MASANIELLO 



MASK 



79 



Musanicllo (properly TOMMASO AsiELLO), a 

 fisherman of Ainalli, born in 1623, was the leader 

 of the revolt which took place in Naples in July 

 Hi47 against the Spanish viceroy, the Duke of 

 Arcos. The people had been exasperated by 

 oppression, and great excitement had been pro- 

 duced by a new tax u|>on fruit. Masaniello him- 

 self was aggrieved by the harsh treatment which 

 his wife had received after being detected in an 

 attempt to smuggle a little flour. Taking advan- 

 tage of a quarrel between the fruit-sellers and the 

 tax-collectors on 7th July 1647, Masaniello stirred 

 up the multitude to a revolt. Their triumph 

 was complete ; palaces and public buildings were 

 plundered, mostly for arms, a bloody popular 

 justice was executed, and the viceroy was forced 

 into a regular treaty with Masaniello in the church 

 of the Carmelites on 13th July. But success and 

 the weight of hix responsibilities turned the fisher- 

 man's head ; he gave himself up to excess, and his 

 capricious despotism immediately became terrible 

 to his own associates. He was assassinated by 

 agents of the viceroy on 16th July. 



Masragni, I'IETRO, composer, born 7th Decem- 

 ber 1863, at Leghorn, produced, after a somewhat 

 irregular musical education, the brilliantly success- 

 ful one-act opera Caralleria Unttirana in 1890, in 

 competition for a prize, the plot being taken from a 

 story by Verga (n.v.). Later operas were L'Amieo 

 Fritz (J891, based on Ercknmnn-Chatrian), / Hitut- 

 zau (1892), Nerone, besides songs and ballads. 



Mascara', a town of Algeria, 50 miles SE. 

 of ( >ran, on a slope of Atlas. Pop. 14,76? 



Mascarenes. See MAURITIUS. 

 Masham. Mi:s. See MARLBOROUOH. 



.Maslionalaml. <>r MASIIIN ALAND, is the name 

 of the region lying north-east of Matalieleland, 

 between 16' 30' and 19 3 10' S. lat. ami 30 and 32 E. 

 long. It embraces the plateau ( 4000^1000 feet ) whose 

 backbone is formed by the I'mvukwe Mountains, 

 and in which some of the chief feeders of the Zani- 

 Ix'si, Limpopo. Sabi, ami Mazoe have their origins. 

 It is reported to l<e the healthiest part of South 

 Africa, with rich soil, grass all the year round, 

 and an abundance of running streams. A constant 

 cold south-east wind tempers the heat, and renders 

 the air strong and bracing. When their land w.is 

 invaded by the Matalx-lc, those of the Masbona 

 who escaped massacre took refuge in the mountain- 

 ous districts, ami there they have ever since main- 

 tained themselves, building their villages on almost 

 inaccessible crags. A peaceful and industrious 

 people, of Bantu race, they live in perpetual fear 

 of their fierce neighlours. They are the l>est 

 husbandmen in South Africa, and liefore lieing 

 dfauMMMed <>f their country owned large herds of 

 cattle. They now grow rice, Katlir corn, maize, 

 ground-nuts, sweet potatoes, tobacco, and cotton; 

 tliis last they weave into blankets. They are also 

 (."iml iron workers. Iron, copjter, and gold (in 

 quartz and river sand) exist in immense quantities 

 in the country. Maiich, a German traveller, in 

 1871 discovered many old mines that had at one 

 time been worked with some degree of scientific 

 skill, especially at a place called Zimbabye, which 

 he identified with the Ophir (q.v.) of the Bible, 

 and thus gave some support to Milton's identifica- 

 tion of that region with Sofala. Mashonaland 

 v.ii- put under British protection on llth February 

 1888, and was taken actual possession of by the 

 British South Africa Company in August 1890. 



The MAKAI.AKA are a people closely allied to 

 the Mashona, and have had nearly the" same his- 

 tory. Those who escape the Mataliele live chiefly 

 in the mountain fastnesses in the southern part of 

 Matabeleland, and follow the same occupations 



and mode of life as the Mashona. The Banyai 

 tribes likewise refugees from the Matabele live 

 south-east of the Makalaka, along the middle 

 course of the Limpopo. See books quoted under 

 MATABELELAND. 



Masinissa. king of the Eastern Numidians, 

 was liorn al>out 238 B.C., and brought up at Car- 

 thage. Having helped the Carthaginians to subdue 

 Svphax, king of the Massylii or Western Numi- 

 dians, he accompanied his allies to Spain and 

 fought valiantly and successfully against the 

 Romans. But about 210 the Carthaginians gave 

 his promised bride to Syphax ; and for this and 

 other reasons he became henceforward the bitter 

 foe of Carthage, and zealously backed up the 

 Romans in their straggle against their African 

 rival. He received as his reward the kingdom of 

 Syphax, together with large portions of the territory 

 of Carthage. But before he died, in 149 B.C., he saw 

 that he bod fostered a most dangerous enemy for 

 his own people, the Massylii, and the kingdom he 

 left to his sons, and slackened his zeal for Home. 



Mask (through the medium of Fr. and Span, 

 from the Arabic mttskliarat, 'a jester') is an arti- 

 ficial covering for the face, worn by many different 

 peoples for different purposes. Masks are common 

 amongst the inhabitants of New Britain, New 

 Ireland, New Guinea, and the adjoining islands, 

 amongst the North American Indians and the 

 Eskimo, the Chinese, the aborigines of Australia, 

 ami some Negro trilies. The masks these peoples 

 use are generally very hideous and repellent in 

 asj)ect, being designed expressly to inspire terror in 

 the mind of the beholder. The primary object 

 is to scare away the demons and spirits who bring 

 misfortunes, diseases, national calamities, or oilier 

 evils upon the tribe; the exorcism is usually prac- 

 tised by processions of masked men, who dance 

 and utter loud cries calculated to frighten the 

 enemy away. Where totemistic beliefs prevail, 

 it is customary for the people to celebrate dances 

 clad in the skins of wild animals, and on such 

 occasions masks are worn shaped to resemble the 

 animals represented in the dance. It is highly 

 probable that practices of a similar nature were 

 current amongst the primitive Greeks, Egyp- 

 tians, and other peoples. The myth of the snaky- 

 haired Gorgon is traced back to this origin ; 

 so too is the practice of covering the faces of the 

 dead with a mask, intended to keep the demons 

 away from them whilst they were on their journey 

 to the abode of shades, a practice common to the 

 ancient Greeks and Egyptians, and the ancient 

 Peruvians anil Mexicans. Death masks of gold 

 have been found in tombs of Mycenw and Kertch ; 

 those of the Peruvians were made of silver and 

 wood ; some found at Cartlmge were of clay, 

 painted in divers colours ; and copper and wood 

 were used in Mexico. Masks, besides being worn 

 by living men, were sometimes attributed to their 

 gods, as in ancient Egypt and Greece, and in 

 India, or were put on over the faces of the gods' 

 images, as in ancient Mexico. The Greeks, more- 

 over, in their theatrical performances, employed 

 masks shaped to represent the expression of a 

 particular emotion or passion, as rage, grief, sly 

 cunning, &c. These, made of linen, tree-bark, 

 leather, or even wood, had large funnel-shaped 

 mouth-openings, for the purpose of giving the 

 voice of the actor a penetrating sound (whence 

 Lat. per-iona = ' a mask ' ), so that it might be heard 

 all over the vast theatres in which he had to act. 

 Passing on to the Romans, the custom of putting 

 masked actors on the stage was transmitted by 

 them to the Italian theatres of the middle ages ; 

 nearly all the actors in the Commedia dell' Arte 

 wore masks. The custom was also practised in the 



