[1] The _on_ in Madabron apparently represents the Arabic nunation,
though its use in such a case is very odd.
[2] Quoted again from him by the contemporary Liége herald, Lefort,
and from Lefort in 1866 by Dr S. Bormans. Dr J. Vogels communicated
it in 1884 to Mr E. W. B. Nicholson, who wrote on it in the _Academy_
of April 12, 1884.
[3] See Dr G. F. Warner's edition (Roxburghe Club), p. 38. In the
_Bull. de l'Institut archéologique Liégeois_, iv. (1860), p. 171, M.
Ferd. Henaux quotes the passage from "MSS. de la Bibliothèque
publique de Liége, à l'Université, no. 360, fol. 118," but the MS. is
not in the 1875 printed catalogue of the University Library, which
has no Old French MS. of Mandeville at present. It was probably lent
out and not returned.
[4] The de Mandevilles, earls of Essex, were originally styled de
Magneville, and Leland, in his _Comm. de Script. Britt._ (CDV), calls
our Mandeville himself "Joannes Magnovillanus, alias Mandeville."
[5] Page indications like this refer to passages in the 1866 reissue
of Halliwell's edition, as being probably the most ready of access.
But all these passages have also been verified as substantially
occurring in Barrois's French MS. Nouv. Acq. Franç. 4515 in the
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, mentioned below (of A.D. 1371), cited
B, and in that numbered xxxix. of the Grenville collection (British
Museum), which dates probably from the early part of the 15th
century, cited G.
[6] Viz. in D'Avezac's ed. in tom. iv. of _Rec. de voyages et de
mémoires_ pub. by the Soc. de Géog., 1839.
[7] It is found in the _Thesaurus_ of Canisius (1604), v. pt. ii. p.
95, and in the ed. of the same by Basnage (1725), iv. 337.
[8] _Die Quellen für die Reisebeschreibung des Johann von Mandeville,
Inaugural-Dissertation ... Leipzig_ (Berlin, 1888). This was revised
and enlarged as "Untersuchungen über Johann von Mandeville und die
Quellen seiner Reisebeschreibung," in the _Zeitschrift der
Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin_, Bd. 23, Heft 3 u. 4 (No. 135,
136).
[9] In his edition (Roxburghe Club).
[10] _Die ungedruckten lateinischen Versionen Mandeville's_ (Crefeld,
1886).
[11] _Handschriftliche Untersuchungen über die englische Version
Mandeville's_ (Crefeld, 1891), p. 46.
[12] Dr Vogels controverts these positions, arguing that the first
English version from the French was the complete Cotton text, and
that the defective English copies were made from a defective English
MS. His supposed evidences of the priority of the Cotton text equally
consist with its being a later revision, and for _Roys Ils_ in the
defective English MSS. he has only offered a laboured and improbable
explanation.
[13] Stanislas Bormans, Introduction to d'Oultremouse's Chronicle,
pp. lxxxix., xc.; see also Warner's edition of the Travels, p. xxxv.
The ascription is on ff. 5 and 6 of _Le Tresorier de philosophie
naturele des pierres precieuses_, an unprinted work by d'Oultremouse
in MS. Fonds français 12326 of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. The
passage about Alexandria is on f. 81.
[14] See L. Pannier, _Les Lapidaires français_, pp. 189-204: not
knowing d'Oultremouse's evidence, he has discredited the attribution
to Mandeville and doubted the existence of a Latin original.
[15] _Description ... d'une collection ... d'anciens manuscrits ...
réunis par les soins de M. J. Techener_, pt. i. (Paris, 1862), p. 159
(referred to by Pannier, pp. 193-194).
[16] Respecting this, see David Murray, _The Black Book of Paisley_,
&c. (1885), and _John de Burdeus_, &c. (1891).
MANDHATA, a village with temples in India, in Nimar district of the
Central Provinces, on the south bank of the Narbada. Pop. (1901), 832.
It is a famous place of Hindu pilgrimage, as containing one of the
twelve great _lingas_ of Siva; and as late as the beginning of the 19th
century it was the scene of the self-immolation of devotees who threw
themselves from the cliffs into the river.
MANDI, a native state of India, within the Punjab. It ranks as the most
important of the hill states to which British influence extended in 1846
after the first Sikh War. The territory lies among the lower ranges of
the Himalaya, between Kangra and Kulu. The country is mountainous, being
intersected by two great parallel ranges, reaching to an average height
of 5000 to 7000 ft. above sea-level. The valleys between the hill ranges
are fertile, and produce all the ordinary grains, besides more valuable
crops of rice, maize, sugar-cane, poppy and tobacco. Iron is found in
places, and also gold in small quantities. Area, 1200 sq. m.; pop.
(1901), 174,045; estimated revenue, £28,000; tribute, £6666. The chief,
whose title is raja, is a Rajput of old family. Considerable sums have
been expended on roads and bridges. An important product of the state is
salt, which is mined in two places.
The town of Mandi is on the Beas, which is here a mountain torrent,
crossed by a fine iron bridge; 2991 ft. above sea-level; 88 m. from
Simla. Pop. (1901), 8144. It was founded in 1527, and contains a palace
of the 17th century and other buildings of interest. It is a mart for
transfrontier trade with Tibet and Yarkand.
See _Mandi State Gazetteer_ (Lahore, 1908).
MANDINGO, the name currently given to a very important division of negro
peoples in West Africa. It is seemingly a corruption of a term applied to
an important section of this group, the Mande-nka or Mande-nga. The
present writer has usually heard this word pronounced by the Mandingo
themselves "Mandiña," or even "Madiña." It seems to be derived from the
racial name _Mande_, coupled with the suffix _nka_ or _nke_, meaning
"people," the people of Mande. Then again this word Mande seems to take
the varying forms of _Male_, _Meli_, _Mane_, _Madi_, and, according to
such authorities as Binger, Delafosse and Desplagnes, it is connected
with a word _Mali_, which means "hippopotamus" or else "manati"--probably
the latter. According to Desplagnes, the word is further divisible into
_ma_, which would have meant "fish," and _nde_, a syllable to which he
ascribes the meaning of "father." In no Mandingo dialect known to the
present writer (or in any other known African language) does the vocable
_ma_ apply to "fish," and in only one very doubtful far eastern Mandingo
dialect is the root _nde_ or any other similar sound applied to "father."
This etymology must be abandoned, probably in favour of _Mani_, _Mali_,
_Madi_, _Mande_, meaning "hippopotamus," and in some cases the other big
water mammal, the manati.[1]
The West African tribes speaking Mandingo languages vary very much in
outward appearance. Some of them may be West African negroes of the
forest type with little or no intermixture with the Caucasian; others,
such as the typical Mandingos or the Susus, obviously contain a
non-negro element in their physique. This last type resembles very
strongly the Swahilis of the Zanzibar littoral or other crosses between
the Arab and the negro; and though nearly always black-skinned, often
has a well-shaped nose and a fairly full beard. The tribes dwelling in
the West African forest, but speaking languages of Mandingo type, do not
perhaps exhibit the very prognathous, short-limbed, "ugly" development
of West African negro, but are of rather a refined type, and some of
them are lighter in skin colour than the more Arab-looking Mandingos of
the north. But in these forest Mandingos the beard is scanty.
Occasionally the Mandingo physical type appears in eastern Liberia and
on the Ivory Coast amongst people speaking Kru languages. In other cases
it is associated with the Senufo speech-family.
Delafosse divides the Mandingo group linguistically into three main
sections: (1) the _Mande-tamu_, (2) the _Mande-fu_, and (3) the
_Mande-tã_, according as they use for the numeral 10 the root _tamu_,
_tã_ or _fu_. Of the first group are the important tribes of the
Soni-nké (called Sarakulle by the Fula, and Sarakolé by the French); the
Swaninki people of Azer, and the oases of Tishitt, Wadan and Walata in
the south-west Sahara; and the Bozo, who are the fishermen along the
banks of the Upper Niger and the Bani from Jenné to Timbuktu. The
Soni-nké are also known as Marka, and they include (according to Binger)
the Samogho and even the Kurtei along the banks of the Niger east of
Timbuktu as far as Say.
The group of Mande-tã would include the Bamana (incorrectly called
Bambara) of the upper Senegal and of Segu on the Upper Niger, the
Toronke, the Mandenga, the Numu of the district west of the Black Volta,
the Vai of south-western Liberia, and the Dyula or Gyula of the region
at the back of the Ivory Coast.
The group of the Mande-fu includes a great many different languages and
dialects, chiefly in the forest region of Sierra Leone and Liberia, and
also the dialects of the celebrated Susu or Soso tribe, and the Mandingo
tribes of Futa Jallon, of the Grand Scarcies River and of the interior
of the Ivory Coast, and of the regions between the eastern affluents of
the Upper Niger and the Black Volta. To this group Delafosse joins the
Boko dialect spoken by people dwelling to the west of the Lower Niger at
Bussa--between Bussa and Borgu. If this hypothesis be correct it gives a
curious eastern extension to the range of the Mandingo family at the
present day; or it may be a vestige left by the Mandingo invasion which,
according to legend, came in prehistoric times from the Hausa countries
across the Niger to Senegambia. It is remarkable that this Boko dialect
as recorded by the missionary Koelle most resembles certain dialects in
central Liberia and in the Ivory Coast hinterland.
The Mandingos, coming from the East and riding on horses (according to
tradition), seem to have invaded western Nigeria about A.D. 1000 (if not
earlier), and to have gradually displaced and absorbed the Songhai or
Fula (in other words, Negroid, "White") rulers of the countries in the
basin of the Upper Niger or along its navigable course as far as the
Bussa Rapids and the forest region. On the ruins of these Songhai,
Berber, or Fula kingdoms rose the empire of Mali (Melle). Considerable
sections of the Mandingo invaders had adopted Mahommedanism, and
extended a great Mahommedan empire of western Nigeria far northwards
into the Sahara Desert. In the 16th century the Songhai regained supreme
power. See _infra_, § _The Melle Empire_.
Although the Mandingos, and especially the Susu section, may have come
as conquerors, they devoted themselves through the succeeding centuries
more and more to commerce. They became to the extreme west of Africa
what the Hausa are in the west-central regions. Some of the Mandingo
invasions, especially in the forest region, left little more than the
imposition of their language; but where there was any element of
Caucasian blood (for the original Mandingo invaders were evidently
dashed with the Caucasian by intermingling with some of the negroid
races of north-central Africa), they imposed a degree of civilization
which excluded cannibalism (still rampant in much of the forest region
of West Africa), introduced working in leather and in metals, and was
everywhere signalized by a passionate love of music, a characteristic of
all true Mandingo tribes at the present day. It is noteworthy that many
of the instruments affected by the Mandingos are found again in the more
civilized regions of Bantu Africa, as well as in the central Sudan. Many
of these types of musical instruments can also be traced originally to
ancient Egypt. The Mandingos also seem to have brought with them in
their westward march the Egyptian type of ox, with the long, erect
horns. It would almost seem as if this breed had been preceded by the
zebu or humped ox; though these two types are evidently of common origin
so far as derivation from one wild species is concerned. The Mandingos
maintain the system of totems or clans, and each section or tribe
identifies itself with a symbol, which is usually an animal or a plant.
The Mandenga are supposed to have either the manati or the hippopotamus
as _tanna_. (Binger states that the manati was the totem of the Mande
group, to which perhaps belonged originally the Susu and the Dyula.) The
Bamana are the people of the crocodile; the Samanke are the people of
the elephant; the Samokho of the snake. Other totems or symbols of
special families or castes are the dog, the calabash or gourd, the lion,
the green monkey, the leopard, the monitor lizard, a certain spice
called bandugu, certain rats, the python, the puff-adder, &c.
AUTHORITIES.--The bibliography dealing with the Mandingo peoples is
very extensive, but only the following works need be cited: Captain L.
G. Binger, _Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée_, &c. (1892); Maurice
Delafosse, _Vocabulaires comparatifs de plus de 60 langues et
dialectes parlés à la Côte d'Ivoire_, &c. (1904); Lieut. Desplagnes,
_Le Plateau central nigérien_ (1907); Lady Lugard, _A Tropical
Dependency_ (1905); Sir Harry Johnston, _Liberia_ (1906). Most of
these works contain extensive bibliographies. (H. H. J.)
_The Melle Empire._--The tradition which ascribes the arrival of the
Mandingo in the western Sudan to the 10th or 11th century is referred to
in the previous section. It is not known by whom the Melle (Mali) state
was founded. Neither is there certainty as to the site of the capital,
also called Melle. Idrisi in the 12th century describes the Wangara (a
Hausa name for the Mandingo) as a powerful people, and El Bakri writes
in similar terms. But the first king whose name is preserved was
Baramindana, believed to have reigned from 1213 to 1235. His territory
lay south of that of Jenné, partly within the bend of the Niger and
partly west of that river. The people were already Moslem, and the
capital was a rendezvous for merchants from all parts of the western
Sudan and the Barbary States. Mari Jatah (or Diara), Baramindana's
successor, about the middle of the 13th century conquered the Susu, then
masters of Ghanata (Ghana). Early in the 14th century Mansa, i.e.
Sultan, Kunkur Musa, extended the empire, known as the Mellistine, to
its greatest limits, making himself master of Timbuktu, Gao and all the
Songhoi dominions. His authority extended northward over the Sahara to
the Tuat oases. Mansa Suleiman was on the throne when in 1352-1353 Melle
was visited by Ibn Batuta. By this monarch the empire was divided into
three great provinces, ruled by viceroys. For a century afterwards Melle
appears to have been the dominant Sudan state west of the Lower Niger,
but it had to meet the hostility of the growing power of the pagan
Mossi, of the Tuareg in the north and of the Songhoi, who under Sunni
Ali (c. 1325) had already regained a measure of independence. Cadamosto
nevertheless describes Melle in 1454 as being still the most powerful of
the negro-land kingdoms and the most important for its traffic in gold
and slaves. The Songhoi sovereign Askia is said to have completed the
conquest of Melle at the beginning of the 16th century. It nevertheless
retained some sort of national existence--though with the advent of the
Moors in the Niger countries (end of the 16th century) native
civilization suffered a blow from which it never recovered. Civil war is
said to have finally wrought the ruin of Melle about the middle of the
17th century.[2] The Portuguese, from their first appearance on the
Senegal and Gambia, entered into friendly relations with the rulers of
Melle. Barros relates (_Da Asia_, Decade I.) that John II. of Portugal
sent embassies to the court of Melle by way of the Gambia (end of the
15th century). At that time the authority of Melle was said to extend
westward to the coast. The king, pressed by the Mossi, the Songhoi and
the Fula, solicited the help of his "friends and allies" the
Portuguese--with what result does not appear; but in 1534 Barros himself
despatched an ambassador to the king of Melle concerning the trade of
the Gambia. By way of that river the Portuguese themselves penetrated as
far as Bambuk, a country conquered by the Mandingo in the 12th century.
By Barros the name of the Melle ruler is given as Mandi Mansa, which may
be the native form for "Sultan of the Mandi" (Mandingo).
See further TIMBUKTU and the authorities there cited; cf. also L.
Marc, _Le Pays Mossi_ (Paris, 1909). Lists of Mandingo sovereigns are
given in Stokvis, _Manuel d'histoire_, vol. i. (Leiden, 1888).
(F. R. C.)