MYRMIDONS MYSTERIES. 



121 



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MYRMIDONS ; a people on the southern borders 

 of Thessaly, who accompanied Achilles to the Trojan 

 war. They received their name from Myrmidon, a 

 son of Jupiter and Eurymedusa, or, according to some, 

 from their having been originally ants, puounxa. (See 

 sEacus.) The term has received the signification of 

 a bully, ruffian, or satellite of tyranny. 



MYRON ; a celebrated statuary of Greece, who 

 was peculiarly happy in imitating nature. He made 

 a cow so much resembling life, that even bulls were 

 deceived, and approached her as if alive, as is men- 

 tioned by many epigrams in the Anthologia. He 

 flourished about 442 years before Christ. 



MYRRH ; a fragrant, bitter, aromatic gum resin, 

 which is obtained from an undetermined tree in Arabia, 

 and especially in Abyssinia. It comes to us in grains 

 having a resinous fracture, and a slightly acrid taste. 

 According to Pelletier, it is composed of thirty-four 

 parts of resin and sixty-six of gum. The Abyssinian 

 myrrh is brought from the East Indies, and the 

 Arabian comes by the way of Turkey. It is used in 

 a great variety of medicinal preparations. 



MYRRHA ; a daughter of Cinyras, king of Cy- 

 prus. She became enamoured of her father, and in- 

 troduced herself into his bed unknown. She had a 

 son by him called Adonis. When Cinyras was ap- 

 prized of the incest he had committed, he attempted 

 to stal) his daughter, and Myrrha fled into Arabia, 

 where she was changed into a tree called myrrh. 



MYRTLE; a genus of plants consisting of aro- 

 matic trees or shrubs, with simple opposite leaves, 

 which are sprinkled with pellucid glandular points, 

 and having axillary or terminal white or rose-coloured 

 lowers. One species, the common myrtle, is a native 

 of the south of Europe, and other countries border- 

 ing on the Mediterranean. It has been celebrated 

 from remote antiquity on account of its fragrance and 

 the beauty of its evergreen foliage, and, by different 

 nations, was consecrated to various religious purposes. 

 Myrtle wreaths adorned the brows of bloodless vic- 

 tors, and were the symbol of authority for magistrates 

 at Athens. With the moderns, it has always been a 

 favourite ornamental plant, and is commonly culti- 

 vated in gardens both in Europe and America. 

 Pimento or allspice is the produce of a species of 

 myrtle inhabiting tropical America, and consists of 

 the berries, which are collected before they are ripe, 

 and dried in the sun. No species of myrtle, nor, in- 

 deed, of the large family myrtacece inhabits any part 

 of the United States. 



MYRTLE WAX; a concrete oil, or vegetable 

 wax, the product of the class of plants myrica, 

 more commonly known by the name of candleberry 

 mi/rtle. There are many plants which afford a con- 

 crete oil or wax ; and even the light matter which 

 is called the down of fruits, and which silvers the 

 surface of prunes and other stone fruits, Proust has 

 shown to be wax ; but the indigenous family of 

 myrica affords much the greatest abundance, and, 

 in many respects, is entitled to the attention of culti- 

 vators. " The advantageous properties that this 

 tree appears to possess," says M. Cadet, in the 

 si unities de Chimie, tome 44, " ought to have 

 induced philosophers to make inquiry to ascertain 

 the various properties of the vegetable, and what 

 attention its culture might require : it has long been 

 considered merely as an object of curiosity." The 

 plant abounds in nearly all parts of the United States 

 of America, distinguished into four species: viz. 

 1. Gale; 2. Cerifera ; 3. Caroliniensis ; 4. Penn- 

 sylvania. It varies in size from four to eighteen 

 feet, becoming taller as it extends into the warmer 

 regions. The bush or tree has somewhat the 



appearance of the common myrtle (myrtus com- 

 mnnis), and bears a berry of the size of the pepper- 

 grain or coriander-seed. These grains are of a 

 common ash-colour, containing a small, round, hard 

 kernel, which is covered with a shining wax, that 

 may be obtained by boiling the grains in water. 

 Toscan, in a memoir inserted in his work entitled 

 L'Ami de la Nature, gives a full account of the 

 manner of procuring the berries, and preparing the 

 wax. The plant itself has always been esteemed a 

 great ornament, and much exertion and expense 

 have been bestowed to promote its growth in the 

 European gardens. The wax is prepared for com- 

 merce by the poor people along the northern lakes 

 and might, by proper attention, be rendered an 

 important article of traffic. So much was the pro- 

 duct of the plant valued by the king of Prussia, that 

 the tapers made of it were reserved entirely for th 

 sick-room of the royal household, it emitting, when 

 burning, the most delicious and balsamic odour. It 

 was noticed, as early as the year 1722, in a memoir 

 of M. Alexandre, published in the History of the 

 Academy of Sciences. Charles Louis Cadet has 

 given an excellent account of the natural history, 

 &c., in the Ann. de Chimie, already referred to ; and 

 doctor John Bostock has furnished a chemical analy- 

 sis of its properties and habitudes, in Nicholson's 

 Journal, vol. iv. It has recently been introduced 

 to the notice of the medical public, as possessing 

 anti-dysenteric properties, by William M. Fahnes- 

 tock, M. D. See American Journal of the Medical 

 Sciences (vol. ii. 1828.) 



MYSIA ; a country of Asia Minor, which, in the 

 most extensive sense, comprehended all the north- 

 western portion of the peninsula, and bordered on 

 the ^Egean, the Propontis, Bithynia, and Lydia. 

 The coast was inhabited by ^Eolian Greeks, the 

 interior by different tribes. Lampsacus, Cyzicu*, 

 and Pergamus were the principal cities. 



MYSORE, or MAISOOR; a principality of South 

 India, chiefly between lat. 11 and 15 N., sur- 

 rounded by the British territories subject to the 

 presidency of Madras ; about 210 miles long, and 

 140 broad; population in 1804, 2,171,754; families, 

 482,612; Mohammedan families, 17,000; Bramin 

 families, 25,370; Lingait families, 72,627; Jain 

 families, 2063. It consists of high table-land, 

 elevated About 3000 feet above the level of the sea, 

 from which rise a number of lofty hills, containing 

 the sources of many rivers, the principal of which 

 are the Cauvery, Toombuddra, Vedawati, Bradri, 

 and Penar. The climate, on account of the elevation 

 of the country, is temperate. The soil produces all 

 the grains and vegetables of the other parts of India, 

 and many of the fruits of Europe. The rajah is 

 tributary to the British. The first rajah mentioned 

 in history is Cham Raj, who began to reign in 1507. 

 But the territories of Mysore received their most 

 important accessions from the victories of Hyder Ali, 

 in the middle of the eighteenth century, who, without 

 assuming the title, exercised all the power of sove- 

 reignty. His son Tippoo Saib (q. v.) perished in 

 defending his capital in 1799, after an unsuccessful 

 struggle with the British, who placed a descendant 

 of the ancient rajahs on the throne. See East India 

 Companies. 



MYSTAGOGUE, in the mysteries of antiquity; 

 he who introduced the person to be initiated, also he 

 who showed the interior of the temple. Hence 

 mystagogue has been used, in modern times, for a 

 person who pretends to deal in mysteries. 



MYSTERIES were, among the Greeks, and after- 

 wards, also, among the Romans, secret religious 

 assemblies, which no uninitiated person was per- 

 mitted to approach. They originated at a very 



