168 M A ]f 
The number of inhabitants is eflimated at about 136,000 
perfons, among whom are reckoned 1050 fecular prielts, 
1000 monks and hermits, 600 cloiftered nuns, and 600 
women voluntarily engaged in charitable inttitutions. 
The Majorcans are excellent foldiers and failors. The 
drefs of the peatants is a cap, which covers their fhort 
hair, a jacket down to the waift, large breeches, and rtioes 
tied with a firing ; above the breeches they have a tort of 
frock. The neat and firnple head-drefs of the females is 
called rebozillo ; it confifts of a double handkerchief, the 
upper part of which covers the head, and is hid under the 
chin, leaving only the face expofed, then extending over 
the fhoulders, and falling down half of the back, the two 
ends meet, crofs, and are tied before. Among the wealthy 
the rebozillo is an expenfive article of drefs, on account 
of the embroidery and lace. The women are in general 
fond of ornaments; thofe of fortune having a gold chain 
hanging along the petticoat, and fometimes a chain of the 
fame metal from the corfet, to which is fixed a valuable 
medallion; they have alfo all their fingers covered with 
rings; and make life of watches, bracelets, and other 
trinkets. When they go abroad, they wear a mantle like 
thofe in Spain, and carry in their hands a fan, and a long 
chaplet with gold beads, and a crofs of the fame metal. 
The Majorcans value themfelves on their fidelity to their 
fovereign; they are devout without bigotry, and their 
manners are foft and prepofielfing. 
MAJOR'CA, anciently called Palma, a feaport-town, 
and capital of the above ifiand, the fee of a bilhop, and 
the reftder.ee of the captain-general of the Balearic and 
Pityufe ifles. The city is fituated on the banks of a large 
bay formed by the fea, between the capes Blanco and 
Gala Figuera, which is faid to be three leagues and a half 
w ide ; the port, though fmall, is good and fafe. The 
city is built on a declivity on the fea-(bore, in the part 
where the port makes a bend. It is furrounded with 
walls, flanked by twelve ballions ; here are a half-moon, 
horn-work, and feveral redoubts ; on the land-fide there 
is a dry ditch ; but all thefe fortifications could not fuftain 
a well-condudted flege. It has eight gates, three of which 
are on the fide of the fea. The fireets in fome parts of 
the city are narrow, and badly paved; thofe in the lower 
parts, as well as of the fquares, are large and regular. 
The population of the city is reckoned at 33,000 inhabi¬ 
tants. (Cruttwell’s Gazetteer fays 10,000.) The bilhopric 
is a fufffagan of Valencia; the diocefe comprehends forty 
parifhes, and the revenue amounts to 45,000 piaftres a-year. 
Here are five rich parilh-churches, twelve monafteries, 
eleven convents, belides one in the fuburbs, a number of 
chapels or oratories, four hofpitals, two religious lioufes, 
nine penitentiaries, two colleges, and feveral remarkable 
public edifices. The adminiftration is compofed of a cap¬ 
tain-general and royal audience, who decide as a fu- 
preme court on civil, criminal, and military, affairs. The 
cathedral-church, which ftands in the highelt part of 
the city, is handfome and large, of Gothic architedfure, 
with three aides and lofty vaulted roofs. The parifli- 
cliurcb of St. Michael is one of the moft ancient; it was 
a mofque in the time of the Moors. The other churches 
have been built fince ; and are all large, and ornamented 
with turrets or fpires of different forms. The epifcopal 
palace is large, adjoins the cathedral, and is built of beau¬ 
tiful done. The palace royal of government, where the 
captain-general and intendant-general refide, is the moft 
confiderable, and commands the fea-fliore. The Houfe 
of Contracfation, built in the fourteenth century, is of 
Gothic architecture, and is the place where the merchants 
affemble, and where the public fetes and mafked balls are 
held ; near it is the confulate, where the board of com¬ 
merce holds its fittings, and which gives its audience gra- 
tuitoufly. The manfion houfe has a quantity of fculpture 
on its entablature, and a number of Gothic ornaments. 
The clack of this building marks and firikes the different 
hours of the day and night, according to the progrefs of 
M A I 
the fun, arid the different folftices; and is generally al¬ 
lowed to be the only one of the kind in the world. The 
lioufes 3 re pleafant; fome are even built of marble. 
MAJOR'ITY, f. [from major.'] The flate of being 
greater.—It is not plurality of parts without majority of 
parts that maketh the total greater. Greta's Cofmologia .— 
The greater number.—-It was highly probable the majority 
would be fo wife as to efpoufe that caufe which was molt 
agreeable to the public weal, and by that means hinder a 
fedition. Addifon. 
As in fenates fo in fchools. 
Majority of voices rules. Prior. 
[From majores, Let.] Ancefiry.—Of evil parents an eiil 
generation, a pofterity not unlike their majority, of mif- 
chievous progenitors, a venemous and deltrudf ive pro¬ 
geny. Brovin .—Full age; end of minority.—During the 
infancy of Henry III. the barons were troubled in expel¬ 
ling the French ; but this prince was no fooner come to 
his majority, but the barons raifed a cruel war again It him. 
Davies. —Firft rank. Obfoletc : 
Douglas, whofe high deeds, 
Wliofe hot incurfions, and great name in arms. 
Holds from all foldiers chief majority. 
And military title capital. Skake/peart's Henry IV, 
The office or rank of major ; as, He was promoted to a 
majority. 
MAIRAN' (John-James d’Ortous de), an eminent 
French philofopher, was defeended from a noble family 
at Beziers, where he was born in the year 1678. He ap¬ 
pears to have devoted himfelf from his youth to the ftudy 
of literature and fcience, and by his merit obtained feats 
in the Academy of Sciences and the French Academy, 
of both which inlfitutions he was one of the moft illufi- 
trious members. In the former, he was chofen perpetual 
fecretary, after the death of Fontenelle, in 1741. The 
duties of this poft he difeharged, with great reputation, 
till the year 1744; and, like his predeceffor, polfeffed a 
happy talent at placing the moft abftrufe fubjeft in a clear 
and intelligent light. In his eulogies, likewife, without 
imitating Fontenelle, he nearly equalled him in the faculty 
of charaCterifing the fubjects of them, and of impartially 
appreciating their merits. He died of a defluxion on the 
lungs in 1771- The reputation of M. de Mairan was 
widely fpread in foreign countries ; and he had rhe honour 
lo be a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at 
Peterfburg, the Royal Society of London, the Inltitute of 
Bologna, the Philofophical Societies of Edinburgh, Up- 
fal, &c. In his own country he was highly refpedted and 
efteemed by .all who knew him, as an intelligent, polite, 
amiable, and cheerful, companion. The chief of his pro¬ 
ductions are, 1. A Differtation on Ice, the laft edition 
of which was printed in 1749, i^mo. z. A Differtation 
on the Caufe of the Light of Phofphoric Bodies, and- 
Glow-worms, &c. 1717, israo. 3. An Hiftorical and 
Phyfical Treatife on the Aurora Borealis, 1733, niao. and 
greatly enlarged in 1754, 4to. 4. A Letter to Father Pe- 
rennin, containing feveral Queltions relating to China, 
121B0. a curious work, and full of that philofophical fpi- 
rit which charafterlfes the other works of the author. 
5. A vafl number of Memoirs inferted among thole of 
the Academy of Sciences after the year 1719; feveral 
Differtations on particular fubjedts, of lefs magnitude; 
and Eulogies on the Academicians of the Academy of 
Sciences who died in the Years 1741, 1742, and 1743, 
publiflied in 1747, in nmo. 
For further information relative to Mairan, fee Mem. de 
l’Acad. des Sciences, in which there are many curious ar¬ 
ticles concerning harmonics and the philofophy of Euclid, 
He accounts for the medicinal powers of mufic in the fol¬ 
lowing manner: “ It is from the mechanical and involun¬ 
tary connexion between the organ of hearing and the 
confonances excited in the outward air, joined to the ra¬ 
pid 
