MAUPASSANT 



3700 



MAYOR 



wash the feet of twelve poor persons and be- 

 stow gifts upon them. The custom of washing 

 the feet still exists among Roman Catholics, 

 the bishops or priests washing the feet of twelve 

 altar boys. In Rome, the Pope on this day 

 washes the feet of twelve bishops. G.W.M. 



MAUPASSANT, mopasahN', HENRI RENE 

 ALBERT GUY DE (1850-1893), a French writer of 

 fiction, born at Miromesnil Chateau in Nor- 

 mandy. He was educated at Yvetot and Rouen, 

 France, and when about twenty years of age 

 entered government service in the department 

 of public instruction, but was dissatisfied be- 

 cause of his great interest in literature, espe- 

 cially fiction. In 1880 he contributed to a book 

 of fiction a short story entitled A Ball of Tal- 

 low. It was a masterpiece, and immediately 

 placed him among the foremost writers of 

 France. During the next year he wrote The 

 Foolscap House, a collection of short stories, 

 and critics began to speak of him as the most 

 skilful short-story writer the nation had yet 

 produced. 



In 1883 he wrote his first novel, A Life. It is 

 a marvelous example of accurate observation, 

 without the least emotion or effort to impress 

 a moral lesson, and yet deeply affecting because 

 of its tone of absolute truthfulness. Except in 

 Hugo, France had never seen such literary art, 

 and Maupassant found himself surrounded by 

 admiring disciples anxious to learn his style. 



Between 1883 and 1886 his skill was at its 

 height, and many masterpieces appeared in such 

 collections of stories as Miss Harriet, Yvette, 

 Stories and Novelettes and Tales of the Day 

 and Night. It was during this period that he 

 wrote The Necklace, now generally considered 

 the most perfect short story in any language. 



By 1886 Maupassant's best work was com- 

 pleted. A nervous malady and his violent ex- 

 ercise in an effort to cure it had greatly weak- 

 ened him; he began to show signs of insanity, 

 but continued his writing and displayed more 

 sympathy, but less skill in his fiction. In 1891 

 general paralysis came upon him; early the 

 next year his reason gave way entirely, and on 

 July 6, 1893, he died in a Paris hospital. 



MAURITIUS, maw risk' i us, a British island 

 in the Indian Ocean, 550 miles east of Mada- 

 gascar, once known, during a brief period of 

 French dominion, as ILE DE FRANCE. It was dis- 

 covered by the Portuguese in 1505, and in 1598 

 was ceded to the Dutch, who gave the island 

 its present name in honor of Count Maurice of 

 Nassau. Abandoned by the Hollanders in 1710, 

 it was taken over by the French, and in 1814, 



at the close of the Napoleonic wars, was for- 

 mally ceded to Great Britain, to whom it now 

 belongs. 



Mauritius has an area of 720 square miles, 

 and is therefore three-fifths as large as Rhode 

 Island. Several extinct craters indicate that it 

 is of volcanic origin. It is skirted by coral 

 reefs and diversified by hills and low, rugged 

 mountains of varied and picturesque beauty. A 

 charming description of the island scenery is 

 given by Bernadin de Saint Pierre in his beau- 

 tiful romance Paul and Virginia, the scenes of 

 which are laid in Mauritius. Port Louis, the 

 principal town and the capital of the island, is 

 located on a harbor provided with an inner 

 basin called the Fanfaron; here vessels take 

 refuge during the violent hurricanes which fre- 

 quently sweep over the island. 



In 1913 Mauritius had an estimated popula- 

 tion of 379,850. Less than one-third of the in- 

 habitants are Europeans, the bulk of the popu- 

 lation consisting of native East Indians. There 

 are about sixty government schools, ample tele- 

 phone and telegraph lines and about 130 miles 

 of railway. A thriving trade is carried on with 

 the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, 

 India, France and Madagascar. Sugar is the 

 principal article of export, but molasses, rum, 

 cocoanut oil and vanilla are also shipped away. 

 The chief imports are rice, wheat and other 

 grains, cotton goods, wine, coal and hardware. 



MAUSOLEUM, mawsole'um, a term ap- 

 plied in modern times to a tomb of consider- 

 able architectural pretensions, often taking the 

 form of a burial chapel. The word was derived 

 from the tomb of Mausolus, a king of Caria, 

 near the Aegean Sea. When he died, in 353 B. c., 

 Artemisia, his widow, erected at Halicarnassus 

 one of the most magnificent tombs the world 

 has ever seen. Artemisia died before the tomb 

 was completed, but the work was carried on by 

 the most famous sculptors of ancient times, and 

 became known as one of the wonders of the 

 world. 



See SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD ; also the 

 illustration in article MASONRY. 



MA'VOR, JAMES (1854- ), a Canadian 

 economist and educator, generally regarded as 

 the foremost of contemporary Canadians in his 

 field. Professor Mavor is not merely a writer 

 on economic theories, nor a teacher, but a 

 practical investigator whose services have been 

 used by the British and Canadian governments 

 to study numerous economic and social prob- 

 lems, including labor conditions, immigration, 

 copyright, railway rates and grain production. 



