MEN 
-ills ancient rights and prerogatives, which are not dis¬ 
puted, as long as he refrains from attempting to put 
them in force. His chara&er is held in a facrcd light; 
hnd the obfcurity and air of myftery which furround his 
court, together with the influence of the Mahometan 
priefts, who regard him as the head of their religion, 
keep up this veneration. This empire is allowed to be 
very ancient ; though, when the Europeans firft made 
difcoveries in thefe parts, it was in its decline. Like 
the other people of Sumatra, thofe of Menangeabow are 
entirely without records or annals. They are expert at 
writing in the Arabic charadler; but their literature 
amounts to nothing more than tranfcripts of the Koran, 
and cabar , or lriftoric tales, relembling our old romances, 
but having lefs ingenuity. They are famous for com- 
pofing fongs, called pantoon, which fpread throughout 
the ifland. The arts, in general, are carried among them 
to a greater degree of perfeftion than by the other natives 
of Sumatra. The Malays are the foie fabricators of the 
gold and filver filagree. Menangeabow has alfo been 
celebrated for its conliderable traffic in gold, lying in the 
midfl of the mines where it is chiefly produced. Much 
cloth is wrought and exported here. Here alfo have 
been manufactured, from the earlieft times, arms for 
their own ufe, and for the fupply of the northern inha¬ 
bitants of the ifland, who are the moft warlike. Their 
guns are thofe pieces called matchlocks, nor is the im¬ 
provement of lprings and flints yet adopted by them; 
their barrels are well tempered, and of the jufteft bore. 
Powder is made by them in great quantity, but it is de¬ 
fective in ftrength. Befides guns, they have other arms, 
which are, for the molt part, weapons of a make between 
that of a fcimitar and a knife. Their crufes are a fpecies 
of dagger of a particular conftruCtion, and are worn by all 
defcriptions of people. They have other implements of 
warfare, called ranjows, which are fharp-pointed flakes 
of bamboo, of different lengths, ftuck into the ground, 
in order to penetrate the naked feet or body of an enemy. 
Thefe are made ufe of in cafes of flight, to annoy and 
retard the purfuers; and planted in the path-ways, or 
among the long grafs, by the vanquifhed party as they 
run. They are alfo difpofed in the approaches to fortified 
places. Their wars are generally carried on rather in the 
way of ambufcade, and furprife of ftraggling parties, 
than open combat. The foldiers have no pay ; but the 
plunder is thrown into a common fund, and divided. 
The people of Menangeabow are all Mahometans, and 
in that refpeCt dillinguilhed from the other inland inha¬ 
bitants of the ifland. This country is looked upon as 
the fupreme feat of that religion; and next to a voyage 
to Mecca, which fome Sumatrans have undertaken, to 
have been at Menangeabow ftamps a man of fuperior 
fanClity. With the change of their religion, the people 
of this country altered their language, laws, cuftoms, 
and manners. This was effected by the lettlement of the 
Malays among them. 
By late accounts it appears, that the kingdom of Me¬ 
nangeabow, even in its iimited Hate, is rent into various 
fovereignties. Mar/den's Sumatra. 
MENA'PII, in ancient geography, a people who, in 
the time of Caefar, inhabited the banks of the Lower 
Rhine. They were bounded on the north and eaft by 
the Mofa, and on the well by the Scaldis. Their country 
correfponded to what is now called Brabant. 
MENA'RAH, a large mauloleum in the kingdom 
of Tunis, near twenty yards in diameter, built in a cy¬ 
lindrical form, with a vault underneath it. Several fmall 
altars (fuppofed by the Moors to have been formerly fo 
many menara, i.e. lamps for the direClion of the mariner) 
are placed upon the cornice, and infcribed with Roman- 
names : fix miles fouth-wefl of Hamam-et. 
MENA'RD (Leon), a French hillorical writer, was 
born at Tarafcon in 1706. He was probably brought up 
to the law, as he is entitled Counfellor to the Preiidial 
■of Nifines; but. he feems to have devoted himfelf chiefly 
M E N 87 
to the ftudies of hillory and antiquities. He obtained a 
place in the Academy of Infcriptions and Belles Lettres ; 
and from that time pafled his life at Paris, where he died, 
in indigent circumftances.; in 1767. The firlt work of 
this writer was a “ Hillory of the Bilhop of Nilmes,” 
2 vols. mmo. 1737 ; which was the precurfor of a publi¬ 
cation, the produft of many laborious years, “ L’Hif- 
toire civile, eccleliaftique, et litteraire, de la Ville de 
Nifmes,” 7 vols. 4to. 1750 et feq. In depth of relearcn 
and abundance of curious matter this is furpaflfed by few 
topographical works ; but its enormous bulk implies a 
proxility that could not fail to prove revolting to rea¬ 
ders in general. By way of relaxation from his ferious 
labours, Menard compofed a romance entitled “ Les 
Amours de Callifthene et d’Ariftoclie,” firll printed in 
1740, and reprinted with additions in 1766. Itslcene is 
laid in ancient Greece, and its principal merit coniills in 
the delineation of Grecian manners. This lalt topic 
he treated on exprelsly in his “ Mceurs et Ufages des 
Grecs,” 1743, nmo. a work which did honour to his 
erudition, and was read with avidity. He carried his en¬ 
quiries into French hillory, and publilhed a colleftion 
of “ Pieces fugitives pour fervir a l'Hilloire de la France,’’ 
3 vols. 4to. 1748. He likewife publilhed in 1750 a Refu¬ 
tation of the Arguments of Voltaire againll the Authen¬ 
ticity of the political Teftament of Cardinal Richelieu.” 
Necruloge Franc. Gen. Biog. 
MENAR'D (Nicholas Hugh), a learned French monk, 
was born at Paris in the year 1585. When very young 
he entered among the Benedictines at the abbey of St. 
Dennis; and at the age of twenty-nine embraced the 
reform of St. Maur, of which he was one of the earlieft 
members who became diftinguilhed for erudition. He 
died at Paris in 1644, about the age of fifty-nine. He 
was the author, or editor, of the following works, which 
difplay much curious relearch, and judicious criticifm : 
1. Martyrologium SanClorum Ordinis S. Benedifti, See. 
1629, 8vo. 2. Concordia Regularum S. BenediCli de 
Aniana, &c. with the life of that faint; 1628, 4to. 3. 
Sacramentarium S. Gregorii Magni; 1642, 4to. 4. Dia- 
triba de unico Dionylio ; 1643, 8vo. 5. An edition of 
the Epiltle of St. Barnabas in the original Greek, from 
an ancient MS. in the abbey of Corbie, accompanied 
with the ancient Latin verlion, and illullrated with 
learned notes. This laffc work was not publilhed during 
father Menard’s life-time, but was printed in 1643, 
quarto, under the inipeCtion of father d’Achery, who 
wrote a preface to it. Moreri. 
MENA'RS. See Mer. 
MENARUO'LO, a town of Italy: feventeen miles- 
north-well of Verona. 
ME'NAS (St.), an ifland in the Grecian Archipelago, 
about fix miles in circumference. Lat. 37.,. 33. N. Ion. 
26. 30. E. 
MENAS'SEH (Ben Ifrael), a very celebrated rabbi, 
was born in Spain about the year 1604. Some writers 
make him a defcendant from the family of Abrabarnel; 
but to this honour he lays no claim, when, in more than 
one of his writings, he fays that his Ions would be able to 
boalt of it on their mother’s fide. His father, after hav¬ 
ing been cruelly tortured by the Spanilh inquilition, and 
llripped of his property, made his efcape into Holland, 
with his wife and two Ions, one of whom was the fiub- 
jeft of this article. Here young Menafleh was placed 
under the tuition of a famous rabbi, called Ifaac Ufieli; 
and purfued his ftudies with fuch uncommon diligence 
and luccefs, particularly in Hebrew and divinity, that at 
the age of eighteen he was judged qualified to lucceed 
his tutor in the office of preacher and expounder of the 
Talmud in the fynagogue at Amfterdam; which poll he oc¬ 
cupied feveral years, with very high reputation. He was 
not quite twenty-eight years of age, when he publilhed,. 
in 1632, in the Spanilh language, the firft part of his 
work, entitled, Conciliador, &c. of which, in the follow¬ 
ing year, a Latin, verliyn was publilhed by Dionylius Vo A- 
