[1] In the _Antonine Itinerary_ the name Mancunium (q.v.) or Mamucium
is given. This is the origin of the modern name, and has supplied the
adjective "Mancunian" (cf. "Old Mancunians" applied to old boys of
Manchester Grammar School).
MANCHESTER (popularly Manchester-by-the-Sea), a township of Essex
county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., about 25 m. N.E. of Boston, on
Massachusetts Bay. Pop. (1900), 2522; (1905, state census), 2618;
(1910), 2673. Area, 7.64 sq. m. It is served by the Boston & Maine
railroad, and is connected with neighbouring towns and cities by
electric lines. The township, heavily wooded in parts, and with
picturesque shores alternating between rocky headlands and sandy
beaches, stretches for several miles along the coast between Beverly on
the west and Gloucester on the east. It is one of the most beautiful
watering-places in America, and is the favourite summer residence of
many of the foreign diplomats at Washington. The "singing beach" is a
stretch of white sand, which, when trodden upon, emits a curious musical
sound. Manchester, originally a part of Salem, was settled about 1630
and was at first known as Jeffrey's Creek. It was incorporated
separately under its present name in 1645.
See _Manchester Town Records_ (2 vols., Salem, 1889-1891), and D. F.
Lamson, _History of the Town of Manchester, 1645-1895_ (Manchester,
1895).
MANCHESTER, the largest city of New Hampshire, U.S.A., and one of the
county-seats of Hillsboro county, on the Merrimac river, at the mouth of
the Piscataquog river, (by rail) 18 m. S. of Concord and 57 m. N.N.W. of
Boston. Pop. (1890), 44,126; (1900), 56,987; (1910 U.S. census) 70,063.
Of the total population in 1900, 24,257 were foreign-born, including
13,429 French-Canadians; and 37,530 were of foreign parentage (both
parents foreign-born), including 18,839 of French-Canadian parentage.
Manchester is served by the Southern, the Western, the White Mountains,
and the Worcester Nashua & Portland divisions of the Boston & Maine
railroad, and by inter-urban electric lines. It is situated on a plain
about 90 ft. above the Merrimac river (which is spanned here by three
bridges), commands extensive views of the beautiful Merrimac valley, and
covers a land area of about 33 sq. m. On the east side of the city are
two connected lakes known as Lake Massabesic (30 m. in circumference).
Manchester is known for the attractive appearance of the residence
districts in which the factory operatives live, detached homes and
"corporation boarding-houses," instead of tenement houses, being the
rule. The Institute of Arts and Sciences (incorporated in 1898) provides
lecture courses and classes in science, art and music. Among the other
public buildings and institutions are the United States Government
building, the city-hall, the county-court-house, the city library (1854;
the outgrowth of the Manchester Athenaeum, established in 1844), St
Anselm's College (R.C.), a Roman Catholic cathedral, four Roman Catholic
convents, the Elliot hospital, the Sacred Heart hospital and the
hospital of Notre Dame de Lourdes, the State industrial school, the
State house of correction, the Gale home for aged women, an old ladies'
home (R.C.), St Martha's home for working girls, the Manchester
children's home and four orphan asylums. In the largest of five public
squares is a soldiers' monument, consisting of a granite column 50 ft.
high, surmounted by a statue of Victory. The city has two parks, and in
one of them, overlooking the Merrimac, is a monument to the memory of
General John Stark, who was born and was buried here. The water-supply
is obtained from Lake Massabesic. Amoskeag Falls in the Merrimac are 55
ft. in height, and by means of hydraulic canals Manchester is provided
with a fine water-power. Steam power is also used, and the city is by
far the most important manufacturing centre in the state. It is
extensively engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods, boots and shoes,
worsted goods, hosiery and other knit goods, and locomotives; among the
other manufactures are linen goods, steam fire-engines, paper, edge
tools, soap, leather, carriages and beer. The value of the city's
factory products increased from $24,628,345 in 1900 to $30,696,926 in
1905, or 24.6%. In 1905 Manchester produced 24.8% of the total factory
product of the state. Manchester ranks fifth among the cities of the
United States in cotton manufacturing, and ninth among the cities of the
country in the manufacture of boots and shoes.
On account of the abundance of fish in the river here, Amoskeag Falls
and vicinity were a favourite resort of the Penacook Indians, and it is
said that John Eliot, the "Apostle to the Indians," preached to them
here in the summer of 1651. The first white settlement within the
present limits of Manchester was made in 1722 by Scottish-Irish
immigrants at Goffe's Falls, 5 m. below Amoskeag Falls. In 1723 a cabin
was built by some of these immigrants at the greater falls, and
gradually a small settlement grew up there. In 1735 Massachusetts
granted to a body of men known as "Tyng's Snow-Shoe Scouts" and their
descendants a tract of land 3 m. wide along the east bank of the
Merrimac, designated as "Tyng's Township." The Scottish-Irish claimed
this tract as part of their grant from New Hampshire, and there arose
between the rival claimants a bitter controversy which lasted until May
1741, when the courts decided against the Massachusetts claimants. In
1751 the territory formerly known as "Tyng's Township," and sometimes
called "Harrytown," with portions of Chester and Londonderry, was
incorporated as a township under the name Derryfield; in 1810 the name
was changed to Manchester, the change having been suggested by the
town's manufacturing possibilities; and in 1846 Manchester was chartered
as a city. The first sawmill was erected as early as 1736, and during
the years from 1794 to 1807 a canal was constructed around the Amoskeag
Falls through which to carry lumber. As late as 1830 the town had a
population of only 877, but in 1831 the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company
was incorporated, the construction of hydraulic canals and the erection
of cotton mills followed, the villages of Piscataquog and Amoskeag were
annexed in 1853, and the population increased to 3235 in 1840, to 8841
in 1860, and to 33,592 in 1880.
Consult M. D. Clarke, _Manchester, A Brief Record of its Past and a
Picture of its Present_ (Manchester, 1875).
MANCHESTER, a former city of Chesterfield county, Virginia, U.S.A., (on
the S. side of the James river), since 1910 a part of Richmond. Pop.
(1900), 9715, of whom 3338 were negroes; (1906 estimate), 9997. It is
served by the Atlantic Coast Line, the Seaboard Air Line, and the
Southern railways, by electric lines to Richmond and Petersburg, and by
numerous river boats. It is finely situated in a bend of the river, with
about 2 m. of water front; on the heights above is Forest Hill park, a
pleasure resort, and adjacent to it Woodland Heights, a beautiful
residential district. From the surrounding country come much
agricultural produce, coal, lumber, bricks and granite. There is a good
harbour and excellent water power. Among the manufactures are paper,
flour, cotton goods, leather, brick, railway supplies, &c. The value of
the city's factory products increased from $1,621,358 in 1900 to
$3,226,268 in 1905, or 99%.
MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL. The advantage of a waterway for the conveyance of
goods between eastern Lancashire and the sea is so obvious that so far
back as the year 1721 Thomas Steers designed a plan for continuing to
Manchester the barge navigation which then existed between Liverpool and
Warrington. Parliamentary powers were then obtained to improve the
rivers Mersey and Irwell from Warrington to Manchester by means of
locks and weirs. This work was successfully carried out, and proved of
great benefit to the trade of the district. The duke of Bridgewater, who
had made a canal from his collieries at Worsley to Manchester,
afterwards continued the canal to the Mersey at Runcorn; this extension
was opened in 1722 and competed with the Mersey and Irwell navigation,
both routes being navigated by barges carrying about fifty tons of
cargo. The Liverpool & Manchester railway at a later date afforded
further facilities for conveyance of goods, but the high rates of
carriage, added to heavy charges at the Liverpool docks, prejudiced
trade, and the question was mooted of a ship canal to bring cotton,
timber, grain and other goods direct to Manchester without
transshipment. The first plan was made by William Chapman in 1825, and
was followed by one designed by Henry Palmer in 1840, but it was not
until the year 1882 that the movement was originated that culminated in
the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal by Queen Victoria on the 21st
of May 1894.
In determining the plan of the canal the main point which arose was
whether it should be made with locks or whether it should be on the
sea-level throughout, and therefore tidal. The advantage of a still
waterway in navigating large steamers, and the facilities afforded by
one constant water-level for works on the banks and the quick
discharge of goods at the terminal docks at Manchester, secured the
adoption of the plans for a canal with locks as designed by Sir E.
Leader Williams. The fresh-water portion of the canal extended between
Manchester and Runcorn, while from the latter place to Garston it was
proposed to improve the upper Mersey estuary by constructing training
walls and dredging to form a deep central channel. Parliamentary
powers to construct the canal were sought in the session of 1883, when
the bill passed the committee of the House of Commons but was rejected
by the committee of the House of Lords. Brought forward again the next
year, it was passed by the Lords but thrown out by the Commons. The
opposition from Liverpool and the railway companies was very strong;
to meet to some extent that of the former, a continuation of the canal
was proposed from Runcorn to Eastham along the Cheshire side of the
Mersey, instead of a trained channel in the estuary, and in this form
the bill was again introduced in the session of 1885, and,
notwithstanding strong opposition, was passed by both houses of
parliament. The cost of this contest to promoters and opponents
exceeded £400,000, the various committees on the bill having sat over
175 days. Owing to difficulties in raising the capital the works were
not begun until November 1887.
The total length of the canal is 35½ m. and it may be regarded as
divided into three sections. From Eastham to Runcorn it is near or
through the Mersey estuary for 12¾ m., and thence to Latchford near
Warrington, 8¼ m., it is inland; both these sections have the same
water-level, which is raised by high tides. At Latchford the locks
stop tidal action, and the canal is fed by the waters of the rivers
Mersey and Irwell from that point to Manchester, 14½ m. from
Latchford. The canal begins on the Cheshire side of the Mersey at
Eastham, about 6 m. above Liverpool. The entrance is well sheltered
and adjoins a good low-water channel communicating with the Sloyne
deep at Liverpool. Three entrance locks have been provided close to
and parallel with each other, their length and width being 600 by 80,
350 by 50, and 150 by 30 ft. These locks maintain the water-level in
the canal nearly to mean high-water level (14 ft. 2 in. above the
Liverpool datum); when the tide rises above that height the lock gates
are opened and the tide flows up to Latchford, giving on high spring
tides an additional depth of water of about 7 ft. On the ebb tide this
water is returned to the Mersey through large sluices at Randles Creek
and at the junction of the river Weaver with the canal, the level of
the canal thus being reduced to its normal height. The canal
throughout to Manchester has a minimum depth of 28 ft.; the depth
originally was 26 ft., but the lock sills were placed 2 ft. lower to
allow of the channel being dredged to 28 ft. when necessary. The
minimum width at bottom is 120 ft., allowing large vessels to pass
each other at any point on the canal; this width is considerably
increased at the locks and other parts. The slopes are generally about
1½ to 1, but are flatter through some portions; in rock-cutting the
sides are nearly vertical. From Eastham to Runcorn the canal is
alternately inland and on the foreshore of the estuary, on which
embankments were constructed to act as dams and keep out the tide
during the excavation of the canal, and afterwards to maintain the
water-level at low water in the estuary; both sides are faced with
heavy coursed stone. The material for the embankments was principally
clay excavated from the cuttings. In some places, where the foundation
was of a porous nature, sheeting piles of timber had to be used. At
Ellesmere Port, where the embankment is 6200 ft. long on sand, 13,000
whole timber sheeting piles 35 ft. long were driven, to secure the
base of the embankment on each side; water jets under pressure through
1½ in. wrought-iron pipes were used at the foot of each pile to assist
the sinking, which was found most difficult by ordinary means. At the
river Weaver ten Stoney roller sluices are built, each 30 ft. span,
with heavy stone and concrete piers and foundations; at Runcorn,
where the river Mersey is narrow, a concrete sea-wall 4300 ft. long
was substituted for the embankment. At various points under the canal
cast-iron siphon pipes were laid to carry off any land drainage which
was at a lower level than the canal; the largest of these siphons were
constructed to allow the tidal and fresh water of the river Gowy to
pass under the canal at Stanlow Point, between Eastham and Ellesmere
Port. Two 12-ft. siphons are there placed close together, built of
cast-iron segments; they are each 400 ft. long, and were laid on
concrete 4 ft. below the bottom of the canal. From Runcorn to
Latchford the canal is nearly straight, the depth of cutting varying
from 35 to 70 ft., partly in rock, but generally in alluvial deposit.
The whole length of the canal passes through the New Red Sandstone
formation, with its overlying beds of gravel, clay, sand and silt,
which gave much trouble during the progress of the work; retaining
walls of stone and brickwork had to be built in these places to
maintain the sides of the canal from slips and injury from the wash of
steamers.
The canal from Latchford to Manchester is in heavy cutting through the
valleys of the rivers Mersey and Irwell. As these rivers are
circuitous in course, only very small portions could be utilized in
forming the canal; a line as nearly straight as possible was therefore
adopted, and involved many crossings of the river channels. During the
whole progress of the work these had to be kept open for the discharge
of floods and land water, and in some places temporary cuts of
considerable length had to be made for the same object. In November
1890 and December 1891 high winter floods covered the whole of the
river valleys, filling many miles of the unfinished canal and causing
great damage to the slopes. Altogether 23 m. of canal had to be pumped
out to enable the work to be completed. After the cuttings between the
river channels were finished, the end dams were removed, and the
rivers Irwell and Mersey were turned into the new channel now forming
the upper portion of the ship canal. The total rise to the level of
the docks at Manchester from the ordinary level of the water in the
tidal portion of the canal below Latchford locks is 60 ft. 6 in.; this
is obtained by an average rise of about 15 ft. at each of the sets of
locks at Latchford, Irlam (7½ m. nearer Manchester), Barton (2 m.
farther) and Mode Wheel (3½ m. above Barton locks at the entrance to
the Manchester docks). For the greater part of this last length the
canal is widened at bottom from 120 ft., its normal width, to 170 ft.,
to enable vessels to lie at timber and other wharves without
interfering with the passage of large vessels to or from the docks.
The locks are in duplicate, one being 600 ft. long by 65 ft. wide, the
other 350 ft. long by 45 ft. wide, with Stoney's sluices adjacent.
They are filled or emptied in five minutes by large culverts on each
side with side openings into the lock. Concrete with facings of blue
Staffordshire brick is largely used, and the copings, sills, hollow
quoins and fender courses are of Cornish granite. The lock gates are
constructed of greenheart timber. The sluices near the locks take the
place of the weirs used in the old Mersey and Irwell navigation; they
are 30 ft. span each, four being generally used at each set of locks.
In ordinary seasons any water not used for lockage purposes passes
over the tops of the sluices, which are kept closed; in flood times
the sluices are raised to a height which will pass off floods with a
comparatively small rise in the canal. There are eight hydraulic
installations on the canal, each having duplicate steam-engines and
boilers; the mains exceed 7 m. in length, the pressure being 700 lb.
to the inch. They work the cranes, lifts and capstans at the docks,
lock gates and culvert sluices, coal tips, swing bridges and aqueduct.
At Barton, near Manchester, the Bridgewater canal crosses the river
Irwell on the first navigable aqueduct constructed in England. It was
the work of James Brindley, and since it was built at only sufficient
height to allow of barges passing under it, means had to be found to
allow of this important canal being maintained, and yet to permit
steamers to use the ship canal below it. Brindley's canal is on one
level throughout its whole length, and as its water supply is only
sufficient for the flight of locks by which it descends at Runcorn to
the Mersey, locks down to the ship canal would have involved the waste
of a lock of water on each side and caused serious delay to the
traffic. Sir E. Leader Williams surmounted the difficulty by means of
a swing aqueduct for the Bridgewater canal, which when closed enables
the traffic to pass as before, while it is opened to allow of ships
crossing it on the lower level of the ship canal. The water in the
swing portions of the aqueduct when opened is retained by closing
gates at each end, similar gates being shut at the same time across
the fixed portion of the aqueduct. The swing portion is a large steel
trough carried by side girders, 234 ft. long and 33 ft. high in the
centre, tapering 4 ft. to the ends; the waterway is 19 ft. wide and 6
ft. deep. The whole works on a central pier with similar arrangements
to the largest swing bridges on the canal; it has two spans over the
ship canal of 90 ft. each. It is somewhat singular that the first
fixed canal aqueduct in England should, after the lapse of 136 years,
be replaced by the first swing aqueduct ever constructed. The swing
aqueduct is moved by hydraulic power, and has never given any trouble
in working, even in times of severe frost. The weight of the movable
portion, including the water, is 1600 tons.
The manner of dealing with the five lines of railways that were cut
through by the canal was one of importance, both in the interests of
the travelling public and the trade on the canal; they are all lines
with a heavy traffic, including the main line of the London & North
Western railway near Warrington, with its important route to
Scotland. Swing bridges, although in use on some lines to cross
navigations, are dangerous and inconvenient, and high-level deviation
lines were adopted for each railway crossing the canal. No such
alteration of a railway had been previously sanctioned by parliament,
and it was only the importance of a ship canal to Manchester that
secured the requisite powers against the strong opposition of the
railway companies. Embankments were made close to and parallel with
the old lines, beginning about a mile and a quarter from the canal on
each side, the canal itself being crossed by viaducts which give a
clear headway of 75 ft. at ordinary water-level. Vessels with high
masts trading on the canal are provided with telescopic or sliding
top-masts. The gradients on the railways rising up to the viaducts are
1 in 135. The span of the viaducts is so arranged as to maintain the
full width of the canal for navigation; and as the railways generally
cross the canal on the skew, this necessitated girders in some cases
of 300 ft. span. There are nine main roads requiring swing bridges
across the canal; all below Barton have a span giving a clear waterway
of 120 ft. The width of these bridges varies with the importance of
the roads from 20 to 36 ft., and they are constructed of steel, their
weight ranging from 500 to 1000 tons each. They work on a live ring of
conical cast-iron rollers and are moved by hydraulic power supplied by
steam, gas or oil engines. The Trafford Road bridge at the docks at
Manchester is the heaviest swing bridge on the canal; being of extra
width, it weighs 1800 tons.
The canal being virtually one long dock, wharves at various points
have been erected to enable chemical or manufacturing works to be
carried on, widenings being provided where necessary. At Ellesmere
Port coal tips and sheds have been erected, and the canal is in direct
communication with the docks there as well as at Weston Point and
Runcorn, where a large trade is carried on with the Staffordshire
Potteries and the Cheshire salt districts. At Partington branches from
the railways connect the canal with the Yorkshire and Lancashire
coal-fields, and the canal is widened out 65 ft. on each side for six
hydraulic coal tips. At Mode Wheel there are extensive abattoirs and
lairages, erected by the Manchester Corporation; also large petroleum
oil tanks, graving dock and pontoons, cold-air meat stores and other
accommodation for traffic. At Manchester the area of the docks is 104
acres, with 152 acres of quay space, having over 5 m. of frontage to
the docks, which are provided with a number of three-storey transit
sheds, thirteen seven-storey and seven four-storey warehouses, and a
large grain silo. The London & North Western and Lancashire &
Yorkshire railway companies and the Cheshire Lines Committee have made
branch lines to the docks, the railways and sidings at which are over
30 miles in length. Much traffic is also carted, or dealt with by
inland canals in direct communication with the docks. The substitution
of a wide and deep canal, nearly straight, for comparatively shallow
and narrow winding rivers, and the use of large sluices in place of
fixed weirs to carry off the river water, have been of great advantage
to the district in greatly reducing the height of floods.
The total amount of excavation in the canal, docks and subsidiary work
amounted to over 54 million cub. yds., nearly one-fourth of which was
sandstone rock; the excavated material was used in forming the railway
deviation embankments, filling up the old beds of the rivers and
raising low lands near the canal. As many men were employed on the
works as could be obtained, but the number never exceeded 17,000, and
the greater part of the excavation was done by about eighty steam
navvies and land dredgers. For the conveyance of excavation and
materials, 228 miles of temporary railway lines were laid, and 173
locomotives, 6300 wagons and trucks, and 316 fixed and portable
steam-engines and cranes were employed, the total cost of the plant
being nearly £1,000,000. The expenditure on the works, including plant
and equipment, to the 1st of January 1900, was £10,327,666. The
purchase of the Mersey and Irwell and Bridgewater navigations
(£1,786,651), land and compensation (£1,223,809), interest on capital
during constructions (£1,170,733), and parliamentary, superintendence
and general expenses brought up the total amount to £15,248,437.
The traffic on the canal gradually increased from 925,659 tons in 1894
to 2,778,108 tons in 1899 and 5,210,759 tons in 1907. After its
opening considerable reductions were made in the railway rates of
carriage and the charges at the Liverpool docks in order to meet the
lower cost of conveyance by shipping passing up it. The result has
been of great advantage to the trade of Lancashire and the surrounding
districts, and the saving in the cost of carriage, estimated at
£700,000 a year, assists manufacturers to meet the competition of
their foreign opponents who have the advantage of low rates of
carriage on the improved waterways of America, Germany, France and
Belgium. Before the construction of the canal, large manufacturers had
left Manchester to establish their works at ports like Glasgow, where
they could save the cost of inland carriage. Since its opening, new
industries have been started at Manchester and along its banks,
warehouses and mills that were formerly empty are now occupied, while
nearly 10,000 new houses have been built for the accommodation of the
workpeople required to meet the enlarged trade of the city.
For further details see Sir Bosdin Leech, _History of the Manchester
Ship Canal_ (Manchester, 1907). (E. L. W.)
MANCHURIA, the name by which the territory in the east of Asia occupied
by the Manchus is known in Europe. By the Chinese it is called the
country of the Manchus, an epithet meaning "pure," chosen by the founder
of the dynasty which now rules over Manchuria and China as an
appropriate designation for his family. Manchuria lies in a
north-westerly and south-easterly direction between 39° and 53° N. and
between 116° and 134° E., and is wedged in between China and Mongolia on
the west and north-west, and Korea and the Russian territory on the Amur
on the east and north. More definitely, it is bounded N. by the Amur, E.
by the Usuri, S. by the Gulf of Liao-tung, the Yellow Sea and Korea, and
W. by Chih-li and Mongolia. The territory thus defined is about 800 m.
in length and 500 m. in width, and contains about 390,000 sq. m. It is
divided into three provinces, viz. Hei-lung-kiang or Northern Manchuria,
Kirin or Central Manchuria, and Sheng-king or Southern Manchuria.
Physically the country is divided into two regions, the one a series of
mountain ranges occupying the northern and eastern portions of the
kingdom, and the other a plain which stretches southwards from Mukden,
the capital, to the Gulf of Liao-tung.
A system of parallel ranges of mountains, culminating in the Chinese
Ch'ang pai Shan, "the long white mountains," on the Korean frontier,
runs in a north-easterly direction from the shores of the Gulf of
Liao-tung. In its course through Eastern Manchuria it forms the
watershed of the Sungari, Usuri and other rivers, and in the south that
of the Ya-lu and many smaller streams. It also forms the eastern
boundary of the great plain of Liao-tung. The mountains of this system
reach their greatest height on the south-east of Kirin, where their
snow-capped peaks rise to the elevation of 8000 ft. The scenery among
them is justly celebrated, more especially in the neighbourhood of
Haich'eng, Siu-yen and the Korean Gate.
The three principal rivers of Manchuria are the Sungari, Mutan-kiang and
Usuri already mentioned. Of these the Sungari, which is the largest,
rises on the northern slopes of the Ch'ang pai Shan range, and runs in a
north-westerly direction to its junction with the Nonni, from which
point it turns north-east until it empties itself into the Amur. It is
navigable by native junks above Kirin, which city may also be reached by
steamer. In its long course it varies greatly both in depth and width,
in some parts being only a few feet deep and spreading out to a width of
more than a mile, while in other and mountainous portions of its course
its channel is narrowed to 300 or 400 ft., and its depth is increased in
inverse ratio. The Usuri rises in about 44° N. and 131° E., and after
running a north-easterly course for nearly 500 m. it also joins the
Amur. The Mutan-kiang takes its rise, like the Sungari, on the northern
slopes of the Ch'ang pai Shan range, and not far from the sources of
that river. It takes a north-easterly course as far as the city of
Ninguta, at which point it turns northward, and so continues until it
joins the Sungari at San-sing. It is navigable by junks between that
city and Ninguta, though the torrents in its course make the voyage
backwards and forwards one of considerable difficulty. Next in
importance to these rivers are the Liao and Ya-lu, the former of which
rises in Mongolia, and after running in an easterly direction for about
400 m. enters Manchuria in about 43° N., and turning southward empties
itself into the Gulf of Liao-tung. The Ya-lu rises in Korea, and is the
frontier river of that country.
_Provinces and Towns._--Mukden, or as it is called by the Chinese
Sheng-king, the capital city of Manchuria, is situated in the province
of Sheng-king, occupies a fine position on the river Hun-ho, an affluent
of the Liao, and is a city of considerable pretensions. Liao-yang, which
was once the capital of the country, is also in the province of
Sheng-king. The other cities in the province are Kin-chow-fu on the west
of the Gulf of Liao-tung; Kin-chow, on the western extremity of the
Liao-tung peninsula; Kai-ping, on the north-western shore of the same
peninsula; Hai-cheng, on the road from Niu-chwang to Mukden; Ki-yuen, a
populous and prosperous city in the north of the province; and
Sing-king, east of Mukden, the original seat of the founders of the
present dynasty. The most important commercial place, however, is the
treaty port of Niu-chwang, at the head of the Gulf of Liao-tung.
According to the custom-house returns the value of the foreign imports
and exports in the year 1880 was £691,954 and £1,117,790 respectively,
besides a large native trade carried on in junks. In 1904 the value of
foreign imports had risen to £2,757,962, but the exports amounted to
£1,742,859 only, the comparatively low figure being accounted for by the
Russo-Japanese war.
The province of Kirin, or Central Manchuria, is bounded on the N. and
N.W. by the Sungari, on the S. by Sheng-king and Korea, on the W. by
Mongolia, and on the E. by the Usuri and the maritime Russian province.
It contains an area of about 90,000 sq. m., and is entirely mountainous
with the exception of a stretch of plain country in its north-western
corner. This plain produces large quantities of indigo and opium, and is
physically remarkable for the number of isolated conical hills which dot
its surface. These sometimes occur in a direct line at intervals of 15
or 20 m., and elsewhere are scattered about "like dish-covers on a
table." Kirin, the capital of the province, occupies a magnificent
position, being surrounded on the north, west and south by a
semicircular range of mountains with the broad stream of the Sungari
flowing across the front. The local trade is considerable. A-She-ho, on
the Ashe, with a population of 60,000; Petuna (Chinese, Sing-chung), on
the Sungari, population 30,000; San-sing, near the junction of the
Sungari and Mutan-kiang; La-lin, 120 m. to the north of Kirin,
population 20,000; Harbin or Kharbin and Ninguta are the other principal
cities in the province.
Hei-lung-kiang, or Northern Manchuria, which contains about 195,000 sq.
m., is bounded on the N. and N.E. by the Amur, on the S. by the Sungari,
and on the W. by the Nonni and Mongolia. It is traversed by the Great
and Lesser Khingan mountains and their offshoots. This province is
thinly populated, and is cultivated only along the lines of its rivers.
The only towns of any importance are Tsitsihar and Mergen, both situated
on the Nonni and Khailar in the west.
_Climate, Flora, Fauna._--The climate over the greater part of the
country varies between extremes of heat and cold, the thermometer
ranging between 90° F. in the summer and 10° below zero in the winter.
As in the north of China, the rivers are frozen up during the four
winter months. After a short spring the heat of summer succeeds, which
in its turn is followed by an autumn of six weeks' duration. The great
plain in Sheng-king is in many parts swampy, and in the neighbourhood
of the sea, where the soil emits a saline exudation such as is also
common in the north of China, it is perfectly sterile. In other parts
fine crops of millet and various kinds of grain are grown, and on it
trees flourish abundantly. The trees and plants are much the same as
those common in England, and severe as the weather is in winter the
less elevated mountains are covered to their summits with trees. The
wild animals also are those known in Europe, with the addition of
tigers and panthers. Bears, wild boars, hares, wolves, foxes and wild
cats are very common, and in the north sables are found in great
numbers. One of the most noticeable of the birds is the Mongolian lark
(_Melanocorypha mongolica_), which is found in a wild state both in
Manchuria and in the desert of Mongolia. This bird is exported in
large numbers to northern China, where it is much prized on account of
its extraordinary power of imitation. The Manchurian crane is common,
as also are eagles, cuckoos, laughing doves, &c. Insects abound, owing
to the swampy nature of much of the country. The rivers are well
stocked with fish, especially with salmon, which forms a common
article of food. In such immense shoals do these fish appear in some
of the smaller streams that numbers are squeezed out on to the banks
and there perish.
_Products and Industries._--In minerals Manchuria is very rich: coal,
gold, iron (as well as magnetic iron ore), and precious stones are
found in large quantities. Gold mines are worked at several places in
the northern part of Manchuria, of which the principal are on the Muho
river, an affluent of the Amur, and near the Russian frontier. Mines
are also worked at Kwanyin-shan, opposite the Russian frontier town of
Radevska, and at Chia-pi-kou, on an affluent of the upper Sungari.
Indigo and opium are the most lucrative crops. The indigo plant is
grown in large quantities in the plain country to the north of Mukden,
and is transported thence to the coast in carts, each of which carries
rather more than a ton weight of the dye. The poppy is cultivated
wherever it will grow, the crop being far more profitable than that of
any other product. Cotton, tobacco, pulse, millet, wheat and barley
are also grown.
_Population._--The population is estimated as follows for each of the
three divisions:--
Province of Sheng-king (Feng T'ien) 4,000,000
" " Kirin 6,500,000
" " Hei-lung-kiang 2,000,000
----------
Total 12,500,000
_Communications._--Four principal highways traverse Manchuria. The
first runs from Peking to Kirin via Mukden, where it sends off a
branch to Korea. At Kirin it bifurcates, one branch going to San-sing,
the extreme north-eastern town of the province of Kirin, and the other
to Possiet Bay on the coast via Ninguta. The second road runs from the
treaty port of Niu-chwang through Mukden to Petuna in the
north-western corner of the Kirin province, and thence to Tsitsihar,
Mergen and the Amur. The third also starts from Niu-chwang, and
strikes southward to Kin-chow at the extremity of the Liao-tung
peninsula. The fourth connects Niu-chwang with the Gate of Korea.
[Illustration: Map of Manchuria.]
Manchurian Railways.
The original Manchurian railway was constructed under an agreement
made in 1896 between the Chinese government and the Russo-Chinese
bank, an institution founded in 1895 to develop Russian interests in
the East. The Chinese Eastern Railway Company was formed by the bank
under this agreement, to construct and work the line, and surveys were
made in 1897, the town of Harbin being founded as headquarters for the
work. The line, which affords through communication from Europe by way
of the Trans-Siberian system, enters Manchuria near a station of that
name in the north-west corner of the country, passes Khailar, and runs
south-east, near Tsitsihar, to Harbin. Thence the main line continues
in the same general direction to the eastern frontier of Manchuria,
and so to Vladivostok. In 1898 Russia obtained a lease of the
Liao-tung peninsula, and a clause of this contract empowered her to
connect Port Arthur and Dalny (now Tairen) with the main Manchurian
railway by a branch southward from Harbin. In spite of interruption
caused by the Boxer outbreak, through communication was established in
1901. Under the Russo-Japanese treaty of August 1905, after the war,
supplemented by a convention between Japan and China concluded in
December of the same year, Japan took over the line from Port Arthur
as far as Kwang-cheng-tsze, now known as the Southern Manchurian
railway (508 m.). Branches were promoted (a) from Mukden to Antung on
the Ya-lu, to connect with the Korean system, and (b) from
Kwang-cheng-tsze to Kirin. The rest of the original Manchurian system
(1088 miles) remains under Russian control. In the south-west of
Manchuria a line of the imperial railways of Northern China gives
connexion from Peking, and Branches at Kou-pang-tsze to Sin-min-ting
and to Niu-chwang, and the link between Sin-min-ting and Mukden is
also under Chinese control. The lines now under Russian control were
laid down, and remain, on the 5 ft. gauge which is the Russian
standard; but after the Russian control of the southern lines was lost
the gauge was altered from that standard.
_History._--Manchu, as has been said, is not the name of the country but
of the people who inhabit it. The name was adopted by a ruler who rose
to power in the beginning of the 13th century. Before that time the
Manchus were more or less a shifting population, and, being broken up
into a number of tribes, they went mainly under the distinctive name of
those clans which exercised lordship over them. Thus under the Cbow
dynasty (1122-225 B.C.) they were known as Sewshin, and at subsequent
periods as Yih-low, Wuh-keih, Moh-hoh, Pohai, Nüchih and according to
the Chinese historians also as Khitan. Throughout their history they
appear as a rude people, the tribute they brought to the Chinese court
consisting of stone arrow-heads, hawks, gold, and latterly ginseng.
Assuming that, as the Chinese say, the Khitans were Manchus, the first
appearance of the Manchus, as a people, in China dates from the
beginning of the 10th century, when the Khitans, having first conquered
the kingdom of Pohai, crossed the frontier into China and established
the Liao or Iron dynasty in the northern portion of the empire. These
invaders were in their turn overthrown two centuries later by another
invasion from Manchuria. These new conquerors were Nüchihs, and
therefore direct ancestors of the Manchus. On assuming the imperial
yellow in China their chief adopted the title of Kin or "Golden" for his
dynasty. "Iron" (Liao), he said, "rusts, but gold always keeps its
purity and colour, therefore my dynasty shall be called Kin." In a
little more than a century, however, the Kins were driven out of China
by the Mongols under Jenghiz Khan. But before the close of their rule a
miraculous event occurred on the Chang-pai-Shan mountains which is
popularly believed to have laid the seeds of the greatness of the
present rulers of the empire. Three heaven-born maidens, so runs the
legend, were bathing one day in a lake under the Chang-pai-Shan
mountains when a passing magpie dropped a ripe red fruit into the lap of
one of them. The maiden ate the fruit, and in due course a child was
born to her, whom she named Aisin Gioro, or the Golden. When quite a lad
Aisin Gioro was elected chief over three contending clans, and
established his capital at Otoli near the Chang-pai-Shan mountains. His
reign, however, was brief, for his subjects rose and murdered him, with
all his sons except the youngest, Fancha, who, like the infant Haitu in
Mongolian history, was miraculously saved. Nothing is recorded of the
facts of Aisin Gioro's reign except that he named the people over whom
he reigned Manchu, or "Pure." His descendants, through the rescued
Fancha, fell into complete obscurity until about the middle of the 16th
century, when one of them, Nurhachu by name, a chieftain of a small
tribe, rose to power. Nurhachu played with skill and daring the rôle
which had been played by Jenghiz Khan more than three centuries before
in Mongolia. With even greater success than his Mongolian counterpart,
Nurhachu drew tribe after tribe under his sway, and after numerous wars
with Korea and Mongolia he established his rule over the whole of
Manchuria. Being thus the sovereign of an empire, he, again like Jenghiz
Khan, adopted for himself the title of Ying-ming, "Brave and
Illustrious," and took for his reign the title of T'ien-ming. Thirteen
years later, in 1617, after numerous border fights with the Chinese,
Nurhachu drew up a list of "seven hates," or indictments, against his
southern neighbours, and, not getting the satisfaction he demanded,
declared war against them. The progress of this war, the peace hastily
patched up, the equally hasty alliance and its consequences, being
matters of Chinese history, are treated in the article CHINA.
Manchuria was claimed by Russia as her particular sphere of interest
towards the close of the 19th century, and in the course of the
disturbances of 1900 Russian troops occupied various parts of the
country. Eventually a Manchurian convention was arranged between China
and Russia, by which Russia was to evacuate the province; but no actual
ratification of this convention was made by Russia. The Anglo-German
agreement of October 1900, to which Japan also became a party, and by
which it was agreed to "maintain undiminished the territorial condition
of the Chinese empire," was considered by Great Britain and Japan not to
exclude Manchuria; but Germany, on the other hand, declared that
Manchuria was of no interest to her. The Anglo-Japanese treaty of 1902,
however, was ostensibly directed towards the preservation of Manchuria
in Chinese hands. British capital has been invested in the extension of
the Chinese Northern railway to Niu-chwang, and the fact was officially
recognized by an agreement between Great Britain and Russia in 1899. One
result of the Russo-Japanese War was the evacuation of Manchuria by the
Russians, which, after the conclusion of peace in 1905, was handed over
by Japan to China.
See H. E. M. James, _The Long White Mountain_ (London, 1888); D.
Christie, _Ten Years in Manchuria_ (Paisley, 1895); F. E.
Younghusband, _The Heart of a Continent: a Narrative of Travels in
Manchuria_ (London, 1896); P. H. Kent, _Railway Enterprise in China_
(London, 1907). (R. K. D.)
MANCINI, PASQUALE STANISLAO (1817-1888), Italian jurist and statesman,
was born at Castel Baronia, in the province of Avellino, on the 17th of
March 1817. At Naples, where he studied law and displayed great literary
activity, he rapidly acquired a prominent position, and in 1848 was
instrumental in persuading Ferdinand II. to participate in the war
against Austria. Twice he declined the offer of a portfolio in the
Neapolitan cabinet, and upon the triumph of the reactionary party
undertook the defence of the Liberal political prisoners. Threatened
with imprisonment in his turn, he fled to Piedmont, where he obtained a
university professorship and became preceptor of the crown prince
Humbert. In 1860 he prepared the legislative unification of Italy,
opposed the idea of an alliance between Piedmont and Naples, and, after
the fall of the Bourbons, was sent to Naples as administrator of
justice, in which capacity he suppressed the religious orders, revoked
the Concordat, proclaimed the right of the state to Church property, and
unified civil and commercial jurisprudence. In 1862 he became minister
of public instruction in the Rattazzi cabinet, and induced the Chamber
to abolish capital punishment. Thereafter, for fourteen years, he
devoted himself chiefly to questions of international law and
arbitration, but in 1876, upon the advent of the Left to power, became
minister of justice in the Depretis cabinet. His Liberalism found
expression in the extension of press freedom, the repeal of imprisonment
for debt, and the abolition of ecclesiastical tithes. During the
Conclave of 1878 he succeeded, by negotiations with Cardinal Pecci
(afterwards Leo XIII.), in inducing the Sacred College to remain in
Rome, and, after the election of the new pope, arranged for his
temporary absence from the Vatican for the purpose of settling private
business. Resigning office in March 1878, he resumed the practice of
law, and secured the annulment of Garibaldi's marriage. The fall of
Cairoli led to Mancini's appointment (1881) to the ministry of foreign
affairs in the Depretis administration. The growing desire in Italy for
alliance with Austria and Germany did not at first secure his approval;
nevertheless he accompanied King Humbert to Vienna and conducted the
negotiations which led to the informal acceptance of the Triple
Alliance. His desire to retain French confidence was the chief motive of
his refusal in July 1882 to share in the British expedition to Egypt,
but, finding his efforts fruitless when the existence of the Triple
Alliance came to be known, he veered to the English interest and
obtained assent in London to the Italian expedition to Massawa. An
indiscreet announcement of the limitations of the Triple Alliance
contributed to his fall in June 1885, when he was succeeded by Count di
Robilant. He died in Rome on the 26th of December 1888.
MANCIPLE, the official title of the caterer at a college, an inn of
court, or other institution. Sometimes also the chief cook. The medieval
Latin _manceps_, formed from _mancipium_, acquisition by purchase (see
ROMAN LAW), meant a purchaser of stores, and _mancipium_ became used of
his office. It is from the latter word that the O. Fr. _manciple_ is
taken.
MANCUNIUM, the name often (though perhaps incorrectly) given as the
Romano-British name of Manchester. Here, close to the Medlock, in the
district still called Castlefield near Knott Mill, stood in Roman days a
fort garrisoned by a cohort of Roman auxiliary soldiers. The site is now
obscured by houses, railways and the Rochdale canal, but vestiges of
Roman ramparts can still be seen, and other remains were found in 1907
and previous years. Traces of Romano-British inhabitation have been
noted elsewhere in Manchester, especially near the cathedral. But there
was no town here; we can trace nothing more than a fort guarding the
roads running north through Lancashire and east into Yorkshire, and the
dwellings of women-folk and traders which would naturally spring up
outside such a fort. The ancient name is unknown. Our Roman authorities
give both Mancunium and Mamucium, but it is not clear that either form
is correct.
See W. T. Watkin's _Roman Lancashire_; C. Roeder's _Roman Manchester_,
and the account edited by F. Bruton of the excavations in 1907.
(F. J. H.)
MANDAEANS, also known as Sabians, Nasoraeans, or St John's
Christians,[1] an Oriental sect of great antiquity, interesting to the
theologian as almost the only surviving example of a religion
compounded of Christian, heathen and Jewish elements on a type which is
essentially that of ancient Gnosticism.
The Mandaeans are found in the marshy lands of South Babylonia
(al-bataih), particularly in the neighbourhood of Basra (or Bussorah),
and in Khuzistan (Disful, Shuster).[2] They speak the languages of the
localities in which they are settled (Arabic or Persian), but the
language of their sacred books is an Aramaic dialect, which has its
closest affinities with that of the Babylonian Talmud, written in a
peculiar character suggestive of the old Palmyrene.[3] The existence of
the Mandaeans has been known since the middle of the 17th century, when
the first Christian missionaries, Ignatius a Jesu[4] and Angelus a
Sancto, began to labour among them at Basra; further information was
gathered at a somewhat later date by Pietro della Valle[5] and Jean de
Thévenot[6] (1633-1667), and in the following century by Engelbrecht
Kaempfer (1651-1716), Jean Chardin (1643-1713) and Carsten Niebuhr. In
recent times they have been visited by A. H. Petermann[7] and Albrecht
Socin, and Siouffi[8] published in 1880 a full and accurate account of
their manners and customs, taken from the lips of a converted Mandaean.
For our knowledge of their doctrinal system, however, we still depend
chiefly upon the sacred books already mentioned, consisting of fragments
of very various antiquity derived from an older literature.[9] Of these
the largest and most important is the _Sidra rabba_ ("Great Book"),
known also as _Ginza_ ("Treasure"), consisting of two unequal parts, of
which the larger is called _yamina_ (to the right hand) and the smaller
_s'mala_ (to the left hand), because of the manner in which they are
bound together. The former is intended for the living; the latter
consists chiefly of prayers to be read at the burial of priests. As
regards doctrine, the work is exhaustive; but it is diffuse, obscure,
and occasionally self-contradictory, as might be expected in a work
which consists of a number of unconnected paragraphs of various
authorship and date. The last section of the "right-hand" part (the
"Book of Kings") is one of the older portions, and from its allusion to
"the Persian and Arabian kings" may be dated somewhere between A.D. 700
and 900. Many of the doctrinal portions may in substance well be still
older, and date from the time of the Sassanids. None of the MSS.,
however, is older than the 16th century.[10]
The following sketch represents, as far as can be gathered from these
heterogeneous sources, the principal features of the Mandaean system.
The ground and origin of all things is _Pira_, or more correctly _Pera
rabba_ ("the great abyss," or from [Hebrew: paar], "to split," cf. the
Gnostic [Greek: buthos], or more probably cf. Heb. _peri_, "the great
fruit"), associated with whom, and forming a triad with him, are the
primal aeons _Ayar ziva rabba_, "the great shining aether," and _Mana
rabba d'ekara_, "the great spirit of glory," usually called simply _Mana
rabba_. The last-named, the most prominent of the three, is the king of
light properly so called, from whom the development of all things
begins. From him emanates _Yard^ena rabba_, "the great Jordan," which,
as the higher-world soul, permeates the whole aether, the domain of
Ayar. Alongside of _Mana rabba_ frequent mention is made of _D'mutha_,
his "image," as a female power; the name "image of the father" arises
out of the same conception as that which gives rise to the name of
[Greek: ennoia] among the Greek Gnostics. _Mana rabba_ called into being
the highest of the aeons properly so called, _Hayye Kadmaye_, "Primal
Life," and then withdrew into deepest secrecy, visible indeed to the
highest but not to the lowest aeons (cf. [Greek: Sophia] and [Greek:
Propatôr]), yet manifesting himself also to the souls of the more pious
of the Mandaeans after their separation from the body. Primal Life, who
is properly speaking the Mandaean god, has the same predicates as the
primal spirit, and every prayer, as well as every section of the sacred
books, begins by invoking him.[11] The extremely fantastic delineation
of the world of light by which _Hayye Kadmaye_ is surrounded (see for
example the beginning of _Sidra rabba_) corresponds very closely with
the Manichaean description of the abode of the "king of the paradise of
light." The king of light "sits in the far north in might and glory."
The Primal Light unfolds himself by five great branches, viz. "the
highest purest light, the gentle wind, the harmony of sounds, the voice
of all the aeons, and the beauty of their forms," all these being
treated as abstractions and personified. Out of the further development
and combination of these primary manifestations arise numerous aeons
(_'Uthre_, "splendours," from [Hebrew: atar], "is rich"), of which the
number is often stated to be three hundred and sixty. They are divided
into a number of classes (kings, hypostases, forms, &c.); the proper
names by which they are invoked are many, and for the most part obscure,
borrowed doubtless, to some extent, from the Parsee angelology. From the
First Life proceeds as a principal emanation the "Second Life," _Hayye
Tinyane_, generally called _Yoshamin_. This last name is evidently meant
to be Hebrew, "Yahweh of the heavens," the God of the Jews being of a
secondary rank in the usual Gnostic style. The next emanation after
_Yoshamin_ is "the messenger of life" (_Manda d'hayye_, literally
[Greek: gnôsis tês zôês]), the most important figure in the entire
system, the mediator and redeemer, the [Greek: logos] and the Christ of
the Mandaeans, from whom, as already stated, they take their name. He
belongs to the heathen Gnosis, and is in his essence the same as the
Babylonian Marduk. _Yoshamin_ desired to raise himself above the Primal
Light, but failed in the attempt, and was punished by removal out of the
pure aetherial world into that of inferior light. Manda, on the other
hand, continues with the First Life and _Mana rabba_, and is called his
"beloved son," the "first born," "high priest" and "word of life." The
"Life" calls into existence in the visible world a series of three great
Helpers, Hibil, Shithil and Anosh (late Judaeo-Babylonian
transformations of the well-known names of the book of Genesis), the
guardians of souls. The last son of the Second Life is _Hayye
t'lithaye_, the "Third Life," usually called father of the Uthre (_Aba
d' 'Uthre_, _Abathur_). His usual epithet is "the Ancient" (_'Atiqa_),
and he is also called "the deeply hidden and guarded." He stands on the
borderland between the here and the hereafter, like the mysterious
[Greek: preobutês tritos] or _senex tertius_ of Mani, whose becoming
visible will betoken the end of the world. Abathur sits on the farthest
verge of the world of light that lies towards the lower regions, and
weighs in his balance the deeds of the departed spirits who ascend to
him. Beneath him was originally nothing but a huge void with muddy black
water at the bottom, in which his image was reflected, becoming
ultimately solidified into P'tahil, his son, who now partakes of the
nature of matter. The demiurge of the Mandaeans, and corresponding to
the Ialdabaoth of the Ophites, he at the instance of his father frames
the earth and men--according to some passages in conjunction with the
seven bad planetary spirits. He created Adam and Eve, but was unable to
make them stand upright, whereupon Hibil, Shithil and Anosh were sent by
the First Life to infuse into their forms spirit from _Mana rabba_
himself. Hibil, at the instance of the supreme God, also taught men
about the world of light and the aeons, and especially gave them to know
that not P'tahil but another was their creator and supreme God, who as
"the great king of light, without number, without limit," stands far
above him. At the same time he enjoined the pair to marry and people the
world. P'tahil had now lost his power over men, and was driven by his
father out of the world of light into a place beneath it, whence he
shall at the day of judgment be raised, and after receiving baptism be
made king of the 'Uthre with divine honours.
The underworld is made up of four vestibules and three hells properly so
called. The vestibules have each two rulers, Zartay and Zartanay, Hag
and Mag, Gaf and Gafan, Anatan and Kin. In the highest hell rules alone
the grisly king Sh'dum, "the warrior"; in the storey immediately beneath
is Giv, "the great"; and in the lowest is Krun or Karkum, the oldest and
most powerful of all, commonly called "the great mountain of flesh"
(_Tura rabba d'besra_), but also "the first-born of darkness." In the
vestibules dirty water is still to be met with, but the hells are full
of scorching consuming fire, except Krun's domain, where is nought but
dust, ashes and vacancy. Into these regions descended Hibil the
brilliant, in the power of _Mana rabba_, just as in the Manichaean
mythology the "primal man," armed with the elements of the king of
light, descends to a contest with the primal devil. Hibil lingers,
gradually unfolding his power, in each of the vestibules, and finally
passing from hell to hell reaches Karkum. Hibil allows himself to be
half swallowed by the monster, but is unhurt, and compels his antagonist
to recognize the superiority of _Mana rabba_, the God of light, and to
divulge his profoundest secret, the hidden name of darkness. Armed with
this he returns through the successive hells, compelling the disclosure
of every secret, depriving the rulers of their power, and barring the
doors of the several regions. From the fourth vestibule he brought the
female devil Ruha, daughter of Kin, and set her over the whole four.
This Ruha, the mother of falsehood and lies, of poisoning and
fornication is an anti-Christian parody of the Ruha d'Qudsha (Holy
Spirit) of the Syriac Church. She is the mother of Ur, the personified
fire of hell, who in anger and pride made a violent onset on the world
of light (compare the similar occurrence in the Manichaean mythology),
but was mastered by Hibil and thrown in chains down to the "black
water," and imprisoned within seven iron and seven golden walls. By Ur,
Ruha, while P'tahil was engaged in his work of creation, became mother
of three sets of seven, twelve and five sons respectively; all were
translated by P'tahil to the heavenly firmament (like the Archons of
Mani), the first group forming the planets and the next the signs of the
zodiac, while the third is as yet undetermined. Of the names of the
planets Estera (Ishtar Venus, also called Ruha d'Qudsha, "holy spirit"),
Enba (Nebo, Mercury), Sin (moon), Kewan (Saturn), Bil (Jupiter), and
Nirig (Nirgal, Mars) reveal their Babylonian origin; Il or Il Il, the
sun, is also known as Kadush and Adunay (the Adonai of the Old
Testament); as lord of the planetary spirits his place is in the midst
of them; they are the source of all temptation and evil amongst men. The
houses of the planets, as well as the earth and a second world
immediately to the north of it, rest upon anvils laid by Hibil on the
belly of Ur.
In the Mandaean representation the sky is an ocean of water, pure and
clear, but of more than adamantine solidity, upon which the stars and
planets sail. Its transparency allows us to see even to the pole star,
who is the central sun around whom all the heavenly bodies move. Wearing
a jewelled crown, he stands before Abathur's door at the gate of the
world of light; the Mandaeans accordingly invariably pray with their
faces turned northward. The earth is conceived of as a round disk,
slightly sloping towards the south, surrounded on three sides by the
sea, but on the north by a high mountain of turquoises; behind this is
the abode of the blest, a sort of inferior paradise, inhabited by the
Egyptians who were saved from drowning with Pharaoh in the Red Sea, and
whom the Mandaeans look upon as their ancestors, Pharaoh himself having
been their first high priest and king. The total duration of the earth
they fix at four hundred and eighty thousand years, divided into seven
epochs, in each of which one of the planets rules. The _Sidra Rabba_
knows of three total destructions of the human race by fire and water,
pestilence and sword, a single pair alone surviving in each case. In the
Mandaean view the Old Testament saints are false prophets; such as
Abraham, who arose six thousand years after Nu(Noah) during the reign of
the sun, Misha (Moses), in whose time the true religion was professed by
the Egyptians, and Shlimun (Solomon) bar Davith, the lord of the demons.
Another false prophet and magician was Yishu M'shiha, who was in fact a
manifestation of the planet Mercury. Forty-two years before his day,
under King Pontius Pilate, there had appeared the true prophet Yahya or
John son of Zechariah, an incarnation of Hibil, of whose birth and
childhood fantastic stories are told. Yahya by a mistake gave baptism to
the false Messiah, who had feigned humility; on the completion of his
mission, after undergoing a seeming execution, he returned clothed with
light into the kingdom of light. As a contemporary of Yahya and the
false Messiah Hibil's younger brother Anosh 'Uthra came down from
heaven, caused himself to be baptized by Yahya, wrought miracles of
healing and of raising the dead, and brought about the crucifixion of
the false Messiah. He preached the true religion, destroyed Jerusalem
("Urashlam," i.e. "the devil finished it"), which had been built by
Adunay, dispersed over the world the Jews who had put Yahya to death,
and previous to his return into the worlds of light sent forth three
hundred and sixty prophets for the diffusion of the true religion. All
this speaks of intense hatred alike of Jews and Christians; the fasts,
celibacy and monastic and anchoret life of the latter are peculiarly
objectionable to the Mandaeans. Two hundred and forty years after the
appearing of the false Messiah there came to the world sixty thousand
saints out of Pharaoh's world to take the place of the Mandaeans, who
had been completely extirpated; their high priest had his residence in
Damascus. The last false prophet was M'hammad or Ahmat bar Bisbat
(Mahomet), but Anosh, who remained close beside him and his immediate
successors, prevented hostilities against the true believers, who claim
to have had in Babylonia, under the Abbasids, four hundred places of
worship. Subsequent persecutions compelled their withdrawal to 'Ammara
in the neighbourhood of Wasit, and ultimately to Khuzistan. At the end
of the world the devil Ur will swallow up the earth and the other
intermediate higher worlds, and thereupon will burst and fall into the
abyss of darkness where, along with all the worlds and powers of
darkness, he will ultimately cease to be, so that thenceforward the
universe will consist of but one everlasting world of light.
The chief depositaries of these Mandaean mysteries are the priests,
who enjoy a high degree of power and social regard. The priesthood has
three grades: (1) the _Sh'kanda_ or deacon is generally chosen from
episcopal or priestly families, and must be without bodily blemish.
The candidate for orders must be at least nineteen years old and have
undergone twelve years' preparation; he is then qualified to assist
the priesthood in the ceremonies of religion. (2) The _Tarmida_ (i.e.
"Talmida," "initiated") or priest is ordained by a bishop and two
priests or by four priests after a long and extremely painful period
of preparation. (3) The _Ganzivra_ ("treasurer") or bishop, the
highest dignitary, is chosen from the whole body of the Tarmidas after
a variety of tests, and possesses unlimited authority over the
clergy. A supreme priestly rank, that of _Rish 'amma_, or "head of the
people," is recognized, but only in theory; since the time of Pharaoh
this sovereign pontificate has only once been filled. Women are
admitted to priestly offices as well as men. The priestly dress, which
is all white, consists of drawers, an upper garment, and a girdle with
the so-called _taga_ ("crown"); in all ceremonies the celebrants must
be barefoot. By far the most frequent and important of the religious
ceremonies is that of baptism (_masbutha_), which is called for in a
great variety of cases, not only for children but for adults, where
consecration or purification is required, as for example on all
Sundays and feast days, after contact with a dead body, after return
from abroad, after neglect of any formality on the part of a priest in
the discharge of his functions. In all these cases baptism is
performed by total immersion in running water, but during the five
days' baptismal festival the rite is observed wholesale by mere
sprinkling of large masses of the faithful at once. The Mandaeans
observe also with the elements of bread (_pehta_) and wine (_mambuha_,
lit. "fountain") a sort of eucharist, which has a special sanctifying
efficacy, and is usually dispensed at festivals, but only to baptized
persons of good repute who have never willingly denied the Mandaean
faith. In receiving it the communicant must not touch the host with
his finger; otherwise it loses its virtue. The hosts are made by the
priests from unleavened fine flour. The Mandaean places of worship,
being designed only for the priests and their assistants (the
worshippers remaining in the forecourt), are excessively small, and
very simply furnished; two windows, a door that opens towards the
south so that those who enter have their faces turned towards the pole
star, a few boards in the corner, and a gabled roof complete the whole
structure; there is neither altar nor decoration of any kind. The
neighbourhood of running water (for baptisms) is essential. At the
consecration of a church the sacrifice of a dove (the bird of Ishtar)
has place among the ceremonies. Besides Sundays there are six great
feasts: (1) that of the New Year (_Nauruz rabba_), on the first day of
the first month of winter; (2) _Dehwa h' nina_, the anniversary of the
happy return of _Hibil Ziva_ from the kingdom of darkness into that of
light, lasting five days, beginning with the 18th of the first month
of spring; (3) the _Marwana_, in commemoration of the drowned
Egyptians, on the first day of the second month of spring; (4) the
great five days' baptismal festival (_pantsha_), the chief feast, kept
on the five intercalary days at the end of the second month of
summer--during its continuance every Mandaean, male and female, must
dress in white and bathe thrice daily; (5) _Dehwa d'daimana_, in
honour of one of the three hundred and sixty 'Uthras, on the first day
of the second month of autumn; (6) _Kanshe Zahla_, the preparation
feast, held on the last day of the year. There are also fast days
called m'battal (Arab.), on which it is forbidden to kill any living
thing or eat flesh. These, however, are really "rest-days," as fasting
is forbidden in Mandaeism. The year is solar, and has twelve months of
thirty days each, with five intercalary days between the eighth and
the ninth month. Of the seven days of the week, next to Sunday
(habshaba) Thursday has a special sacredness as the day of _Hibil
Ziva_. As regards secular occupation, the present Mandaeans are
goldsmiths, ironworkers, and house and ship carpenters. The _Sidra
Rabba_ lays great stress upon the duty of procreation, and marriage is
a duty. In the 17th century, according to the old travellers, they
numbered about 20,000 families, but at the present day they hardly
number more than 1200 souls. In external appearance the Mandaean is
distinguished from the Moslem only by a brown coat and a
parti-coloured headcloth with a cord twisted round it. They have some
peculiar deathbed rites: a deacon with some attendants waits upon the
dying, and as death approaches administers a bath first of warm and
afterwards of cold water; a holy dress, consisting of seven pieces
(rasta), is then put on; the feet are directed towards the north and
the head turned to the south, so that the body faces the pole star.
After the burial a funeral feast is held in the house of mourning.
The Mandaeans are strictly reticent about their theological dogmas in
the presence of strangers; and the knowledge they actually possess of
these is extremely small. The foundation of the system is obviously to
be sought in Gnosticism, and more particularly in the older type of
that doctrine (known from the serpent symbol as Ophite or Naassene)
which obtained in Mesopotamia and Further Asia generally. But it is
equally plain that the Ophite nucleus has from time to time received
very numerous and often curiously perverted accretions from Babylonian
Judaism, Oriental Christianity and Parsism, exhibiting a striking
example of religious syncretism. In the Gnostic basis itself it is not
difficult to recognize the general features of the religion of ancient
Babylonia, and thus we are brought nearer a solution of the problem as
to the origin of Gnosticism in general. It is certain that Babylonia,
the seat of the present Mandaeans, must be regarded also as the cradle
in which their system was reared; it is impossible to think of them as
coming from Palestine, or to attribute to their doctrines a Jewish or
Christian origin. They do not spring historically from the disciples
of John the Baptist (Acts xviii. 25; xix. 3 seq.; _Recog. Clem._ i.
54); the tradition in which he and the Jordan figure so largely is not
original, and is therefore worthless; at the same time it is true that
their baptismal praxis and its interpretation place them in the same
religious group with the Hemerobaptists of Eusebius (_H. E._ iv. 22)
and Epiphanius (_Haer._, xvii.), or with the sect of disciples of
John who remained apart from Christianity. Their reverence for John is
of a piece with their whole syncretizing attitude towards the New
Testament. Indeed, as has been seen, they appropriate the entire
personale of the Bible from Adam, Seth, Abel, Enos and Pharaoh to
Jesus and John, a phenomenon which bears witness to the close
relations of the Mandaean doctrine both with Judaism and
Christianity--not the less close because they were relations of
hostility. The history of religion presents other examples of the
degradation of holy to demonic figures on occasion of religious
schism. The use of the word "Jordan," even in the plural, for "sacred
water," is precisely similar to that by the Naassenes described in the
_Philosophumena_ (v. 7); there [Greek: ho megas Iordanês] denotes the
spiritualizing sanctifying fluid which pervades the world of light.
The notions of the Egyptians and the Red Sea, according to the same
work (v. 16), are used by the Peratae much as by the Mandaeans. And
the position assigned by the Sethians ([Greek: Sêthianoi]) to Seth is
precisely similar to that given by the Mandaeans to Abel. Both alike
are merely old Babylonian divinities in a new Biblical garb. The
genesis of Mandaeism and the older gnosis from the old and elaborate
Babylonio-Chaldaean religion is clearly seen also in the fact that the
names of the old pantheon (as for example those of the planetary
divinities) are retained, but their holders degraded to the position
of demons--a conclusion confirmed by the fact that the Mandaeans, like
the allied Ophites, Peratae and Manichaeans, certainly have their
original seat in Mesopotamia and Babylonia. It seems clear that the
trinity of Anu, Bel, and Ea in the old Babylonian religion has its
counterpart in the Mandaean Pira, Ayar, and Mana rabba. The D'mutha of
Mana is the Damkina, the wife of Ea, mentioned by Damascius as [Greek:
Dankê], wife of [Greek: Ahos]. Manda d'hayye and his image Hibil Ziva
with his incarnations clearly correspond to the old Babylonian Marduk,
Merodach, the "first-born" son of Ea, with his incarnations, the chief
divinity of the city of Babylon, the mediator and redeemer in the old
religion. Hibil's contest with darkness has its prototype in Marduk's
battle with chaos, the dragon Tiamat, which (another striking
parallel) partially swallows Marduk, just as is related of Hibil and
the Manichaean primal man. Other features are borrowed by the Mandaean
mythology under this head from the well-known epos of Istar's
_descensus ad inferos_. The sanctity with which water is invested by
the Mandaeans is to be explained by the fact that Ea has his seat "in
the depths of the world sea."
Cf. K. Kessler's article, "Mandäer," in Herzog-Hauck's
_Realencyklopädie_, and the same author's paper, "Ueber Gnosis u.
altbabylonische Religion," in the _Abhandh. d. funften internationalen
Orientalisten-congresses zu Berlin_ (Berlin, 1882); also W. Brandt's
_Mandäische Religion_ (Leipzig, 1889), and M. N. Siouffi's _Études sur
la religion des Soubbas_ (Paris, 1880). (K. K.; G. W. T.)