Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/302

Rh 284 M A G M A G MAGNUSSON, ARNI (1663-1730), a scholar to whom we are largely indebted for the preservation of the old Icelandic literature, was born in the west of Iceland in 1663. In his youth he resided for a time at Hvamm, then the residence of his mother s father, Ketil the priest, who was a well-known copyist of manuscripts. In 1683 he came to Copenhagen, and was employed by Bartholinus at first as a copyist, and afterwards to investigate the monuments and ancient customs of Norway. In 1697 he was appointed secretary of the archives of the kingdom. Before this he had begun to collect Icelandic manuscripts, his earliest acquisition (ffulda) being in 1687. From that time he steadily persevered, but his great acquisitions were chiefly made in Iceland, whither he went in connexion with the royal survey in 1702-12. The old and important manuscripts were by that time falling into neglect, and it is more than probable that without Ami s intervention the greater part would have been lost to us. On his return from Iceland he was appointed professor of history and Danish antiquities in the university of Copenhagen. He is said never to have recovered the shock caused by the mischief done to his library by the great fire of Copenhagen in 1728. He himself had never the courage to ascertain exactly what he had lost ; but it appeared afterwards that scarcely any MS. of real importance had perished. On his death on 6th January 1730, he bequeathed his property to the university of Copenhagen for the purpose chiefly of publishing Icelandic manuscripts (Arna-Magnsean Bequest). The first volume published under the bequest was JVjala, which appeared in 1772, and was succeeded by a number of valuable publications of the same class. Arni left behind him no literary work of any consequence, and his notes and historical material were mostly destroyed in the conflagra tion. The signal service which he rendered to Icelandic literature lay in his judicious and extensive collection of the old manuscripts, and investigation of their history so far as attainable, at a time when they were rapidly being superseded and disappearing through neglect. MAGO was one of the most common Carthaginian names, borne among others by the reputed founder of the military power of Carthage, and the Punic admiral in the war with the elder Dionysius (see CARTHAGE). The most famous of the name was the youngest of the three sons of Hamilcar Barca. He accompanied his brother Hannibal on his expedition into Italy, and held important commands in the great victories of the first three years. After the battle of Cannae he marched through southern Italy and sailed to Carthage to report the successes gained. He was about to return to Italy with strong reinforcements for Hannibal, when the Government ordered him to go to help his other brother, Hasdrubal, who was hard pressed in Spain. He maintained war there with varying success in concert with the two generals Hasdrubal, until, in 209 B.C., his brother marched into Italy to help Hannibal. Mago remained in Spain with the other Hasdrubal. In 207 he was defeated by M. Silanus, and in 206 the combined forces of Mago and Hasdrubal were scattered by Scipio in the decisive battle of Silpia. Mago maintained himself for a long time in Gades, but afterwards received orders to carry the war into Liguria. He wintered in the Balearic Isles, where the fine harbour Fortus Magonis, Port Mahon, still bears his name. Early in 204 he landed in Liguria, where he maintained a desultory warfare till in 203 he was defeated in Cisalpine Gaul by the Roman forces. He received orders soon after to return to Carthage, but on the voyage home he died of wounds received in the battle. The name of Mago but which Mago is uncertain is attached to a great work on agriculture which was brought to Rome and translated by order of the senate after the destruction of Carthage. The book was regarded as a standard authority, and is often referred to by later writers. MAGPIE, or simply PIE (French, Pie), the prefix being the abbreviated form of a human name (Margaret 1 ) applied as in so many other instances to familiar animals, as this bird onco was throughout Great Britain, though of late years almost exterminated in many parts, and now nearly everywhere scarce. Its pilfering habits have led to this result, yet the injuries it causes are unquestionably ex aggerated by common report ; and in many countries of Europe it is still the tolerated or even the cherished neigh bour of every farmer, as it formerly was in England if not in Scotland also. There is ample evidence 2 to prove that it did not exist in Ireland in 1617, when Fynes Morison 3 wrote his Itinerary, and that it had appeared there within a hundred years later, when Swift mentions its occurrences in his Journal to Stella, under date of 9th July 1711. It is now common enough in that country, and there is a widespread but of course unfounded belief that it was in troduced by the English out of spite. It is a species that when not molested is extending its range, as Wolley ascer tained in Lapland, where within the last century it has been gradually pushing its way along the coast and into the interior from one fishing-station or settler s house to the next, as the country has been peopled. Since the persecution to which the Pie has been subjected in Great Britain, its habits have undoubtedly altered greatly in character. It is no longer the merry, saucy hanger-on of the homestead, as it was to writers of former days, who were constantly alluding to its disposition, but is become the suspicious thief, shunning the gaze of man, and knowing that danger may lurk in every bush. Hence opportunities of observing it fall to the lot of few, and most persons know it only as a curtailed captive in a wicker cage, where its vivacity and natural beauty are lessened or wholly lost. At large few European birds possess greater beauty, the pure white of its scapulars and inner web of the flight- feathers contrasting vividly with the deep glossy black on the rest of its body and wings, while its long tail is lustrous with green, bronze, and purple reflexions. The Pie s nest is a wonderfully ingenious structure, placed either in high trees or low bushes, and so massively built that it will stand for years. Its foundation consists of stout sticks, turf, and clay, wrought into a deep, hollow cup, plastered with earth, and lined with fibres; but around this is erected a firmly-interwoven, basket-like outwork of thorny sticks, forming a dome over the nest, and leaving but a single hole in the side for entrance and exit, so that the whole structure is rendered almost impregnable. Herein are laid from six to nine eggs, of a pale bluish-green freckled with brown and blotched with ash-colour. Superstition as to the appearance of the Pie still survives even among many educated persons, and there are several versions of a rhyming adage as to the various turns of luck which its presenting itself, either alone or in company with others, is supposed to betoken, for some of these versions contradict one another in details, though all agree in this that the sight of a single Pie unquestionably presages sorrow. The Pie belongs to the same Family of birds as the CROW (vol. vi. p. 617), and is the Corvus pica of Linnaeus, the Pica caudata, P. melanoleuca, or P. rustica of modern 1 &quot;Magot&quot; and &quot;Madge,&quot; with the same origin, are names fre quently given in England to the Pie ; while in France it is commonly- known as Margot, if not termed, as it is in some districts, JaqueMe. 2 A compendious summary of this will be found in Yarrell s British Birds, ed. 4, ii. pp. 318-320. 3 His predecessor Derricke, in 1578, said: &quot; No Pies to plucke the Thatch from house, ire breed in Irishe ground c : But worse then Pies, the same to burne, a thousande maie be founde.&quot; The Image of Lrelande, London, 1581.