I GO M A I 
MAIN, adj. \magne, old Fr. magnus, Lat.J Principal 5 
chief; leading.—In every grand or main public duty 
which God requireth of his church, there is, befides that 
matter and form wherein the effence thereof confilteth, a 
certain outward fafhion, whereby the fame is indecent 
manner adminiflered. Hooker. 
There is a hiftory in all men’s lives, 
Figuring the nature of the times deceafed ; 
The which obferv’d, a man may prophefy, 
With a near aim, of the main chance of things 
As yet not come to life. Shakefpeare's Henry IV. 
Mighty; huge; overpowering; vaft ; 
Seed: thou what rage 
Tranfports our adverfary, whom no bounds, 
Nor yet the main abyfs, wide interrupt, can hold > Milton. 
Grofs; containing the chief part: 
We ourfelf will follow 
In the main battle, which on either fide 
Shall be well winged with our chiefeft horfe, Shakefpeare. 
Important; forcible.—This young prince, with a train of 
young noblemen and gentlemen, but not with any main 
army, came over to take poffefiion of his new patrimony. 
Davies on Ireland. 
That, which thou aright 
Believ’ft fo main to our fuccefs, I bring. Milton. 
MAIN, f. The grofs; the bulk ; the greater part.— 
The main of them may be reduced to language, and an 
improvement in wifdom, by feeing men. Locke.- —The fum ; 
the whole; the general.-—They allowed the liturgy and 
government of the church of England as to the main. 
King Charles. —The ocean ; the great fea, as diltinguifhed 
from bays or rivers : 
A fubttitute fhines brightly as a king. 
Until a king be by ; and then his (fate 
Empties itfelf, as doth an inland brook 
Into the main of waters. Shakefpeare. 
Violence; force: 
He ’gan advance 
Witli huge force, and importable main. 
And towards him with dreadful fury prance. Spenfer. 
With might and main they chac’d the murd’rous fox, 
4 Vith brazen trumpets, and inflated box. Dryden. 
£From mams , Lat.] A hand at dice: 
Were it good. 
To fet the exaft wealth of all our dates 
All at one calt; to fet fo rich a main 
In the nice hazard of one doubtful hour ? Shakefpeare. 
To pafs our tedious hours away, 
We throw a merry main. Earl Dorfet's Song. 
Writing is but juft like dice. 
And lucky mains make people wife : 
That jumbled words, if fortune throw ’em, 
Shall, well as Dryden, form a poem. Prior. 
The continent.-—In 1589, we turned challengers, and in¬ 
vaded the main of Spain. Bacon's War with Spain. —A ham¬ 
per. Ainfworth. 
MAIN, a town of Perfia, in the province of Farfiftan : 
thirty-two miles north of Schiras. 
MAIN, or Maine, in North America. See Maine. 
MAIN (Ealt), or Slude River, a river of Canada, 
which runs into James Bay in lat. 52. 18. N. Ion. 78. 
.45. W. On the ealt of this river is Eaft Main Houfe, a 
Itation for the Indian trade in Canada, Lat. 52. 15. N. 
ion. 78. 42. W. 
MAIN (Little or Frier), a village in Dorfetlhire, in 
which there was a preceptory to the Knights Hofpitallers. 
Here was anciently a free-chapel. 
MAIN-BROA'D, Dorfetlhire, a final! parifli three miles 
jaorth of Main Ower. 
1\I A I 
MAIN CAPE REE'F. See Tib UR ones, 
MAIN GUAR'D, that guard in a garrifon to which 
the reft are fubordinate; a body of horfe polled before a 
camp for its greater fecurity. 
MAIN O'WER, a village in Dorfetlhire, with a fair on 
the 10th of Oftober. 
MAIN-PO'RT,y.' in eccleliaftical antiquity, a fmall tri¬ 
bute, commonly of loaves of bread, which in fome places 
the parilhioners pay to the reftor of their church, in re- 
compenfe for certain tithes. Cornell. 
MA'INA, a feaport town of the Morea, which gives 
name to a diltrift, fituated in a bay of the Mediterranean. 
The inhabitants, defendants of the ancient Spartans, have 
never yet been conquered by the Turks: thirty miles 
fouth of Mifitra. Bat. 36. 42. N. Ion. 22. 22. E. 
Maina is a mountainous diflrift; and the inhabitants, 
living in a ftate wild independence, deem it no crime to 
affail the property of their neighbours either by fea or 
land. They have, in fa ft, never been thoroughly fubju- 
gated ; and they might fucceed in driving the Turks to a 
confiderable diltance, were not their efforts enfeebled by 
mifevable feuds among themfelves. They have the vanitty 
to retain the name and feveral of the cuftoms of the an¬ 
cient Spartans; among others, that of wearing their hair 
long and flowing; a peculiarity which, our readers rnay 
recolleft, was obferved in the chofen band of Leonidas on 
the eve of their memorable conflift. They are not, how¬ 
ever, more gallant than their anceftors in their treatment 
of the fair lex; the labour in the fields appearing to de¬ 
volve chiefly on the women. The molt remarkable feel¬ 
ing difeovered by Mr. Galt in the difpofition of the Mai- 
nots was a wilh for the arrival of a Chriftian power, no 
matter whether French or Englilh, to relieve them from 
the deteftedmeighbourhood of the Turks. 
Their territory confilts chiefly of the extenfive ridge of 
mountains known by the general name of Taygetus ; their 
population is computed at 40,000; and their men at only 
one fourth, or 10,000. It is in vain to bel’et their defiles, 
or to attempt to fubdue them ; they are animated by an 
unconquerable fpirit, and never fail to make their affail- 
ants repent the invalion. He who travels in the plain by 
night fees proofs of their vigilance in the fires which are 
lighted along their ftations on the mountains. Their 
chiefs are cholenby the public voice, and owe theirelevation 
to the fplendour of their exploits. The young Mainotti, 
accultomed from their infancy to the ufe of arms, inured 
to fatigues, familiarifed with dangers, are always ready to 
meafure their ftrength aga'nll that of the Turks. The 
very name, indeed, of a Turk infpires them with fury. 
Their courage, or perhaps it may be called temerity, is 
doubtlefs increafed by the perfeft knowledge they have 
of the natural ftrength of their country, of the advantages 
it poflelfes in its defiles, where an enemy very much fupe- 
rior in numbers to themfelves may be effectually refitted. 
A ftroke has not unfrequently been fuddenly planned at 
a meal, and executed at the fame moment, almoft always 
with complete fuccefs. The innate love of rapine, the 
image of poverty, the exaggerated ideas they form to them¬ 
felves of the riches of the Mufl'ulmans, and the profound 
hatred they bear them, are amply fufficient to urge them 
on, when their imaginations are the leaft exalted, to any 
undertaking. 
So far we recognize the commendable charafteriftics of 
a people determined to be independent; but an additional 
inquiry exhibits the unpleafant fide of the pifture. By 
an unfortunate fatality, thefe chiefs, always reftlels ami 
ambitious, keep their cantons in an habitual ftate of dif- 
cord. It is only when their common danger unites them 
that the Mainotti appear in a favourable point of view; 
in their ordinary habits they mull be objefts of averfion 
to every one who has the happinefs of having been bom 
in a civilized country. United among themfelves when 
they have a foreign enemy to combat, the Mainotti, as 
foon as the danger is part, are feen to abandon themfelves 
to difl'enfions at home, which often terminate in dyeing 
their 
