HANCINI 



MANDAMUS 



15 



confined to the making of furniture, coffins (sent 

 to Chiua), anil carts, the tanning of leather, the 

 preparation of furs, and the distilling of spirits. 

 A large amount of trade is carried on at the towns 

 in the interior, and especially at the treaty port 

 of New-chwang (q.v.). Beans, bean cakes and 

 oil, silk, ginseng, skins and furs, &c. are exported 

 to the annual value of 1J million sterling, and 

 cottons, woollens, metals, sugar, silk, paper, medi- 

 cines, opium, &c. imported to 11 million sterling. 

 The native opium is rapidly supplanting the Indian, 

 the import of which fell 'from 327,067 )b. in 1879 

 to 12,266 Ib. in 1889. Excessive floods in 1888 

 caused a severe famine. The population does not 

 embrace more than one million Manchus, and most 

 of these dress and speak like Chinese. Yet they 

 are the aristocracy of the country, furnishing its 

 magistrates anil soldiers, its police, and its hunters, 

 though many cultivate their own land. Ever since 

 the Manchus conquered China ( 1644) and founded 

 the present imperial dynasty Manchuria has lieen 

 the favourite recruiting ground for the Chinese 

 army ; there are stated to !e 80,000 drilled men in 

 the country. The rest of the population consists 

 almost entirely of Chinese immigrants, as enter- 

 prising, industrious, and prosperous as any people 

 in the empire. The principal towns are Moukilen 

 (q.v.), the capital; Kirin (q.v.); Tsitsihar, a con- 

 vict settlement for the empire ; Ying-tzu, commonly 

 called New-chwang (q.v.), the chief port; and some 

 others with imputations of about 20,000. All Man- 

 churian towns are indescribably filthy, worse than 

 English towns in the loth century, and most of 

 them are walled. The religions current are those 

 found in China (q.v.), though the original creed of 

 tin' Mam-hus wits Shamanism. Early in the llth 

 century B.C. there existed a native kingdom in the 

 southern of the three provinces, and this was suc- 

 ceeded by other states, until in the beginning of 

 the 17th century Nnrhachu, a Mancnii chief, 

 founded a powerful sovereignty : in 1644 his 

 grandson ascended the throne of China, and thus 

 founded the reigning Chin dynasty. The con- 

 querors imposed upon the conquered the custom 

 of wearing the pigtail, shaving the forehead, and 

 dressing in narrow-sleeved instead of wide-sleeved 

 coats. Brigandage and gambling are exceedingly 

 rife in the country. The Maneliu language Is a 

 branch of the Mongol stem, as the people them- 

 selves are of the same division of the Ural-Altaic 

 family. The French Koman Catholics have had 

 iiiissi<>nari<;s in Manchuria since 1838, and the 

 Scottish and Irish Presbyterian churches since 

 about 1H61. See James, The Long White Mountain 

 , where other liooks are quoted. 



Yl.-iiu-iiii, LAURA. See MAZARIN. 



W:uul;rans. an oriental religions sect of great 

 antiquity, formed out of heterogeneous Christian, 

 .Jewish, and heathen elements, and still found 

 nboiit the cities of Wasit and Basra, and in Khftz- 

 istan (Suiana) on the eastern shore of the Tigris, 

 working as jewellers, blacksmiths, carjienters, &c. 

 The name is due to the word Mandd, 'gito-i*' 

 (whence Mandaye, 'gnostics'), but the public 

 name they take is that of Sahians (SiibM, ' bap- 

 tnts i. ilm- professing to identify themselves with 

 the Sab;eans tolerated in the Koran. They were 

 formerly called Christians of St John the Baptist 

 from their habit of bapMsm or alilution. In their 

 religious system the supreme is PirA ra6M('the 

 it glory'), with which is connected the AlAnA 

 "'. which, after calling forth the first life, 

 retired into an obscurity that can be penetrated 

 only by the most holy after death, and that but 

 onre. The first life ( Chayt Kmlint'iii^) is the active 

 deity as revealed, and which alone can be wor- 

 shipped. From it, besides the 'second life,' 



emanated the Manrid d'hayye ( ' spirit of life '), the 

 mediator and saviour of the Mamui'ans, from whom 

 they derive their name. He reveals himself to man 

 in his three sons, Hibil, SMI, and Amis ; of these 

 Hibil is the most important. From the second life 

 emanated the Uthre. ( ' angels ' ), the greatest of 

 whom is Abatftr, whose son Gabriel built the earth 

 and formed man, save that his spirit was infused 

 into him by M&nA rabbA. The-e is an elaborate 

 cosmogony extending to the kingdoms of darkness, 

 of hell, the mountains of the blessed, and the 

 planets. The succession of false prophets from Nft 

 were Abrahim, Misha (Moses), Shlimun (Solomon), 

 and Yishu M'shiha (Jesus), who had been baptised 

 through deceit by the only true prophet, Yahya. 

 The last of the false prophets is M'liamad. 



The Mandreans had tnree degrees in the priest- 

 hood, with a supreme official ( Kish amma) as ilie 

 source of Ixrth civil and ecclesiastical authority. 

 The priests officiate in white robes, barefooted, and 

 women may be admitted to their order. Their 

 principal rite is the nutsbatka, or baptism. Their 

 sacred language is an Aramaic dialect close to the 

 Babylonian Talmud. They have live important 

 sacred books: SidrA rabbA ('the great book'), 

 called also rjinza, 'treasure;' SuIrA d'YtihyA 

 ('book of John'): the Qolustn, a collection of 

 hymns ; Diwfm, a ritual ; and Axfar Miitinixi', a 

 manual of astrology. 



Brandt traces this system of religion back to the 

 period of amalgamation of the Assyro-Babylonian 

 religion with Greek speculation. 



See Chwolsohn, Die Sabier . der Sabitmus ( 1856 ) ; 

 Siouffi, Lei Sabeetu (1880); Bahelon, Lei Mendditcs 

 (1882) ; Brandt, Die Mandaische Religion (1889). 



Maitclal, the southernmost port of Norway, 17 

 miles east of the Naze. Pop. 4000. 



Maildalay, the capital of Upper Burma, stands 

 2 miles from the left bank of the Irawadi, a little 

 N. of Amarapura (q.v.), the former capital, and 

 410 miles by rail (1888) N. of Ilangoon. Founded 

 in I860, it was the capital of independent liurma 

 until its capture by the British in tne end of 1885, 

 and since the treaty by which (1886) the king lost 

 his throne it has lieen the capital of Upper Burma. 

 The city forms a square, each side a mile long, and 

 is surrounded by a wide rnoat, a crenelated brick 

 wall 26 feet high, and an inner earthen parapet. 

 In the centre of the city stand the royal palaces, 

 constructed principally of teak-wood, and enclosed 

 bv three stone walls and a teak-wood stoekade. 

 "fhere is little of real interest or beauty in them 

 beyond some rich wood -carving. The most famous 

 building in Mandalay is, however, the Aracan 

 Pagoda; it contains a brazen 'image of Buddha, 

 12 feet high, an object of veneration to thousands 

 of pilgrims. Outside these enclosures was, until 

 the British conquest, a crowded, dirty native town, 

 now cleared away to make room for a British 

 cantonment. The present native quarters lie out- 

 side the fortified city. Beyond them, again, on the 

 slopes of the hills that border the valley of the 

 Irawadi, are numerous fine monasteries. Silk- 

 weaving is the most important of the industries ; the 

 others are gold and silver work, ivory and wood 

 carving, bell and gong casting, and knife and sword 

 making. In 1886 (as again in March 1892) much 

 damage was done by fire and by an inundation of 

 the river. In 1886 a meteorological observatory 

 was built. Pop. ( 1891 ) 187,910. 



MaiHla'inilS is a writ, not of right but of pre- 

 rogative, which issues from the Court of Queen's 

 Bench, commanding some public body, or inferior 

 court, or justices of the peace, to do something which 

 it is their legal duty to do. In the United States 

 the power to issue writs of mandamus is vested in 



