meaning rent, tax. “Mails and duties” are the rents, whether in kind or money, of an estate. In English the word only survives in “blackmail” (q.v.). (3) (Through O. Fr. male, mod. malle, a Teutonic word surviving in Dutch maal), properly a bag, especially one used in travelling; this word, which appears in Chaucer, is now applied chiefly to the despatch and delivery of postal matter. In this sense “mail” is properly the bag in which such matter is conveyed, and hence is applied to the contents of the mail, postal matter collectively, and to the train, carts, or other means used in the despatch and delivery of the same. In general usage “mail” is confined to the “foreign” as opposed to the “inland” despatch of letters, &c., and to which the word “post” is chiefly applied; in official language, the word refers to the inland despatch. The word appears also in “mail-coach,” a coach used for conveying the mails, and in “mail-cart,” a cart similarly employed. This word is also applied to a light low vehicle propelled or drawn by hand, suitable for young children. The “mail phaeton” is a type of phaeton with high seat for two persons and drawn by a pair of horses.
MAILLY, LOUISE JULIE, Comtesse de (1710-1751), mistress of Louis XV. of France, was the daughter of Louis, marquis de Nesle. She was the eldest of three sisters who succeeded one another as favourites of the king. In 1726 she married her cousin, Louis Alexandre de Mailly. Although Louis XV. had paid her attentions from 1732, she did not become titular mistress until 1738. She did not use her position either to enrich herself or to interfere in politics. She was supplanted by her sister, the duchess of Châteauroux, and obliged to leave court in 1742.
See E. and J. de Goncourt, La Duchesse de Châteauroux et ses sœurs (1879); Toussaint, Anecdotes curieuses de ... Louis XV. (2 vols., 1905); J. B. H. R. Capefigue, Mesdemoiselles de Nesle et la jeunesse de Louis XV. (1864).
MAIMANA, a town and khanate of Afghan Turkestan. The town is situated 100 m. S.W. of Balkh, and only some 25 m. from the frontier of Russian Turkestan. It is about two-thirds the size of Herat, square built and surrounded by a ruined wall and moat. The khanate was for long in dispute between Bokhara and Kabul, but in 1868 Abdur Rahman laid siege to the town, and it was compelled to come to terms. Its political status as an Afghan province was definitely fixed by the Russo-Afghan boundary commission of 1885. The inhabitants are chiefly Uzbegs.
MAIMAND, a town in the province of Fars, Persia, a few miles east of Firuzabad and about 70 m. from Shiraz. It has a population of about 5000, almost wholly occupied with the manufacture and sale of rose-water, which is largely exported to many parts of Persia as well as to Arabia, India and Java. The district also produces great quantities of almonds. The rose gardens cover several square miles. In 1349 a great part of Maimand and of three little villages belonging to it became wakf (pious endowment) of the shrine at Shiraz of Mïr Ahmed, surnamed Shah Chiragh, a son of Musa Kazim, the seventh imām of the Shiahs, and the remainder of the Maimand grounds was given to the shrine by Mīr Habbib Ullah Sharifi and by Shah Ismail in 1504; the administration of the Maimand property as well as the guardianship of the shrine is still with the descendants of Mīr Habbib Ullah.