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 take up 22% and marshy forests no less than 40% of the entire area of the province. It is only in the north-west that the forests consist of full-grown trees; those which grow on the marshy ground are small, stunted pine, birch and aspen. The climate of the Polyesie is extremely unhealthy; malarias and an endemic disease of the hair (plica Polonica) are the plagues of these tracts. Communication is very difficult. The railway from Poland to Moscow has taken advantage of the plateau above mentioned; but still it has to cross the broad marshy depression of the Berezina. A successful attempt was made to drain the marshes of the Polyesie by a system of canals, and more than 4,500,000 acres have thus been rendered suitable for pasture and agriculture. Two tributaries of the Dnieper—the Berezina and the Pripet—both navigable, with numberless subtributaries, many also navigable, are the natural outlets for the marshes. The Dnieper flows along its south-eastern border for 160 m. and the Niemen on the north-western for 130 m. The affluents of the Baltic, the Dvina and the Vistula, are connected by canals with tributaries of the Dnieper. The estimated population in 1906 was 2,581,400. The peasants constitute 65% of the population, who are mostly White Russians (71%), there are also Poles (12%), Jews (16%), Little Russians and Great Russians. About 70,000 are considered to be Lithuanians; there are also 4500 Tatars and 2000 Germans.

The principal occupation of the inhabitants is agriculture, which is very unproductive in the lowlands; in the Polyesie the peasants rarely have pure bread to eat. Only 23·5% of the area is under crops. Cattle-breeding is very imperfectly developed. Hunting and bee-keeping are sources of income in the Polyesie, and fishing gives occupation to about 20,000 persons. Gardening is carried on in some parts. The chief source of income for the inhabitants of the lowlands is the timber trade. Timber is floated down the rivers, and tar, pitch, various products of bark, potash, charcoal and timber-ware (wooden dishes, &c.) are manufactured in the villages to a great extent; and ship-building is carried on along the Dnieper, Pripet and Niemen. Shipping is also an important source of income. The industrial arts are almost entirely undeveloped, but there are several distilleries, flour-mills, saw-mills and tanneries, and woollen-stuffs, candles, tobacco, matches and sugar are manufactured. The great highway from Warsaw to Moscow crosses the government in the south, and its passage through the Berezina is protected by the first-class fortress of Bobruisk. The government is divided into nine districts, of which the chief towns and populations in 1897 are:, capital of the government (q.v.), Bobruisk (35,177), Igumeñ (4579), Mozyr (10,762), Novogrudok (7700), Pinsk (27,938), Ryechitsa (10,681) and Slutsk (14,180).

This region was originally inhabited by Slavs. That portion of it which was occupied by the Krivichi became part of the Polotsk principality, and so of White Russia; the other portion, occupied by the Dregovichi and Drevlyans, became part of Black Russia; whilst the south-western portion was occupied by Yatvyags or Lithuanians. During the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries it was divided among several principalities, which were successively incorporated with Lithuania, and later annexed to Poland. Russia took possession of this country in 1793. In 1812 it was invaded by the army of Napoleon I. Archaeological finds of great value, dating from the Neolithic and subsequent ages, have lately been made.

 MINSK, a town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, on the Svisloch, a tributary of the Berezina, at the intersection of the Moscow–Warsaw and Libau–Kharkov railways, 430 m. by rail W. from Moscow. It had, in 1897, 91,494 inhabitants, of whom one-third were Jews of the poorest class; the others were White Russians, Poles and Tatars. Amongst its public buildings is a cathedral, built in 1611. Minsk is the headquarters of the IVth Army Corps and the see of a bishop of the Orthodox Greek Church, and from 1798 to 1853 it was a see of the Roman Catholic Church. The manufactures are few and insignificant. Since the introduction of railways the commercial importance of the place, which formerly was slight, has begun to increase.

Minsk is mentioned in Russian annals in the 11th century under the name of Myen’sk, or Menesk. In 1066 and 1096 it was devastated, first by Izyazlav and afterwards by Vladimir, prince of Kiev. It changed rulers many times until the 13th century, when it became a Lithuanian fief. In the 15th century it was part of Poland, but as late as 1505 it was ravaged by Tatars, and in 1508 by Russians. In the 18th century it was taken several times by Swedes and Russians. Russia annexed it in 1793. Napoleon I. took it in 1812.  MINSTER, two towns of Kent, England.

1., in the Isle of Thanet parliamentary division, lies on the southern slope of the isle, above the Minster marshes, in the low, flat valley of the river Stour, 4 m. west of Ramsgate, on the South-Eastern & Chatham railway. Pop. (1901), 2338. Its church, dedicated to St Mary, is cruciform, with a western tower, the nave a fine example of Norman work, the transepts and chancel a beautiful Early English addition. The carved choir-stalls are a notable feature. The church belonged to a nunnery, founded at the close of the 7th century. The abbey, a residence close to the church, incorporates portions of the ancient buildings. Fruit-growing is largely carried on in the neighbourhood.

2., in the north-eastern parliamentary division, lies in the Isle of Sheppey, near the north coast. Pop. (1901), 1306. It is served by the Sheppey light railway from Sheerness, 2 m. west. The village has in modern times become a seaside resort. It has a fine church, dedicated to St Mary and St Sexburga, originally attached to a convent of the 7th century, founded by Sexburga, widow of Erconberht, king of Kent. The building as it stands is only a portion of the conventual church founded in the early part of the 12th century by William de Corbeuil, archbishop of Canterbury; it retains also traces of pre-Norman work. It contains some interesting early monuments. The abbey gatehouse remains, and other fragments may be traced. There are oyster beds in the neighbouring shallow sea.  MINSTER (from Lat. monasterium; cf. German Münster), the church of a monastery, or one to which a monastery has been attached. In the 10th century the name was applied to the churches of outlying parishes, and is now given to some of the English cathedrals, such as York, Lincoln, Ripon and Southwell, and to large churches or abbeys, like those of Sherborne, Wimborne or Westminster.  MINSTREL. The word “minstrel,” which is a derivative from the Latin minister, a servant, through the diminutives ministellus, ministrallus French menestrel), only acquired its special sense of household entertainer late in the 13th century. It  was the equivalent of the Low Latin joculator (Prov. joglar, Fr. jongleur, Mid. Eng. jogclour), and had an equally wide significance.

The minstrel of medieval England had his forerunners in the Teutonic scôp (O.H.G. scôpf or scof, a shaper or maker), and to a limited extent in the mimus of the later Roman empire. The earliest record of the Teutonic scôp is found in the Anglo-Saxon  poem of Widsith, which in an earlier form probably dates back before the English conquest. Widsith, the far-traveller, belonged to a tribe which was neighbour to the Angles, and was sent on a mission to the Ostrogoth Eormanric (Hermanric or Ermanaric, d. 375), from whom he received a collar of beaten gold. He wandered from place to place singing or telling stories in the mead-hall,  and saw many nations, from the Picts and Scots in the west  to the Medes and Persians in the east. Finally he received a gift of land in his native country. The Complaint of Deor and Beowulf give further proof that the Teutonic scôp held an honourable  position, which was shaken by the advent of Christianity. The scôp and the gleeman (the terms appear to have been practically synonymous) shared in the general condemnation passed by  the Church on the dancers, jugglers, bear-leaders and tumblers. Saxo Grammaticus (Historia danica, bk. v.) condemns the Irish king Hugleik because he spent all his bounty on mimes and  jugglers. That the loftier tradition of the scôpas was preserved in spite of these influences is shown by the tales of Alfred and Anlaf disguised as minstrels. With the Normans came the joculator or jogleur, who wore gaudy-coloured coats and the flat