MERIDIAN 



3747 



MEROVINGIANS 



MERIDIAN, Miss., an important cotton 

 market, one of the leading manufacturing cen- 

 ters of the state and the county seat of Lauder- 

 dale County. It is situated near the eastern 

 state line, about midway between its northern 

 and southern borders, eighty-five miles east of 

 Jackson, the state capital, and 135 miles north- 

 west of Mobile. The Alabama & Vicksburg, 

 the Alabama Great Southern, the Meridian & 

 Memphis, the New Orleans & Northeastern, 

 the Southern and the Mobile & Ohio railroads 

 enter the city. In 1910 the population was 

 23,285; in 1916 it was 21,818 (Federal estimate) 

 The area of the city is four square miles. 



Meridian is located in a fine agricultural dis- 

 trict, noted especially for an abundance of cot- 

 ton, and the leading industrial establishments 

 of the city flre largely dependent on this prod- 

 uct. They are cotton gins, cotton compresses 

 and cottonseed-oil refineries; besides these 

 there are fertilizer, broom, hosiery and wagon 

 factories, lumber and stave mills' and large rail- 

 road machine shops. The high school building, 

 the Carnegie Library and the courthouse are 

 worthy of note. The East Mississippi Hospital 

 for the Insane is located here. For higher edu- 

 cation the city has Meridian Female College 

 (Methodist Episcopal), opened in 1869; Me- 

 ridian Male College, Meridian Academy 

 (Methodist Episcopal South), and Lincoln 

 School (Congregational), for colored students. 



Meridian was organized in 1854 and was char- 

 tered as a city in 1860. In 1906 fire visited the 

 city and destroyed a large portion of the busi- 

 ness district. In 1912 the commission form of 

 government was adopted. 



MERIMEE, mare ma', PROSPER (1803-1870), 

 a French novelist, historian and dramatist, 

 whose name will live because he wrote Carmen, 

 a Spanish gypsy romance, afterward woven into 

 one of the most popular operas by Bizet. He 

 was born in Paris, studied law, but cared little 

 for it, and in 1831 became an inspector of his- 

 torical monuments in France, his reports being 

 the basis of four volumes which included Monu- 

 ments Historiques, a standard work on archae- 

 ology. As a writer of both narrative and dra- 

 matic fiction, however, he is best known. His 

 first works, La Guzla and Theatre de Clara 

 Gazul, were translations of Illyrian songs and 

 Spanish comedies. Colomba, published in 1840, 

 was a story of Corsica, and a novel of extraor- 

 dinary power. Carmen was written in 1847. In 

 1853 he became a senator of France and in 

 1860 was made commander of the Legion of 

 Honor. He had few equals in his day as a 



master of style, and in private life was charac- 

 terized by loyal and devoted friendships. See 

 CARMEN. 



MERLIN, mur'lin, a magician, bard and 

 prophet of British legend, who was supposed to 

 have been the son of a fierce demon and a 

 Welsh princess. When he was yet an infant 

 he began to show his marvelous powers. Dur- 

 ing the time of the Saxon invasion he invoked 

 two dragons out of the ground, supposed to 

 represent the Saxons and the Britons. As they 

 fought he sang a series of verses in which he 

 predicted the future down to the time of Geof- 

 frey of Monmouth (twelfth century). The 

 story of Merlin was written in Spanish, French, 

 German and English; he is a character in Sir 

 Thomas Malory's Morte d' Arthur and in Ten- 

 nyson's Idylls of the King. 



A real Merlin is supposed to have lived about 

 470. He was a Welsh bard, and during the in- 

 vasion of the Saxons came into the service of 

 King Arthur. After witnessing a horrible bat- 

 tle near Solway he went mad, and forsaking 

 human society lived in caves, singing to him- 

 self all day long. 



MER'MAID AND MER'MAN, in folklore, 

 mythical creatures who lived in the sea and 

 possessed bodies that were half human and half 

 fish. Mermaids were supposed to wed mortal 

 men, and mortal maids were often enticed by 

 mermen to the sea. The typical mermaid was 

 represented as a beautiful maiden who combed 

 her luxuriant hair with one hand and held a 

 mirror with the other. The figures of both mer- 

 maid and merman are frequently found in 

 ancient and medieval art. The origin of the 

 myth is supposed to rest in the humanlike ap- 

 pearance of certain marine animals, such as the 

 seal. Stories of these mythical creatures have 

 been often celebrated in poetry. Tennyson in 

 his Mermaid says : 



I would be a mermaid fair ; 

 I would sing to myself the whole of the day ; 

 With a comb of pearl I would comb my hair ; 

 And still as I combed I would sing and say, 

 "Who is it loves me? who loves not me?" 



MEROVINGIANS, mer o vin' je anz, the 

 name given to the first Frankish kings who gov- 

 erned Gaul and laid the foundations of the 

 French nation. The name was from that of 

 Merovaeus, an early chieftain of the race. The 

 first powerful king of the dynasty was Clovis, 

 his ambition being to erect a kingdom on the 

 ruins of Roman power. In A. D. 486 he attacked 

 Syagrius, the Roman governor of Gaul, and 

 gained such a decisive victory that Romafc 



