Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/101

LEFT MADURA 75 is Madura, the third largest in the presi- dency; pop. about 150,000. For nearly 2,300 years Madura was the political and religious capital of the extreme S. part of India. Its Pandyan kings are men- tioned by the ancient Greek geographers. In the 17th century the Nayak rulers, chiefly Tirumala (1623-1659), built here a magnificent pagoda to Sundareswara (Siva), with a hall having 1,000 (997) pillars, a fine palace, now ruined, a summer palace for the god, and a great tank. The Jesuits have been active in Madura since the time of Tirumala. MADURA, an island of the Dutch East Indies, separated by a narrow strait from the N. E. of Java; area 1,- 764 square miles. It is mostly barren, but possesses numerous forests and salt marshes. Along with about 80 smaller is- lands, lying mostly to the E., it forms a Dutch residency; area, 2,040 square miles. The people, of Malay descent, re- semble the Javanese, but are stronger, more enduring, and more enterprising; they make the best native soldiers in the Dutch colonial army. Pop. about 1,900,000. M.a3ANDER (me-an'dur), a river in Asia Minor, 200 miles long, which flows W. S. W. from Mount Aulocrene. in Phrygia, to the ^gean Sea, near Miletus. The proverbial windings of the Maeander made its name a synonsrm for a tortuous course. M-ffiCENAS, CAIUS CILNIUS (me- se'nas), a Roman administrator, bom about 65 B. c. For the three years 18-15 B. c, he was invested with the govern- ment of Italy, and he was always sent to Rome on any emergency, either with the Senate or the people, in case he was absent with Augustus. His chief fame was gained as a patron of learning. Vergil, Horace, and Propertius are best known to us as the guests of his hospi- table mansion on the Esquiline Hill. Some poetical fragments of his remain to this day. He died in 8 B. c, MAELAR (ma'lar), cr, MALAR, a lake of Sweden, runing inland from the Baltic; length about 81 miles; average breadth, 13 miles; area, 525 square miles; contains upward of 1,200 islands. Its E. end is closed by Stockholm, where its waters are poured into the Baltic, the difference of level being about six feet. It is surrounded by the districts of Stockholm, Nykoping, Upsal, and Ves- teras. . MAELSTROM (mel'struhm) ("grind- ing stream"), a famous whirlpool, or more correctly current, between Mos- MAETERLINCK kenas and Vaero, two of the Lofoden Isles. MAESTRICHT (mas'tri/zt), the capi- tal of the Dutch province of Limburg, 19 miles N. N. E. of Liege, situated on the left bank of the Meuse, a stone bridge (1683) connecting it with the suburb of Wijk; formerly an important fortress, it is still a garrison town, but the fortifica- tions were dismantled in 1871-1878; the town hall, with spire and carillon (1662), contains many paintings and a library; and in the three-towered church of St. Servatius (12th-14th century), the ca- thedral once, is a "Descent from the Cross," by Van Dyck. But Maestricht's great sight is the subterranean quarries of the Pietersberg, formerly called Mons Hunnorum (Mount of the Huns, 330 feet). Their labyrinthine passages, 12 feet wide, and 20 to 50 feet high, number 16,000, and extend over an area of 13 by 6 miles. They are supposed to have been worked first by the Romans, and, among other fossils, have yielded two heads of the huge Mosasaurus (q. v.). The manufactures include glass, earth- enware, and carpets; and the trade is con- siderable. Maestricht, called by the Ro- mans Trajectum ad Mosam to distin- guish it from Trajectum ad Rhenuni (Utrecht), was six times besieged be- tween 1579 and 1814, and in 1830 was the only town that withstood the insurgent Belgians. Pop. about 40,000. MAETERLINCK, MAURICE, a Bel- gian poet and essayist; bom in Ghent, in 1862. After spending some years in a Jesuit school, where he studied philoso- phy and law. he became a barrister in 1887, but did not actually practice the profession, and in 1896 settled in Paris and gave himself up to writing. He pro- duced many plays of great significance. These are chiefly symbolic and are pos- sessed of great poetic and dramatic value. Among them are "La Princesse Maleine" (1889) ; "Pelleas and Melisande" (1892); "Sister Beatrice" (1899); "Mon- na Vanna" (1902); "The Blue Bird" (1909) ; and "Marie Magdeleine" (1910). "The Blue Bird" became immensely pop- ular in English translation and was played successfully throughout the United States. Maeterlinck also wrote a series of espays bearing on his philoso- phy of life. These include "Treasure of the Humble" (1896); "Wisdom and Des- tiny" (1898). ^ "Life of the Bee," in 1902, was one of his most widely known pro- ductions. In 1913 he published "La Mort," an interpretation of his philosophy of death. In 1911 Maeterlinck was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. During the European war he took an ac-