MAQUI 



MARANHAM 



35 



require a dry and sheltered situation. The Nor- 

 way Maple (A. platanoides), a native of the north 

 of Europe, although not of Britain, is also found in 

 North America; it much resembles the sycamore. 

 A Himalayan species (A. villosum), a noble tree, 

 found with pines and birches at great elevations, 

 is sometimes grown in Britain. A large number 

 of interesting and remarkably houiiiful forms of 

 several Japan species of Acer, such as A. dissectum 

 and A. jtalmatum, have been introduced within the 

 last few years ; they have proved hardy in many 

 favoured districts of England and Ireland, but are 

 unsuited to Scotland generally, though they are 

 occasionally seen there in conservatories cultivated 

 in pots. 



Ma<|lli ( Aristotelia Maqui), the only known 

 species of the genus, which oelongs to the natural 

 order Tiliacea:, and has been made the type of a 

 proposed order. It is an evergreen or sub-ever- 

 green shrub, of considerable size, a native of Chili. 

 The Chilians make a wine from its berry, which 

 they administer in malignant fevers. The wood is 

 used for making musical instruments, and the 

 tough bark for their strings. The Maqui some- 

 times ripens fruit against a wall in England, and 

 is frequently cultivated as an ornamental shrub. 



Mar, an ancient district of Scotland between 

 the Dee and the Don, comprising nearly the south 

 half of Aberdeenshire, and subdivided into Brae- 

 mar, Midinar, and Cromar. In 1014 a Mormaer of 

 Mar was present at the battle of Clontarf ; and in 

 1115 another figures in the foundation charter of 

 Scone priory as ' comes ' or earl. The male line of 

 these Celtic Earls of Mar expired in 1377 with 

 Thomas, thirteenth earl, whose sister Margaret 

 married William, first Earl of Douglas. Their 

 daughter, Isabella, in 1404 married Alexander 

 Stewart, the ' Wolfe of Badenoch,' who, after her 

 death in 1419, was designated Earl of Mar. The 

 earldom by right should have gone to Janet Keith, 

 great-granddaughter of Gratney, eleventh Celtic 

 earl, and wife to Sir Thomas Erskine ; but it was 

 not till 1565 that it was either restored, or else 

 granted by a-new creation with limitation to heirs 

 male, to their sixth descendant, John, sixth Lord 

 Erskine, who at his death in 1572 had been for a 

 twelvemonth regent of Scotland. John, Earl of Mar 

 ( 1675-1732 ), who began life as a Whig, and by his 

 frequent change of sides earned the nickname of 

 'Bobbing Joan,' beaded the rebellion of 1715 (see 

 JACOBITES), and died in exile at Aix-la-Chapelle. 

 In 1824 the reversion of his attainder was procured 

 by his grandsnn, John Francis Erskine, but his 

 grandson dying without issue in 1866, the question 

 arose whether the earldom of Mar could pass 

 ttmmph liis sifter to her son, John Francis Good- 

 eve-Erskine (nt Goodeve), or must go to his first 

 cousin, Walti-r Coningsby Erakine, Earl of Kellie. 

 And the strange solution of that question has been 

 that in 187-> \Valter Henry Erskine, thirteenth Earl 

 of Kellie, was declared by the Committee of Privi- 

 leges also eleventh Earl of Mar, and that in 1885 

 the Earldom of Mar Restitution Bill declared Mr 

 Goodeve- Erskine twenty-sixth Earl of Mar, claim- 

 ing creation before 1014, but allowed precedence 

 I tot. See the Earl of Crawford's Earldom of Mar 

 in thauUni "/"/ sl,<,,/f, (2 vols. Edin. 1882). 



Marabou Feathers. See ADJUTANT. 



.Harahoilts, a name derived from the Arabic 

 word mitrnltil, and used to designate a religious 

 devotee or ascetic. They have always been found 

 chiefly in north Africa, and have at times exercised 

 considerable political influence, as in encouraging 

 opposition to the French conquests in Algeria and 

 Tunis in the 19th century, and in former centuries 

 a the origin and mainstay of the Almoravid 

 dynasty, which held Morocco and Spain for a 



long period. These devotees are held in great 

 veneration by the Berbers ; they frequently officiate 

 at mosques and chapels, and are believed to possess 

 the j>ower to prophesy and work miracles. The 

 dignity is generally hereditary. The name is also 

 applied to the tombs of the devotees. 



Maracaybo, a fortified city of Venezuela, is 

 situated on the west shore of the strait which 

 connects the lake and gulf of Maracaybo. It is a 

 handsome town, with many gardens and squares, 

 a college, hospitals, a theatre, a German club- 

 house, the usual government buildings, a custom- 

 house, wharves, and a number of manufactories. 

 The climate is hot, the soil sandy, and the place 

 unhealthy, owing mainly to the unsanitary domestic 

 arrangements. The trade is chiefly in the hands 

 of Germans, Danes, and North Americans. The 

 staple export is coffee (1,367,291 in 1889); box- 

 wood, lignum vitae, cedar, and other woods, besides 

 divi-divi, hides and skins, and some cocoa, gums, 

 and fish sounds, are the other exports, the value of 

 which (including cotl'ee) in 1889 reached about 

 1,300,000. Fully seven-eighths of these go to the 

 United States, although most of the merchandise 

 imported comes from Great Britain, Germany, and 

 France. Pop. (1888) 34,284. 



The Gulf of Maracaybo is a wide inlet of the 

 Caribbean .Sea, extending from the peninsulas of 

 Paraguana and Guajira to the strait by which it 

 is connected with the lake. The latter forms the 

 door of a great valley, shut in by lofty mountains. 

 Its waters are sweet, and deep enough for the 

 largest vessels ; but the bar at the mouth, where 

 a swift current runs, makes entrance difficult. 

 The gulf and lake were discovered in 1499 by 

 Ojeda, who found here houses built on piles, and 

 so gave the district the name Venezuela ('Little- 

 Venice'), which was afterwards extended to the 

 entire country. 



Maraglia, a town of western Persia, 55 miles 

 S. of Tabriz and 20 miles E. of Lake Urmia. It 

 is celebrated as the capital of Hulagu Khan, grand- 

 son of Genghis 'Khan, and as the site of the 

 observatory which Hulagu built for the astronomer 

 Nasr ed-Din. Pop. 13,260. 



Marajo. an island situated between the jestu- 

 aries of the Amazon and Para, with an area of 

 nearly 18,000 sq. m. It is for the most part low 

 and covered with grass and bush, but in the east 

 and south with dense forest. The soil is fertile, and 

 large herds of cattle are reare'd in the north-east. 



Maraiiliam . or MARANHAO, a maritime state 

 of Brazil, tiounded on the north by the Atlantic 

 Ocean, with, an area of 177,566 sq. m. and a pop. 

 ( 1888) of 488,443. The surface is uneven, but there 

 is. no range of mountains. There are numerous 

 rivers falling into the Atlantic, large forests, ex- 

 tensive plains where cattle are reared ; the climate 

 is fine, the soil fertile. Agriculture, however, has 

 not prospered here, and the emancipation of the 

 slaves, on whose labour it had depended, was 

 followed by a period of great depression. Cotton 

 and sugar are the principal products. The chief 

 city is Maranham, or San Luiz de Maranham, on 

 an island between the mouths of the Mearim and 

 the Itapicnrii. It is a well-built town, clean, gay, 

 hospitable, and lias a pop. of 35,000. It contains a 

 cathedral and bishop's palace, a hospital, a techni- 

 cal school, some sugar and spinning and weaving 

 factories, and docks that admit ships drawing 14 

 feet. The chief exports (varying from 250,000 to 

 near 500,000 in some years) are cotton and sugar j 

 then come hides nd goat and deer skins, gum, 

 balsam, cotton-seed, india-rubber, &c." Pprtugaj is 

 the largest customer, followed by Britain, which 

 sends three-fourths of the total imports (about 

 520,000 annually). 



