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the monastery of Iona, becoming the evangelizer of the the settlement of their own affairs and the protection of Albanian Scots and northern Picts. From the churches their rights, to bestow much thought upon missionary thus founded devoted missionaries were sent to the tribes enterprise for some time after the Reformation; and even of Germany and north Europe, self-denying ascetic men, when they had become settled and established their efforts whose success was of the most remarkable kind. Among were few and feeble, until towards the close of the last the more prominent names of this age we can only mention century. The first Protestant mission seems to have been those of Augustine, who re-introduced Christianity to Eng-founded by the Church of Geneva, which sent missionaries land about 597; Columbanus, an Irish monk, the apostle of the Burgundians of the Vosges, who died 615 and was succeeded by Callich or Gallus, and Kilian, who continued the work in Switzerland, Swabia, and Franconia; Amandus, Eloy, Wilfrid, Willibrod, and the martyr-brothers Ewald, who laboured in Holland and North Germany in the eighth century; Ansgar, the apostle of the north, the devoted pioneer of Christianity in Denmark and Sweden in the early part of the ninth century; and the great Boniface, whose labours in Germany extended over forty years.

In the work of spreading Christianity in Europe, however, it must be admitted that in many cases the people accepted it rather through the authority of the rulers than by persuasion of the truth; and the conversion of the chief was followed as a matter of course by the baptism of the whole tribe. In not a few cases also the new faith was imposed on conquered nations at the point of the sword. But when the savage and ferocious character of the idolatries against which Christianity was contending is taken into account, it will not be a matter of surprise that the military spirit was enlisted on the side of the church, or that certain semi-military semi-monastic orders should have played an important part in extending its influence. During the latter part of the medieval period the missionary spirit slumbered for a while, but with the progress of geographical discovery some attempts were made to plant missions as part of the colonies founded in the New World. Unhappily the propagation of Christianity in Mexico and Peru was attended by cruelty and massacre of the most awful character, and there are few darker pages in human history than those which contain the story of the conquest of these countries. After the Reformation especially the Roman Catholic Church was aroused to fresh missionary activity, and zealous efforts were made by its adherents to recover lost ground in Europe and to extend the influence of the church in other parts of the world. The JESUITS from their first foundation have been pervaded by the missionary spirit, and the labours of Francis Xavier, Matteo Ricci, and others in India, Japan, and China, were rewarded by the accession of enormous numbers of converts. The methods adopted by the Jesuits, however, were repeatedly condemned by the papal authorities for their alleged compromises with heathenism. Towards the end of the sixteenth century they claimed to have had 150,000 converts, with 200 churches and fifty-nine religious houses, in Japan; but before the middle of the next century the whole work had been overthrown by means of wholesale massacres, in which, we regret to say, the Dutch assisted, for the purpose of obtaining a monopoly of trade with Japan. In India and China also their success proved more apparent than real, but they have never lost their hold upon these nations, and at the present day the Roman Catholic missions in both these countries are of a very extensive and important character. For the better working of the Roman Catholic missions a committee of cardinals was appointed to superintend them in 1622 by Gregory XV., under the name of the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide. His successor Urban VIII. supplemented the establishment of the Congregation by the foundation of the Collegium de Propaganda Fide, an important institution for the training of missionaries, which has ever since been the most perfect organization of the kind in the world. The funds of the Propaganda are contributed by Roman Catholics in all parts of the world, the annual income and expenditure amounting to over £200,000. The Protestant churches of Europe were too busy with

to Brazil in 1556. In the following century some fee
efforts for the conversion of the natives were made by the
Dutch at Ceylon, Java, Formosa, and Amboyna; while the
English Church employed several missionaries, though with
but little success, among the American Indians Ite
Royal Danish Mission College was established in 1614, but
nothing effectual was accomplished in the way of Protest-
ant missions till the second quarter of the eighteenth cer-
tury, when the Moravians of Herrnhut led the way in t
great enterprise, and sent forth a race of resolute mission-
aries to the frost-bound shores of Greenland and Labrader,
to the rice swamps of Georgia, and the islands of the West
Indies. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts was established in England in 1701, but for
many years did little more than assist in the support of a
few Danish and German missionaries. The great religions
revival of the eighteenth century, however, made its intr-
ence felt towards the close of that period, in the rapi
development of missionary enterprise. In 1792, Andrew
Fuller, Carey, and others, established the Baptist Mission-
ary Society, which commenced its operations at Serampore,
under Carey, Marshman, and Ward, when the Brit
dominions were shut against them by the infamous policy
of the East India Company. In 1794 a number of evan-
gelical clergymen, episcopal and dissenting, founded tis
celebrated London Missionary Society, and two years after
sent the ship Duff with nineteen missionaries and ther
families to carry the gospel to Tahiti and Tonga and other
islands of the South Sea, where their labours were crowed
with remarkable success. This institution, which sube -
quently established missions in South Africa, India, China,
Madagascar, and the West Indies, still conducts its import-
ant operations on a thoroughly catholic basis. The Wes-
leyan Methodists, who had begun mission work in 1785,
established a regular missionary society in 1813. -
Church Missionary Society was established in 1799. the
British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804, and the Ger
Baptist Missionary Society in 1817. Since the commence-
ment of the present century the development of missietare
energy among the Protestant churches of Great Brit
the United States of America, and the larger British colors,
has been of the most extensive character, and the work at
the present day is advancing yearly in the most remarkab
manner. The most striking successes have been obtained
in the missions to savage and barbarous peoples, such as
those of the South Sea Islands, the negroes of Sierra Leoar,
and the Kafirs, Fingoes, Bechuanas, &c., of South Afric
In the islands of the Fiji group, formerly notorious for
their cannibalism, bloodshed, and cruelty, the govera).
Sir A. Gordon, was enabled to report in 1879 that out at
a population of 120,000, 102,000 were regular worshippers
at the churches, while over 42,000 children were in atted-
ance at the day schools. The missions directed aginat
the old and strongly entrenched religions of India mi
China and the system of Mohammedanism have been le
successful. To survey even in outline the extent of the
missionary field at present covered by Protestant missions
would be impossible within the limits of this article; b
it may be mentioned that the amount raised in treat
Britain alone for foreign missions by the different societies
considerably exceeds £1,000,000 per annum, and it is
estimated that the converts from heathenism-not count-
ing those of the Roman Catholic missions, statistics of
which are not available-amount at the present period ts
nearly 2,000,000 persons.

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MISSISSIPPI, THE (or “Great Water," as the term sifies in the native language), one of the largest rivers on the globe, has its sources in a lake a few miles south of Lake Itasca (its supposed source till 1881), in lat. 47° 13′ X., at an altitude of 1578 feet above the Atlantic Ocean. From Lakes Itasca and Usawa two small streams issue in a Erthern direction, which unite, after a circuitous course of 9 or 60 miles, in 47° 38′ N. lat. The united stream falls at Lake Travers, which is about 12 miles long from north to south, and six or seven broad, and is the most northern pat attained by the river. Issuing from the eastern side this lake the river flows south-east to Cass Lake. From Cass Lake it still runs in an easterly direction to Little Wicipez Lake, from which its south-east course begins. Isaing from Lake Winnipeg, the Mississippi flows with at velocity, and assuming a southern course it winds gh the United States to the Gulf of Mexico, which caters by a delta of several mouths at lat. 29°. Having Sowed through eighteen degrees of latitude, and parated the states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, I Lessee, and Mississippi. on its left or eastern bank, n those of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Lesiana, on the west, it discharges chiefly through an al delta which stretches for upwards of 60 miles into The waters of the Upper Mississippi are reabiy clear, but after commingling with those of the ri, which joins it about 12 miles above St. Louis, xcome exceedingly turbid, and contain nearly oneaf sediment. The entire length of the river is more 941 3200 miles, or reckoning from the source of the ri, nearly 4200 miles. The mean discharge of om this enormous river is 675,000 cubic feet per 1 by which 3,627,200,000 tons of sedimentary er are yearly transported to the Gulf in a state of asion, constituting one square mile of deposit 241 in depth. Besides this, it pushes into the sea large tes of earthy matter, probably amounting to about 600 feet annually. The area drained by the sippi is about 1,244,000 square miles, nearly oneof North America, and equal to more than one. of Europe. This vast region, from its almost unpled fertility, has obtained the title of the "Garden * World." The river is extremely winding in its : soetimes a bend of 30 miles occurs, where the - across the neck does not exceed a mile. This to check the current, and facilitates navigation. however, make the passage from Cincinnati to Cleans and back in less than twenty days. The computed to offer not less than 36,000 miles of Jerrated steam navigation. It is a remarkable that, flowing from north to south, it has such ▲ "ety of climate, and consequently of productions, in rent parts of its basin, from the hardier cereals rth to the almost tropical growths of the south. advances from the south, it releases in succes- Lows of the more northern states. The annual 4 the waters is in consequence gradual and long i commencing usually about the end of February - ting till June, when they begin to subside. To et the inundating of the country immense lengths of ts or "levees" have been formed, of massive ba: but the great impetus of the river has often to burst through, to the great destruction of life perty. The great hindrance to Mississippi navithe numerous bars at its mouth, formed by the posit of mud brought down by the waters; but the Nates government is now devoting large sums to the Test of the navigation of the whole river. Above with the Missouri the Mississippi flows through e and beautiful country, but below that point picturesqueness. Its principal tributaries are: rit, the St. Croix, Chippeway, Wisconsin, Kas

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MISSOURI.

kaskia, Illinois, and Ohio, which receives the Tennessee, Cumberland, Wabash, &c.; and on the right, the St. Peter's, Iowa, Des Moines, Missouri, St. Francis, Kansas, Arkansas, and Red River.

MISSISSIPPI, one of the United States of North America, is bounded N. by Tennessee, E. by Alabama, S. by the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana, and W. by Louisiana and Arkansas. Its length N. to S. is 330 miles, and its average breadth about 100 miles. The area is 46,340 square miles, and the population in 1880 was 1,131,899. The surface in the south and west is flat and marshy; but the east and north of the state is a tolerably elevated region. Much of the land in the state is exceedingly fertile. The sea-coast extends for about 90 miles, but the only good harbour is that formed by the roadstead inside Ship Island. The coast is sandy but well timbered, and is considered one of the most healthy districts in the world. The MISSISSIPPI forms the western boundary, and the Yazoo has its whole course in the state. Several of the smaller affluents of the Mississippi also rise and terminate in it. As the surface rises from a low shore to 500 feet and upwards in its northern districts, a great difference of climate prevails in the various regions, especially as the northern districts are nearly 5 degrees from the southern. Along the southern coast frost is of rare occurrence in winter, and the heat of summer is tempered by the sea breeze from the Gulf of Mexico.

corn.

The principal objects of cultivation are cotton and Indian Wheat, rye, and oats do not thrive so well as in the northern states, and are only cultivated for home consumption. Sugar is grown in the south, and among the other products of the state are indigo, melons, grapes, plums, peaches, figs, and other fruits; also tobacco and timber.

The industries include lumber, cotton and woollen goods, oil, and agricultural machinery. The fertile tract along the Mississippi, which produces cotton and Indian corn, sends these articles down to New Orleans, whence it is supplied with goods of foreign growth or manufacture.

The first settlements were formed in the neighbourhood of Natchez by some Frenchmen in the beginning of the last century, but they did not thrive. When the country was ceded to the British in 1763, some respectable settlements were founded in the same parts, but later on, coming under the sway of the Spaniards (1783 to 1800), they again began to decline. In 1800 all that is now comprised in Mississippi and Alabama was formed into a territory by the name of Mississippi Territory. In 1817 this territory was divided into two portions, and the western was admitted into the Union as the state of Mississippi. The present constitution was formed in 1832. In the Civil War the state joined the Southern Confederacy.

MISSISSIPPI COMPANY. See LAW, Jons. MISSOURI is the largest of the affluents of the MISSISSIPPI. The name is first given to the more northern of two streams in which all the waters descending from the eastern declivity of the Rocky Mountains between 42° and 49° N. lat. unite. It rises near 44° N. lat., and after a northerly course of 400 miles meets the Yellowstone River, which rises between 43° and 44° N. lat. The Yellowstone runs first N.N.E. and then E., approaching gradually to the Missouri, which it joins after a serpentine course of 700 miles. About 400 miles from its source the Missouri is compressed to a width of 150 yards for a distance of 6 miles, by precipices which rise from the water's edge to a height of 1200 feet. This wild gorge is called "the Gate of the Rocky Mountains." More than 100 miles below this occur the Great Falls. where the river is precipitated over five ledges, one of which is 75 feet in height, and the others respectively 12, 42, 6, and 25 feet. These falls are considered among the grandest in North America. The course of the Mis

MISSOURI

souri throughout is rapid, and its waters turbid (the name itself signifies "Mud River"); but no serious obstacle is presented to navigation from its mouth to the falls, a distance of 2570 miles, except perhaps shallows during the season of drought. The Missouri is a larger river than the Mississippi prior to the junction between them; but as the former was the first explored, the waters below that point received and retain the name of the Mississippi. The total length of the Missouri from its source to its junction with the Mississippi is 2908 miles, to the Gulf of Mexico 4194 miles.

MISSOURI, one of the United States of North America, is bounded N. by Iowa, E. by Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee, S. by Arkansas, and W. by the state of Kansas, the Nebraska and Indian Territory. Its mean length from N. to S. is 280 miles, and its mean width from E. to W. 225 miles. The area is 65,350 square miles. In 1880 the population was 2,169,091.

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In summer they feed on the grass of the prairies, and in winter on the cane and rushes of the alluvial soil. Horses and hogs are numerous. The bison is met with in large herds on the prairies east and west of the Ozark Mountains, and also elk and deer. The fur trade is considerable. The minerals chiefly consist of lead, coal, iron, copper, and salt. The principal lead region is on both sides of Big River, an affluent of the Maramec, and extends about 100 miles in length by 40 in width. The ore is of the richest quality, and very abundant. Iron ore exists in mountainous masses 200 and 300 feet high, and some of them yield 80 per cent. of metal. Coal exists in several places. There are also numerous other minerals and marbles.

Much wine is made by the large German population in the state. There are also woollen and cotton factories, iron-works, breweries, distilleries, and tanneries. The principal export trade is in beef, pork, tallow, hides, and live stock, with lead, furs, timber, and Indian corn. The In the southern part of the state an extensive bottom-western towns supply caravans or trains to New Mexico, land extends along the Mississippi, as far north as opposite Utah, and California. the mouth of the Ohio. It includes many large swamps, which are rendered almost impenetrable by a dense growth of trees, mostly cypress. The most extensive of these swamps, called the Great Swamp, commences near the head of the bottom and passes southward to the mouth of the river St. Francis, penetrating far into the state of Arkansas. The high grounds along the Mississippi begin 12 miles below Cape Girardeau, and extend to the mouth of the river Missouri. This undulating country extends westward to the river Gasconade, occupying the basin of the Maramec as far south as the lead-inining district. It is diversified with many extensive prairies and forests, the lower lands being well wooded, but the high grounds very thinly.

Between the rivers Gasconade and Osage, both of which are affluents of the river Missouri, a range of low hills approaches the Missouri, rising from 150 to 200 feet above the level of its water. They are thinly wooded, and constitute the most northern offset of the Ozark Mountains, which rise to 2000 feet. The country west of this mountain region, especially the basin of the Osage, resembles that which is east of the river Gasconade, its surface being undulating and diversified with woodlands and prairies. The prairies occupy by far the largest part of the surface. This region, however, does not extend to the banks of the Missouri, being separated from it by a rich alluvial soil, which extends along the river from the mouth of the Osage to that of the Mine River, with a width of 4 or 5 miles. This bottom is probably the most fertile portion of the state. Opposite to it extends a similar bottom-land along the northern banks of the Missouri from Côte-sans-Dessein to the river Chariton. In the country north of the Missouri, which comprehends about one-third of the state, the fertile tracts are nearly exclusively confined to the bottoms along the Missouri and Mississippi.

The MISSISSIPPI washes the castern boundary for 550 miles, and the MISSOURI traverses the state from west to east. The Grand River and the Chariton fall into the Missouri on the north bank; the Gasconade, Osage, and Mine River fall into it on the south. The Maramec and Salt River are affluents of the Mississippi.

The climate of Missouri is cold and extremely variable. The winters are severe and long. The Missouri is frozen so hard for several weeks as to be safely crossed by loaded waggons. The summers are often hot, but very variable.

Tobacco, cotton, maize, wheat, rye, oats, and barley are the staples of Missouri. The soil and climate adapt the country to yield all the products of the southern states, except sugar, as well as most of the vegetables and fruits of England. A little hemp and flax are cultivated along the Mississippi, and cotton is grown in the south. Cattle abound where the bottoms and prairies are near one another.

Though this country for more than a century had been visited by the French from Canada, no settlement was formed before 1763. St. Louis was founded in 1764. In 1803 the United States obtained possession of the region, which was then comprehended in Louisiana. The following year the state now called Louisiana was separated from it, and Missouri became a separate territory. In 1821 it was admitted as a member of the Union, and formed its constitution. The state of Missouri joined the Southern Confederacy in 1861, and was the scene of many conflicts in the War of Secession.

MIST, aqueous vapour, rendered visible by the temperature of the air being so far reduced as to precipitate some of the vapour in minute liquid particles. When the mist is very thick it is called a fog; but it is rather paradoxical that a mist is always wetter to the feel than a fog. Perhaps the reason is that the particles of moisture are larger in mists than in fogs. See also FOG, DEW, CLOUD.

MIS'TLETOE (Anglo-Saxon misteltan), a parasitical plant which flourishes on the branches of many kinds of trees in Northern Europe. It is the Viscum album of botanists, and is frequently found on the apple, and less often on the oak in the west of England. In its natural state it is believed to be propagated by the missel thrush, which feeds upon its berries. Artificial propagation is effected by bruising the berries, and, by means of their vis cidity, causing them to adhere to the bark of fruit trees, where they readily germinate and take root. The leaves or shoots of the mistletoe, reduced to powder, have been employed in epilepsy. The plant belongs to the LORANTHACEE. The Druids regarded it with peculiar reverence. At the commencement of the winter solstice a festival was held, when the Druids and the people went forth with great pomp and rejoicings to cut the mystic plant. Its appearance on the tree was held to betoken the presence of the god of healing, the Druidic Apollo, the many-named Be lenus, Barvo, Grannus, &c. [See DRUIDS.] In the Norse mythology it is the mistletoe, weakest of trees, unable to stand alone, which yet furnishes the shaft for the spear with which the blind Hüdur killed Baldur, god of light. See BALDUR.

MIS'TRAL or MAESTRAL is a north-west wind which prevails on the south coast of Europe at certain times of the year. The Italians call it Maestrale, from the Lat. Magistralis, the masterful wind. The signs of its approach are a sudden change of temperature from warm to cold, a clear sky, and, if at night, an extraordinary brilliancy of the stars. The wind dries up the soil, disperses the vapours of the atmosphere, causes much damage to the fruit trees in blossom, and raises a tumult in the waters of the Mediterranean, which is much dreaded by the French and Italian sailors.

MITE.

295 MITE is the name commonly given to small arachnids | forming the order ACARIDEA, but often restricted to a family of that order, Acarida. The Acarida or true mites are among the lowest types of the Arthropoda. Many of them are parasites, living on or under the skin, within the lungs and air passages, the muscles and blood vessels, of other animals. Others, again, live in decaying animal and vegetable substances, in unrefined sugar, flour, cheese, &c. They are very minute, the body is soft, and the skin thin. The jaws are nipper-like or pointed, in the latter case being retractile into a horny sheath; and there are no eyes. The claws are sometimes provided with suckers. The cheesemite is Tyroglyphus siro, belonging to a genus which includes several other injurious species, as Tyroglyphus sacchari, found in unrefined sugar, and Tyroglyphus farina, found in flour. The ITCH-MITE (Sarcoptes scabiei) also belongs to this family. One of the most degraded forms is Demodex folliculorum, which occurs in the hair follicles and sebaceous glands of the human skin, especially in those of the nose, and is doubtless the "maggot in cheesemonger's nose" of Butler's "Hudibras." It is a minute, slender, elongated, worm-like mite, with a suctorial mouth, and bearing in the anterior part of the body four pairs of very short legs, each of which terminates in two claws. MIT FORD, WILLIAM, a historian of some celebrity in his day, was born in London, 10th February, 1744. He studied at Oxford, but left without taking a degree. In 1769 he made the acquaintance of Gibbon, and it is supposed that his intercourse with that historian induced him to undertake his own literary work. His chief work, a "History of Greece," was published in successive portions between 1784 and 1818. It is now entirely superseded by the works of Grote, Thirlwall, &c. Mitford died 8th February, 1827.

MIT FORD, MISS MARY RUSSELL, a celebrated novelist, was born at Alresford, Hants, in 1786. She was the only daughter of a physician, whose extravagant habits reduced his daughter to the necessity of seeking the means of subsistence by the labours of her pen.. Of her first appearance as an authoress she thus speaks in her autobiographical memoir-"In my very early girlhood I had followed my destiny, as a pupil of Miss Rowden, by committing the sin of rhyming. No less than three octavo volumes had I perpetrated in two years. They had all the faults incident to a young lady's verses; and one of them had been deservedly castigated by the Quarterly." When the first series of "Our Village," on which Miss Mitford's fame is chiefly built, made its appearance in 1806, it received a very favourable notice from the same review. To these delightful sketches other four volumes were added, and the fifth and last appeared in 1832. In 1852 she produced her "Recollections of a Literary Life," in three volumes; and in 1854 her dramatic works, "Julian" (1828), Foscari" (1826), “Rienzi" (1828), and "Charles the First," were collected in two volumes 12mo. She died in 1855. Her "Life," told by herself in letters to her friends, edited by the Rev. A. G. L'Estrange, with an introductory memoir by the Rev. W. Harkness, was published in 1870. MITHRADA TES, a common name among the Medes and Persians (from Mithras, the Persian name for the sun). The name was written in several ways. On the Greek coins it is written Mithradates. The most celebrated race of princes of the name were the kings of Pontus, descended from Artabazes, one of the seven Persian chiefs who overthrew the Magi (B.c. 521). The Mithradates who figures so largely in the history of the close of the Roman Republic was King of Pontus from 120 to 63 B.C. He is styled Eupator, and also "The Great." He ascended the throne as a boy of eleven, and at once had to use all his extraordinary abilities and address against his faithless guardians. He so saturated himself with antidotes to poisons, in consequence of the frequent attempts to make

MITHRAS.

away with him, that (so the tale runs) he was impervious to all poisons known. He became one of the most skilled athletes of his time, and as for his culture, the simple fact that he was accustomed to transact business in all the twenty-five languages and dialects spoken in his vast dominions shows the great extent of his learning. As soon as he wielded supreme power he extended his empire over Kolchis and beyond the Caucasus, annexed the Tauric Chersonesos (Crimea), and eventually the kingdom of Bosporos itself. His empire now inclosed the Euxine (Black Sea), and he aimed at nothing less than rivalry with Rome. In 88, therefore, he attacked the Roman provinces of Asia and Phrygia, Galatia, &c. (Asia Minor), and speedily became their master. At his command all Asia rose against the hated masters of the world, and 80,000 Romans and Italians perished in one massacre. Rome was beside herself with rage. Her greatest commander, Sulla, was despatched at once through Greece against the foe. The main forces of the king met those of Sulla in Greece, and were twice completely defeatedat Chairôneia and at Orchomenos-while the king himself was overthrown by the legate Fimbria in Asia (B.C. 87). Mithradates sued for peace, and as Italy had revolted against Sulla's government in his absence he was fortunate enough to obtain it (B.C. 84) at the price of all his conquests, eighty ships, and a fine of 3000 talents (£732,000) in gold. Sulla's lieutenants annoyed Mithradates after their general's departure by petty incursions, till Sulla peremptorily ordered them to cease (B.C. 82); and this is sometimes called the second Mithradatic War. The third and greatest war arose over the inheritance of the kingdom of Bithynia, which the Romans claimed, while the King of Pontus supported the native heir. He had by this time (74 B.C.) got together a large army of nearly 200,000 men, all trained on the Roman model, and with this powerful force he succeeded in utterly defeating the Roman consul, Cotta, at Chalkêdôn, and then lay siege to Kuzikos (Lat. Cyzicus), in the Sea of Marmara. The other consul, Lucullus, compelled him to retreat with great loss (B.c. 73), and in the next year followed him and thoroughly defeated him. Mithradates fled to his son-in-law, Tigranes, king of Armenia. Lucullus followed him in 69, and both in that year and the next defeated the two kings in critical engagements. But as soon as he retired Mithradates gathered strength, and the year 67 saw him in possession of the greater part of his original kingdom. Cn. Pompeius (Pompey the Great) was next sent out, and under his vigorous command Mithradates was again driven into exile. With a small army he now marched round to the head of the Palus Mæotis (Sea of Azof), whither Pompey declined to follow him; and he was preparing to invade Italy by land when a determined rebellion among his troops foiled all his plans. He quickly found himself a prisoner in the tower in which he had taken refuge, and seeing all was lost he vainly tried to destroy himself with poison. But he had long since made himself proof against all poisons, and at last he called in an attendant, who at his request despatched him by the sword (B.C. 63). Cicero, his contemporary, considers him the strongest opponent the Romans ever had, and the greatest ruler since Alexander.

This

MITH'RAS, the sun-god of the Persians, which they worshipped as the purest emblem of the divinity. solar creed spread over a great part of Asia, and under various forms extended throughout Europe. On the revival of the Persian religion under the Sassanids, the mysteries and festivals of Mithras were celebrated with great splendour. In ancient statuary he is represented as a young man with a turban on his head and kneeling on a prostrate bull, one of the horns of which he holds in his left hand, while with the right he is plunging a dagger into the animal's neck. The worship of Mithras was introduced into Rome soon after the fall of the republic, and maintained a certain

MITHRIDATES.

position among the multifarious fancy creeds" of the pagans until Christianity became triumphant. MITHRIDATES. See MITHRADATES. MITRAILLEUSE.

See GUN.

296

MOABITES.

or hallux, while the second family Palaptery ride, w
species, is characterized by the presence of the
The moas were gigantic terrestrial birds, having the wing
in an extremely rudimentary condition and quite user
for tight, and the breast-bone devoll of a kel T:

11 feet high, the tibia or leg-bone measuring a yard i
length. Dinornis elephantopus was a smaller bind, beiz
about 6 feet high, but the framework of the skeleto
according to Professor Owen, is the most massive of at
in the whole class of birds, and the toe-bones almost riv
those of the elepant. How long the mea has been ext
is a much debated question. Not only are the bones fan
in an excellent state of preservation, but also portions
skin, feathers, and eggs, some of which contain remLLOS (
the embryo. The Maoris have only occupied New Zealan
for some 500 years, yet they have traditions respecting ti
hunting of meas for the sake of their flesh and plumage
and the charred bones of the moa have been for 1
ancient cooking pits. It is therefore probable that the
gigantic birds survived up to a very recent date.

MITRE (Lat. mitra, a bead-band or diadem, the crown or pontifical ornament worn on the head by arch-largest species, Dinornis giganteus, must have stood teari bishops and bishops, and in some instances by abbots, upon solemn occasions. It was adopted by the hierarchy in the seventh century, and its pecular form, divided at the sides and pointed in front, is believed to be a symbol of the elven tongues, like as of tire," which sat upon each of the aposties on the day of Pentecost. The Pope has four mitres, caled tiaras, which are more or less rich, according to the solemnity of the feast days upon which they are to be worn. Mitres have not been worn in Enghand since the Reformation, but are used as a heraldic ensign, sarmounting the episecpal coat of arms. They are not in use in the Greek Church. MITRE-SHELL (Mitra) is a genns of gastropedeus molinses belonging to the family Volutide. The mitre sheils have an elongated, thick shell adorned with brilliantly-coloured bands, with a conical, elevated spire, compressed whirls, and a small aperture; the operculum is very smil, and often wanting. The foot is small, folded longitudnally when contracted. The proboscis is generally very long and Large, that of Mitra episcopalis being mere than one and a half times the length of the whole sheil, and capable of being projected to the distance of five mches. The specks are numerous, 420 having been described, found chiefly in tropical seas, ranging in low water from 15 to 80 fathoms. When irritated, some of them emit a purple fluid, having a nauseous edour. The fossil species are numerous, commencing in the chalk. Some of the fossil species are described from Britain and France.

MIT TIMUS, in the law of England, a term applied to certain writs and warrants in which the word mittimus, We (the king) send," is expressed or implied. The term is given to writs issued for the removal and transference of records from one court to another, and also to precepts or commands in writing directed to the keeper of a prison for the receiving and safe keeping of an etfender.

MITYLENE. See MYTILENE.

MIXTURE is the name of a class of stops in church rgans, each stop of which consists of several small ranks of pipes, from two to five, so that every nete produces in reality a chord of a certain composition, varying acccrding to the plan of the mixture. Mixture stops are only used in the full organ, when they melt into the general body of scund, and are heard no longer as giving chords, but only as brightening the tone of the heavier steps of the organ, in fact, as being the upper partials of compound tones with grave primes. See AcoUSTICS.

MIZ ZEN MAST, the smallest of the three masts in a Tessel, and the one placed sternmost. A rear-admiral Foists his pendant at the mizzen.

MNEMON ICS. See MEMORY. MNEMOS YNE, or more properly MNEMOS UNE, in the Greek mythology, the mother of the Muses, Zeus 1 self being their father, was the daughter of Oaranes Her name is literally Memory, and it is evident that without the parentage of memory no progress in any art or science is possible.

MOA is the Maori name for certain gigantic birds which existed till, in all probability, a very recent period in New Zealand. From an examination of bones of these birds, Professor Owen showed that they belonged to the order, STRUTHIONES, and were most nearly allied to the APTERYX or Kiwi, a singular little bird peculiar to New Zealand. Eleven species have now been described, the original genus Dinornis forming the type of the family Dinornithidae, in which the feet have three anterior toes and no posterior toe,

MO ABITE STONE, a remarkably inscribed ston discovered on the 19th of August, 1868, by Mr. K♪ n, German missionary, near the ruins of Diban, the anter Dibon, in the land of Mcab. It was a piece of basal about 3 feet 5 inches in height by 1 foot 9 in.bes i breadth and thickness, and it contained an inscript written in the old Phoenician characters, and consisting thirty-four lines of writing. When deciphered the inscrip tion proved to be a monument of King Mesha, set up t commemorate his victories over Israel, and dating from period 896 B.C. It was obviously desirable to obtain memorial well-nigh 3000 years old, intimately contacte with biblical history, and exhibiting nearly the wile o the Greek alphabet in the identical Phoenician ship”, að offers were at once made for its purchase. But the Arsa though ignorant of the characters of the inscription, ha long regarded the stone with superstitions reverence a the protector of their crops, and disputes arose as to it possession, which ended in its being broken up by them the pieces being distributed among the chief families o the district. The energy and perseverance, however, u M. Ganneau, the French consul, and Captain Warren of th Palestine Exploration Fund, resulted in the acquisition o the various fragments, which were put together and trans ferred to the Louvre at Paris. A photograph of the sta has been published by the Palestine Exploration Society See Ginsburg's "Moabite Stone" (1871); and Tristran "Land of Moab" (1873).

MO ABITES, one of the peoples of Hebrew erizin frequently mentioned in the books of the Old Testamen from their connection with the Israelites. At the pers when the latter were pressing into the land of Cain th Meabites had already become settled in the rich lagaland which crown the eastern chasm of the Dead Ses, a dis trict which they had taken from a Canaan tish pe pit referred to as the Emim. Their territories had been greatly curtailed just before this period by the Amorites: but they still occupied a position of considerable sour ta and they were recognized as kinsmen by the Israits who made no attempt to deprive them of their land (Judg. xi, 18, &c.) But from the story of Balat. H evident that the Moabites regarded their new neigia with apprehension, while the Israelites became corrupted and joined the Moabites in the licentious worship of basi Peor. Soon after the conquest of Canaan we had the Moabites ruling over a portion of Israel, and the univers ance of the latter by Elud is recorded Julg. 12. 14-3 A victory of Saul over them is briefly referred to 1 Sa xiv. 47; and a further conquest, followed by a slagter of two-thirds of the prisoners taken, by David, is retioned in 2 Sam. viii, 2. Soon after the death of Divd

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