MAKA MARAT. 



677 



MARA, GERTRUDE ELIZABETH, daughter of a Mr 

 Schmahling (born, according to some, in 1750, in 

 Cassel ; others say in 1743, at Eischbach, in the ter- 

 ritory of Eisenach; others say in 1749), was one of 

 the greatest singers of her time. Her father, city 

 musician in Cassel, instructed her in music. When 

 she was seven years old, she played the violin 

 admirably. In her tenth year, she performed before 

 the queen, in London, whither she had accompanied 

 her father, and where she remained two or three 

 years. In her fourteenth year, she appeared as a 

 singer at court. In 1766, she went with her father 

 to Leipsic, and received an appointment there. 

 Frederic the Great, thougK much prejudiced against 

 German performers, was induced to invite her, in 

 1770, to Potsdam, his residence, showed great ad- 

 miration of her powers, and gave her an appointment 

 immediately, with 3000 Prussian dollars salary (about 

 a450). In 1774, she married a violoncello player 

 named Mara, a man of careless habits, who involved 

 her in many difficulties, and she was dismissed by 

 the king, in 1780. In 1782, she went to Vienna 

 and Paris, where she received the title of a first con- 

 cert singer of the queen. In 1784, she went to Lon- 

 don, where she was received with the greatest enthu- 

 siasm. For thirteen evenings' performance at the 

 Pantheon concert, she received 1000 guineas. In 

 1785 and 1786, she was engaged for the London 

 opera, and appeared at one of the annual concerts in 

 honour of Handel, as first singer, and, in the winter 

 of 1785 and 1786, was established at the London 

 opera. But her obstinacy offended as much as her 

 powers delighted. In 1802, she went to Paris, and, 

 in 1803, to Germany. At a later period, she went 

 to Petersburg, and, in 1808, she was at Moscow, 

 where she is said to have married her companion 

 Florio, after the death of Mara, from whom she had 

 been separated long before. By the burning of 

 Moscow, she lost her house and fortune ; she there- 

 fore went to Revel, and gave lessons in music. In 

 1819, she came through Berlin to Britain, and, in 

 1821, returned to Esthonia. The latest accounts of 

 her were, that she celebrated her birth-day at Revel, 

 February 23, 1831, having completed her eighty- 

 third year, on which occasion Goethe offered her a 

 poetical tribute. The fame of this singer was founded 

 not only on the strength and fulness of her tone, and 

 the extraordinary compass of her voice, which ex- 

 tended from G to the triple-marked/ (nearly three 

 octaves), but also on the admirable ease, quickness, 

 and spirit, with which she sung the most difficult 

 passages, and her simple and enchanting expression 

 in the adagio. Her singing of Handel's airs for 

 instance, " 1 know that my Redeemer liveth " in 

 the Messiaii, was particularly celebrated. 



MARABOOTS; among the Berbers (q. v.) of 

 northern Africa, a sort of saints, or sorcerers, who 

 are held in high estimation, and who exercise, in 

 some villages, a despotic authority. They distribute 

 amulets, affect to work miracles, and are thought to 

 exercise the gift of prophecy. The rich presents 

 which they receive from a superstitious people, 

 enable them to live with a good deal of pomp, often 

 keeping an armed force, and maintaining a numerous 

 train of wives and concubines. They make, indeed, 

 no pretensions to abstinence or self-denial. 



MARACAYBO ; a town of Colombia, capital of 

 the department of Zulia (see Colombia), formerly 

 capital of the province of Maracaybo, in Venezuela; 

 Ion. 71 17' W. ; lat. 10 13' N. It is situated on 

 the western side of the lake Maracaybo, about twenty 

 miles from the sea. Most of the houses are covered 

 with reeds ; but the town is fortified, and the number 

 of the inhabitants, in 1801, amounted to 22,000 ; 

 wfiich number was afterwards increased to 24,000 



by an accession of refugees from St Domingo. Here 

 is a large parochial church, an hospital, and four 

 convents. Large vessels cannot come up to the 

 town, on account of the bar at the mouth of the har- 

 bour. 



MARACAYBO, a lake, or rather gulf, of South 

 America, about 200 miles long, and seventy broad, 

 running from S. to N., empties itself into the North 

 sea ; the entrance is defended by strong forts. As 

 the tide flows into this lake, its water is somewhat 

 brackish, notwithstanding the many rivers it receives. 

 It abounds with fish. The lake becomes narrower 

 towards the middle, where the town is erected. 



MARANHAM, or MARANHAO ; a province of 

 Brazil, between 1 20' and 10 50' S. latitude, and 

 45 10' and 53 20' W. longitude. It takes its name 

 from an island situated at the mouth of three rivers, 

 about forty-two miles in circumference, which is fer- 

 tile and well inhabited. The island itself is very 

 difficult of access, by reason of the rapidity of the 

 three rivers which form it ; so that vessels must wait 

 for proper winds and seasons to visit it. The natives 

 have about twenty-seven hamlets called oc, or tave, 

 each consisting of only four large huts, forming a 

 square in the middle ; but from 300 to 500 paces in 

 length, and about twenty or thirty feet in depth ; all 

 being built of large timber, and covered from top to 

 bottom with leaves, so that each may contain 200 or 

 300 inhabitants. The air is serene, seldom incom- 

 moded witli storms, excessive drought, or moisture, 

 except in the time of the periodical rains, which last 

 from February to June. The soil of the province is 

 very fertile, producing maize, cotton, sugar, rice, 

 cocoa, pimento, ginger, &c. Population, 183,000, 

 exclusive of the savages. The number of negroes is 

 very great. The capital is Maranhao, or St Luiz, 

 with 12,000 inhabitants; lat. 2 29' S.; Ion. 48 

 45' W. 



MARANON. See Amazon. 



MARAT, JEAN PAUL, whose name is odiously 

 notorious in the most hateful times of the French re- 

 volution, was born at Boudry, in Neufchatel, in 1744, 

 and studied medicine at Paris, where he practised his 

 profession at the beginning of the revolutionary 

 movements. Previous to 1789, he had published 

 several works on medical and scientific subjects, 

 which display considerable acuteness and learning. 

 Of a small and even diminutive stature, with the most 

 hideous features, in which some traits of insanity 

 were perceptible, his whole appearance was calcu- 

 lated to excite at once terror, pity, ridicule, and dis- 

 gust. The first breath of the revolution converted 

 the industrious and obscure doctor into an audacious 

 demagogue, if not into a ferocious maniac. He began 

 by haranguing the populace of one of the sections 

 but was treated with ridicule, and hustled by the 

 crowd, who amused themselves with treading on his 

 toes. Still he persisted, and finally succeeded, by his 

 violence and energy, in commanding attention. 

 Danton had just instituted the club of the Cordeliers, 

 and collected around him all the fiercest spirits, and 

 Marat among the number, who became the editor of 

 the Ami du Peuple, a journal which was the organ 

 of that society, and soon became the oracle of die 

 mob. As early as August 1789, he declared it neces- 

 sary to hang up 800 of the deputies, with Mirabeau 

 at their head, in the garden of the Tuileries, and, 

 though he was denounced to the constitutional assem- 

 bly, and proceeded against by the municipal authority 

 of Paris, he contrived to escape, with the assistance 

 of Danton, Legendre, and others, and by concealing 

 himself in the most obscure corner of the city. His 

 journal, meanwhile, continued to appear regularly, 

 was openly hawked about the streets, and assumed a 

 more furious and atrocious tone, as he was inflamed 



