Massachusett Indians. See [ALGONQUIAN].
Massalits. See [WADAI GROUP].
Matabeles. A branch of the Zulu race of Bantu Negroes, which was expelled from Zululand in 1838, and conquered the Mashonas, in modern Rhodesia, under Umsilikatzi. Like the Zulus, they were proud and fearless warriors, who were only subjugated with difficulty by the English in 1893, and revolted unsuccessfully in 1896.
Matacoans. A South American Indian race on the Vermejo River in Argentine.
Mauri. See [MOORS].
Maviti. Bantu Negroes of the Upper Shiré in British South Central Africa, of Zulu stock, who came as conquerors from the south.
Maya-Quiché. A group of Central American Indian races, mostly in Yucatan and Guatemala. It includes the Mayas of Yucatan, Zendals and Zotzils of Chiapas, Quichés, Chols, Pokomans, and Zutugils of Guatemala, Huastecs and Totonacs of Vera Cruz. Like the Aztecs, the Mayas possessed an ancient civilisation and system of picture writing.
Maypuris. See [ARAWAKS].
Mbengas. Indigenous Bantu Negroes of French Equatorial Africa, about Corisco Bay.
Melanesians. The indigenous natives of the Western Pacific Islands, forming a distinct stock of the Oceanic Negro family of Ethiopic Man. They are long-skulled, or dolichocephalic, with the lowest cephalic index of all known races, prognathous, broad-nosed, of a sooty-black colour, with black frizzy hair, and of low stature. They are at a low stage of culture, being very savage, bloodthirsty, and treacherous, mostly cannibals and head-hunters, with little social organisation. They include the Fijians and the natives of the New Hebrides, the Solomon, Admiralty, Bismarck, and Loyalty Islands, New Britain, New Ireland, New Caledonia, and other islands of the Eastern Pacific. They are closely allied to the [Papuans] (q.v.), under which name some ethnologists prefer to class the whole body of Melanesians.