MANTUAN SWAN, a name given to the Roman poet Virgil, from his having been a native of Mantua, in N. Italy.

MANU, CODE OF, one of the sacred books of the Hindus, in which is expounded the doctrine of Brahminism, inculcating “sound, solid, and practical morality,” and containing evidence of the progress of civilisation among the Aryans from their first establishment in the valley of the Ganges.  Manu, the alleged author, appears to have been a primitive mythological personage, conceived of as the ancestor and legislator of the human race, and as having manifested himself through long ages in a series of incarnations.

MANZONI, ALESSANDRO, Italian poet and novelist, born at Milan; began a sceptic, but became a devout Catholic; wrote a volume of hymns, entitled “Inni Sacri,” and a tragedy, “Adelchi,” his masterpiece, and admired by Goethe, as also a prose fiction, “I Promessi Sposi,” which spread his name over Europe; in 1860 was made a senator of the kingdom of Italy, and was visited by Garibaldi in 1862; he was no less distinguished as a man than as an author (1780-1875).

MAORIS, the natives of New Zealand, a Polynesian race numbering 40,000, who probably displaced an aboriginal; are distinguished for their bravery; are governed by chiefs, and speak a rich sonorous language; they are the most vigorous and energetic of all the South Sea islanders.

MAR, a district in S. Aberdeenshire, between the Don and the Dee, has given a title to many earls; one was regent of Scotland in 1572, another, nicknamed “Bobbing Joan,” led the Jacobite rising of 1715; on the death without issue of the earl in 1866 the question of succession was at issue; the Committee of Privileges granted it to his cousin, the Earl of Kellie, thereafter Mar and Kellie, and a Bill in Parliament awarding it to his nephew, who is thus Earl of Mar.

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.

MARANON, 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.