Part 14

MANAKIN, from the Dutch word _Manneken_, applied to certain small birds, a name apparently introduced into English by G. Edwards (_Nat. Hist. Birds_, i. 21) in or about 1743, since which time it has been accepted generally, and is now used for those which form the family _Pipridae_. The manakins are peculiar to the Neotropical Region and have many of the habits of the titmouse family (_Paridae_), living in deep forests, associating in small bands, and keeping continually in motion, but feeding almost wholly on the large soft berries of the different kinds of _Melastoma_. The _Pipridae_, however, have no close affinity with the _Paridae_,[1] but belong to another great division of the order _Passeres_, the _Clamatores_ group of the _Anisomyodae_. The manakins are nearly all birds of gay appearance, generally exhibiting rich tints of blue, crimson, scarlet, orange or yellow in combination with chestnut, deep black, black and white, or olive green; and among their most obvious characteristics are their short bill and feeble feet, of which the outer toe is united to the middle toe for a good part of its length. The tail, in most species very short, has in others the middle feathers much elongated, and in one of the outer rectrices are attenuated and produced into threads. They have been divided (Brit. Mus. _Cat. Birds_, vol. xiv.) into nineteen genera with about seventy species, of which eighteen are included under _Pipra_ itself. _P. leucilla_, one of the best known, has a wide distribution from the isthmus of Panama to Guiana and the valley of the Amazon; but it is one of the most plainly coloured of the family, being black with a white head. The genus _Machaeropterus_, consisting of four species, is very remarkable for the extraordinary form of some of the secondary wing-feathers in the males, in which the shaft is thickened and the webs changed in shape, as described and illustrated by P. L. Sclater (_Proc. Zool. Society_, 1860, p. 90; Ibis, 1862, p. 175[2]) in the case of the beautiful _M. deliciosus_, and it has been observed that the wing-bones of these birds are also much thickened, no doubt in correlation with this abnormal structure. A like deviation from the ordinary character is found in the allied genus _Chiromachaeris_, comprehending seven species, and Sclater is of the opinion that it enables them to make the singular noise for which they have long been noted, described by O. Salvin (_Ibis_, 1860, p. 37) in the case of one of them, _M. candaei_, as beginning "with a sharp note not unlike the crack of a whip," which is "followed by a rattling sound not unlike the call of a landrail"; and it is a similar habit that has obtained for another species, _M. edwardsi_, the name in Cayenne, according to Buffon (_Hist. Nat. Oiseaux_, iv. 413), of _Cassenoisette_. (A. N.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Though Edwards called the species he figured (_ut supra_) a titmouse, he properly remarked that there was no genus of European birds to which he could liken it.

[2] The figures are repeated by Darwin (_Descent of Man_, &c., ii. 66).

MANAOAG, a town in the north central part of the province of Pangasinán, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on the Angalacan river, 21 m. N.E. of Lingayen. Pop. (1903), 16,793. The inhabitants devote themselves especially to rice-culture, though tobacco, Indian corn, sugar-cane, fruit and vegetables are also raised. A statue of the Virgin Mary here is visited annually (especially during May) by thousands from Pangasinán and adjoining provinces. The inhabitants are mostly Ilocanos. Manaoag includes the town proper and eighteen barrios.

MANÁOS, a city and port of Brazil and capital of the state of Amazonas, on the left bank of the Rio Negro 12 m. above its junction with the Solimões, or Amazon, and 908 m. (Wappäus) above the mouth of the latter, in lat. 3° 8´ 4´´ S., long. 60° W. Pop. (1908), about 40,000, including a large percentage of Indians, negroes and mixed-bloods; the city is growing rapidly. Manáos stands on a slight eminence overlooking the river, 106 ft. above sea-level, traversed by several "igarapés" (canoe paths) or side channels, and beautified by the luxuriant vegetation of the Amazon valley. The climate is agreeable and healthful, the average temperature for the year (1902) being 84°, the number of rainy days 130, and the total rainfall 66.4 in. Up to the beginning of the 20th century the only noteworthy public edifices were the church of N.S. da Conceição, the St Sebastião asylum and, possibly, a Misericordia hospital; but a government building, a custom-house, a municipal hall, courts of justice, a marketplace and a handsome theatre were subsequently erected, and a modern water-supply system, electric light and electric tramways were provided. The "igarapés" are spanned by a number of bridges. Higher education is provided by a lyceum or high school, besides which there is a noteworthy school (bearing the name of Benjamin Constant) for poor orphan girls. Manáos has a famous botanical garden, an interesting museum, a public library, and a meteorological observatory. The port of Manáos, which is the commercial centre of the whole upper Amazon region, was nothing but a river anchorage before 1902. In that year a foreign corporation began improvements, which include a stone river-wall or quay, storehouses for merchandise, and floating wharves or landing stages connected with the quay by floating bridges or roadways. The floating wharves and bridges are made necessary by the rise and fall of the river, the difference between the maximum and minimum levels being about 33 ft.

The principal exports are rubber, nuts, cacao, dried fish, hides and piassava fibre. The markets of Manáos receive their supplies of beef from the national stock ranges on the Rio Branco, and it is from this region that hides and horns are received for export. The shipping movement of the port has become large and important, the total arrivals in 1907, including small trading boats, being 1589, of which 133 were ocean-going steamers from Europe and the United States, 75 from south Brazilian ports, and 227 river steamers from Pará. This rapid growth in its direct trade is due to a provincial law of 1878 which authorized an abatement of 3% in the export duties on direct shipments, and a state law of 1900 which made it compulsory to land and ship all products of the state from the Manáos custom-house.

The first European settlement on the site of Manáos was made in 1660, when a small fort was built here by Francisco da Motta Falcão, and was named São José de Rio Negro. The mission and village which followed was called Villa de Barra, or Barra do Rio Negro (the name "Barra" being derived from the "bar" in the current of the river, occasioned by the setback caused by its encounter with the Amazon). It succeeded Barcellos as the capital of the old _capitania_ of Rio Negro in 1809, and became the capital of Amazonas when that province was created in 1850, its name being then changed to Manáos, the name of the principal tribe of Indians living on the Rio Negro at the time of its discovery. In 1892 Manáos became the see of the new bishopric of Amazonas.

MANASSAS, a district of Prince William county, Virginia, and a town of the district, about 30 m. W.S.W. of Washington, D.C. Pop. (1910) of the district, 3381; of the town, 1217. The village of Manassas (in the town), known also as Manassas Junction, is served by the Chesapeake & Ohio and the Southern railways. North of the junction is Bull Run, a small stream which empties into the Occoquan, an arm of the Potomac. In this neighbourhood two important battles of the American Civil War, the first and second battles of Bull Run, were fought on the 21st of July 1861 and on the 29th-30th of August 1862 respectively; by Southern historians these battles are called the battles of Manassas. At Manassas is the Manassas Industrial School for Coloured Youth (non-sectarian; privately supported), which was founded in 1892 and opened in 1894; in 1908-1909 it had nine teachers (all negroes) and 121 pupils, all in elementary grades.

MANASSEH (7th cent. B.C.), son of Hezekiah, and king of Judah (2 Kings xxi. 1-18). His reign of fifty-five years was marked by a reaction against the reforming policy of his father, and his persistent idolatry and bloodshed were subsequently regarded as the cause of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the dispersion of the people (2 Kings xxiii. 26 seq.; Jer. xv. 4). As a vassal of Assyria he was contemporary with Sennacherib, Esar-haddon (681-668 B.C.) and Assur-bani-pal (668-626 B.C.), and his name (_Me-na-si-e_) appears among the tributaries of the two latter. Little is known of his history. The chronicler, however, relates that the Assyrian army took him in chains to Babylon, and that after his repentance he returned, and distinguished himself by his piety, by building operations in Jerusalem and by military organization (2 Chron. xxxiii. 10 sqq.). The story of his penitence referred to in xxxiii. 22, is untrustworthy, but the historical foundation may have been some share in the revolt of the Babylonian Samas-sum-ukin (648 B.C.), on which occasion he may have been summoned before Assur-bani-pal with other rebels and subsequently reinstated. See further Driver, in Hogarth, _Authority and Archaeology_, pp. 114 sqq. Manasseh was succeeded by his son Amon, who after a brief reign of two years perished in a conspiracy, his place being taken by Amon's son (or brother) Josiah (q.v.). A lament formerly ascribed to Manasseh (cf. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 18) is preserved in the Apocrypha (see MANASSES, PRAYER OF; and APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE). On Judg. xviii. 30 (marg.), see JONATHAN.

MANASSEH (apparently Hebrew for "he who causes to forget," but see H. W. Hogg, _Encyc. Bib._, s.v.); in the Bible, a tribe of Israel, the elder but less important of the "sons" of Joseph. Its seat lay to the north of Ephraim, but its boundaries can scarcely be defined. It merged itself with its "brother" in the south, and with Issachar, Zebulun and other tribes in the north (Josh. xvii. 7 sqq.). From the latter it was separated for a time by a line of Canaanite cities extending from Dor to Bethshean, which apparently were not all subdued till the days of David or Solomon (Judg. i. 27; 1 Sam. xxxi. 10; 1 Kings ix. 15). Besides its western settlement in the fertile glades of northern Samaria, running out into the great plain, there were territories east of the Jordan reckoned to Manasseh. Gilead and Bashan were said to have been taken by Machir, and a number of places of uncertain identification were occupied by Nobah and Jair (Num. xxxii. 41; Judg. x. 3-5). It seems most natural to suppose that these districts were held before the Israelites crossed over to the west (cf. the tradition Num. xxi., Deut. iii.). On the other hand, in Judg. v. 14, Machir may conceivably belong to the west, and it is possible that, according to another tradition, these movements were the result of the complaint of the Joseph tribes that their original territory was too restricted.[1] In the genealogical lists, Machir, perhaps originally an independent branch, is the eldest son of Manasseh (Josh. xvii. 1 _b_, 2); but according to later schemes he is Manasseh's only son (Num. xxvi. 28-34). Intermixture with Arameans is indicated in the view that he was the son of Manasseh and an Aramean concubine (1 Chron. vii. 14), and this is supported by the statement that the Arameans of Geshur and Maacah (cf. 2 Sam. x. 6; Gen. xxii. 24) dwelt among the Israelites of eastern Jordan (Josh. xiii. 13). Subsequently, at an unknown period of history, sixty cities were lost (1 Chron. ii. 23). The story of the daughters of the Manassite Zelophehad is of interest for the Hebrew law of inheritance (Num. xxvii. 1-11, xxxvi.).

Some details of the history of this twofold branch of the Israelites are contained in the stories of Gideon (W. Manasseh) and Jephthah (E. Manasseh). The relations between Saul and Jabesh-Gilead point to the close bond uniting the two districts, but the details have been variously interpreted: Winckler, for example, suggesting that Saul himself was originally from E. Manasseh and that he followed in the steps of Jephthah (_Keilinschr. u. d. alte Test._, pp. 216 seq. 227). Generally speaking, its position in the west made it share the fortunes of Ephraim, whilst on the east the proximity of Ammonites and Moabites controlled its history; see also the articles on its southern neighbours, GAD and REUBEN, and the articles GENEALOGY (Biblical); and JEWS: _History_. (S. A. C.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] So Budde (_Richter u. Samuel_), who recovers certain old fragments and arranges Josh. xvii. 14-18 (v. 18 read "hill-country of Gilead"); Num. xxxii. 39, 41 seq.; Josh. xiii. 13.

MANASSES, CONSTANTINE, Byzantine chronicler, flourished in the 12th century during the reign of Manuel I. (Comnenus) (1143-1180). He was the author of a _Chronicle_ or historical synopsis of events from the creation of the world to the end of the reign of Nicephorus Botaniates (1081), written by direction of Irene, the emperor's sister-in-law. It consists of about 7000 lines in the so-called "political" metre.[1] There is little to be said of it, except that it is rather more poetical than the iambic chronicle of Ephraim (about 150 years later). It obtained great popularity and appeared in a free prose translation; it was also translated into Slavonic. The poetical romance of the _Loves of Aristander and Callithea_, also in "political" verse, is only known from the fragments preserved in the [Greek: Rhodônia] (rose-garden) of Macarius Chrysocephalus (14th century). Manasses also wrote a short biography of Oppian, and some descriptive pieces (all except one unpublished) on artistic and other subjects.

EDITIONS.--_Chronicle_ in Bonn, _Corpus scriptorum hist. Byz._, 1st ed. Bekker (1837) and in J. P. Migne, _Patrologia graeca_, cxxvii.; _Aristander and Callithea_ in R. Hercher's _Scriptores erotici graeci_, ii. (1859); "Life of Oppian" in A. Westermann, _Vitarum scriptores graeci minores_ (1845). A long didactic poem in "political" verse (edited by E. Miller in _Annuaire de l'assoc. pour l'encouragement des études grecques en France_, ix. 1875) is attributed to Manasses or one of his imitators. See also F. Hirsch, _Byzantinische Studien_ (1876); C. Krumbacher, _Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur_ (1897).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] "Political" verse or metre is the name given to a kind of verse found as early as the 6th century in proverbs, and characteristic of Byzantine and modern Greek poetry. It takes no account of the quantity of syllables; the scansion depends on accent, and there is always an accent on the last syllable but one. It is specially used of an iambic verse with fifteen syllables, i.e. seven feet and an unaccented syllable over. Byron compares "A captain bold of Halifax who lived in country quarters." Such facile metres are called "political," in the sense of "commonplace," "of the city." Cf. Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_ (ed. Bury, 1898), vi. 108; Du Cange, _Gloss. med. et infin. lat._ (vi. 395), who has an interesting quotation from Leo Allatius. Leo explains "political" as implying that the verses are "scorta et meretrices, quod omnibus sunt obsequiosae et peculiares, et servitutem publicam serviunt."

MANASSES, PRAYER OF, an apocryphal book of the Old Testament. This writing, which since the Council of Trent has been relegated by the Church of Rome to the position of an appendix to the Vulgate, was placed by Luther and the translators of the English Bible among the apocryphal books. In some MSS. of the Septuagint it is the eighth among the canticles appended to the Psalter, though in many Greek psalters, which include the canticles, it is not found at all. In Swete's Old Testament in Greek, iii. 802 sqq., A is printed with the variants of T (_Psalterium turicense_).[1] From the statements in 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12, 13, 18, 19, it follows that the Old Testament chronicler found a prayer attributed to Manasseh in his Hebrew sources, _The History of the Kings of Israel_ and _The History of the Seers_. Naturally the question arose, had the existing Prayer of Manasses any direct connexion with the prayer referred to by the chronicler? Ewald was of opinion that the Greek was an actual translation of the lost Hebrew; but Ball more wisely takes it as a free rendering of a lost Haggadic narrative founded on the older document from which the chronicler drew his information. This view he supports by showing that there was once a considerable literature in circulation regarding Manasseh's later history. On the other hand most scholars take the Prayer to have been written in Greek, e.g. Fritzsche, Schürer and Ryssel (Kautzsch, _Apok. u. Pseud._ i. 165-168).

This fine penitential prayer seems to have been modelled after the penitential psalms. It exhibits considerable unity of thought, and the style is, in the main, dignified and simple.

As regards the date, Fritzsche, Ball and Ryssel agree in assigning this psalm to the Maccabean period. Its eschatology and doctrine of "divine forgiveness" may point to an earlier date.

The best short account of the book is given by Ball (_Speaker's Apocrypha_, ii. 361-371); see also Porter in Hastings's _Dict. Bible_, iii. 232-233. (R. H. C.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Nestle (_Septuaginta Studien III._) contends that the text of A and T is derived from the Apost. Const. ii. 22, or from its original, and not from a MS. of the Septuagint.

MANATI (often anglicized as "manatee"), the name, adapted from the Carib _manattouï_, given by the Spanish colonists of the West Indies to the American representative of a small group of herbivorous aquatic mammals, constituting, with their allies the dugong and the now extinct _Rhytina_, the order Sirenia. The name, though possibly of Mandingo origin (see MANDINGO), was latinized as _manatus_, furnished with hands, thus referring the etymology to the somewhat hand-like form, or hand-like use, of the fore-flippers, which alone serve these creatures for limbs. Manatis, as shown in the illustration in the article SIRENIA, are somewhat whale-like in shape, having a similar horizontally expanded tail-fin; but here the resemblance to the Cetacea ceases, the whole organization of these animals being constructed on entirely different lines. The American manati, _Manatus_ (or, as some would have it, _Trichechus latirostris_), inhabits the rivers of Florida, Mexico, Central America and the West Indies, and measures from 9 to 13 feet in length. The body is somewhat fish-like, but depressed and ending posteriorly in a broad, flat, shovel-like horizontal tail, with rounded edges. The head is of moderate size, oblong, with a blunt, truncated muzzle, and divided from the body by a slight constriction or neck. The fore limbs are flattened oval paddles, placed rather low on the sides of the body, and showing externally no signs of division into fingers, but with three diminutive flat nails near their extremities. No traces of hind limbs are discernible either externally or internally; and there is no dorsal fin. The mouth is peculiar, the tumid upper lip being cleft in the middle line into two lobes, each of which is separately movable. The nostrils are two semilunar valve-like slits at the apex of the muzzle. The eyes are very minute, placed at the sides of the head, and with a nearly circular aperture with wrinkled margins; and external ears are wanting. The skin generally is of a dark greyish colour, not smooth or glistening like that of whale or dolphin, but finely wrinkled. At a little distance it appears naked, but close inspection, at all events in young animals, shows a scanty covering of delicate hairs, and both upper and under lips are supplied with short, stiff bristles.

[Illustration: (From Murie.)

Front view of head of American Manati, showing the eyes, nostrils, and mouth. A, with the lobes of the upper lip divaricated; B, with the lip contracted.]

Manatis have a number--as many as 20 pairs in each jaw--of two-ridged teeth, of which, however, but comparatively few are in use at once. They lack the large tusks of the male dugong, and the fore part of the skull is not so much bent down as in that animal. In life the palate has a horny plate, with a similar one in the lower jaw. The skeleton is described under SIRENIA.

Manatis pass their life in the water, inhabiting bays, lagoons, estuaries and large rivers, but the open sea is unsuited to their peculiar mode of life. As a rule they prefer shallow water, in which, when not feeding, they lie near the bottom. In deeper water they often float, with the body much arched, the rounded back close to the surface, and the head, limbs and tail hanging downwards. The air in the lungs assists them to maintain this position. Their food consists exclusively of aquatic plants, on which they feed beneath the water. They are slow in their movements, and perfectly harmless, but are subject to persecution for the sake of their oil, skin and flesh. Frequent attempts have been made to keep specimens alive in captivity, and sometimes with considerable success, one having lived in the Brighton Aquarium for upwards of sixteen months. From such captive specimens certain observations on the mode of life of these animals have been made. We learn, for instance, that from the shoulder-joint the flippers can be moved in all directions, and the elbow and wrist permit of free extension and flexion. In feeding, manatis push the food towards their mouths by means of one of the hands, or both used simultaneously, and any one who has seen these members thus employed can believe the stories of their carrying their young under their arms. Still more interesting is the action of the peculiar lateral pads formed by the divided upper lip, thus described by Professor A. Garrod: "These pads have the power of transversely approaching towards and receding from one another simultaneously (see fig.). When the animal is on the point of seizing (say) a leaf of lettuce, the pads are diverged transversely in such a way as to make a median gap of considerable breadth. Directly the leaf is within grasp the lip-pads are approximated, the leaf is firmly seized between their contiguous bristly surfaces, and then drawn inwards by a backward movement of the lower margin of the lip as a whole." The animal is thus enabled by the unaided means of the upper lip to introduce food placed before it without the assistance of the comparatively insignificant lower lip, the action recalling that of the mouth of the silkworm and other caterpillars in which the mandibles diverge and converge laterally during mastication. All trustworthy observations indicate that the manati has not the power of voluntarily leaving the water. None of the specimens in confinement has been observed to emit any sound.

The Amazonian manati (_M. inunguis_) is a much smaller species, not exceeding 7 or 8 ft. in length, and without nails to the flippers. It ascends most of the tributaries of the Amazon until stopped by rapids. From a specimen which lived a short time in London it appears that the lip-pads are less developed than in the northern species. The third species is the West African _M. senegalensis_, which extends a distance of about ten degrees south and sixteen north of the equator, and ranges into the heart of the continent as far as Lake Tchad. From 8 to 10 ft. appears to be the normal length; the weight of a specimen was 590 lb. The colour is bluish black, with a tinge of olive-green above and yellow below. (R. L.*)