Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/499

Rh  in Mohammedan Egypt, whilst we are told that during the last thirty years of his reign Egypt rose to a high pitch of wealth and prosperity. Mandeville, however, then goes on to say that his eldest son Melechemader was chosen to succeed, but this prince was caused privily to be slain by his brother, who took the kingdom under the name of Melechmadabron. "And he was Soldan when I departed from those countries." Now Malik Náṣir Mohammed was followed in succession by no less than eight of his sons in thirteen years, the first three of whom reigned in aggregate only a few months. The names mentioned by Mandeville appear to represent those of the fourth and sixth of the eight, viz., El-Malik el-Ṣáliḥ 'Imádu-d-din, and El-Malik el-Muẓaffar Zainu-d-dín Hájj; and these the statements of Mandeville do not fit.

Among particulars which seem to suggest personal knowledge may be instanced the very good description of the Bedouins (p. 64), starting from that of Boldensele, but largely and accurately expanded; the use of carrier pigeons in Syria (p. 118); the intimation that the Red Sea was frequented by Venetian merchants trading with India (p. 140). There are some other particulars which the author can hardly have witnessed, but which may possibly have been heard in communication with other travellers (if not borrowed from some untraced source). Such are the practice of polyandry in a certain island (p. 287), and the rite of fraternal adoption between two persons by drinking each other's blood (195). The mention of Ani in Armenia with its thousand churches (148) is probably derived from some book; the city and its thousand churches are mentioned by William of Rubrouck.

On several occasions the writer indicates some acquaintance with Arabic, though the words are not always recognizable, owing perhaps to the carelessness of copyists in such matters. Thus (p. 142) he gives the Mohammedan confession of faith as La ellet ella Machometh rorcs alla (Roscl-alla, A.) (Lá iláha illá 'lláh Muḥammadun rasúlu 'lláh); (p. 50) the Arabic names of the wood, fruit, and sap of the balsam plant; (p. 99) the name of bitumen, "alkatran" (al-Ḳaṭrân) (p. 131) three titles of the Koran, viz., "Alkoran," "Meshaf" (i.e., miṣḥaf, "written sheets or pages," "a copy of the Koran"), and Harme (i.e., ḥaram, in the sense of "sacred, inviolable"); (p. 168) the names of the three different kinds of pepper (long pepper, black pepper, and white pepper) as sorbotin, fulful, and bano or bauo (fulful is the common Arabic word for pepper, the others we cannot explain with any confidence); (p. 192) the name of the elephant (but in A. this runs: Et apelle on là les oliphans raches).

Mandeville again, in some passages (and especially in one which is familiar from its being cited by Dr Johnson in the preface to his dictionary) shows a correct idea of the form of the earth, and of position in latitude ascertained by observation of the pole star; he knows that there are antipodes, and that if ships were sent on voyages of discovery they might sail round the world. And he tells a curious story, which he had heard in his youth, how a worthy man did travel ever eastward until he came to his own country again (p. 183). But on the other hand he repeatedly asserts the old belief that Jerusalem was in the centre of the world (79, 183), whilst he maintains in proof of this that at the equinox a spear planted erect in Jerusalem casts no shadow at noon,—which if true would only show that the city was on the equator.

Brief Analysis.—Prologue. Chaps, i.-iii. The way to Constantinople; the wonders and holy places there; the Greek islands, Greek Church, &c. Chaps, iv.-v. Constantinople and Palestine; Rhodes, Cyprus, coast of Palestine; Egypt and Babylon of Egypt; the Sinai desert and convent (these two chapters on the lines of Boldensele; succession of Ayubite and Mameluke sultans from Hayton). Chaps, v.-x. Palestine and the holy places (the most original part of the work, but based occasionally on Boldensele). Chap. xi. Syria, various routes from Western Europe; description of Tartary (the steppe country about the Volga,—very good, though expressly not from personal experience). Chap. xii. On the Saracens and their religion, Mohammed, &c. (partly based on Boldensele). Chap. xiii. Countries of Asia and Africa; journey to the East from Trebizond (this and on to chap. xx. inclusive is all based on Odoric, with interpolations ad libitum). Chap. xxi. The Great Khan; the history of Jenghiz and his successors (from Hayton, with something from Piano Carpini). Chap. xxii. The court and splendour of the khan, his paper-money, &c. (from Odoric). Chap. xxiii. Customs of the Tartars, &c. (chiefly from Piano Carpini). Chap. xxiv. Countries of Asia shortly described (from Hayton). Chap. xxvi. The lamb-plant (from Odoric), with much added about Alexander and the shut-up nations, griffins, and other monsters. Chap. xxvii. The royal estate of Prester John (chiefly from the "Letter" of Prester John, with something from Hayton); the Old Man of the Mountain (from Odoric). Chap, xxviii. The Valley Perilous (from Odoric, with inventions), followed by a quantity of fabulous geography of mixed and uncertain origin. Chaps. xxix., xxx. Similar hotchpotch continued (from the romance of Alexander, the letter of Prester John, Plinian fables, &c.). Chap. xxxi. The return journey from Cathay, &c. (from Odoric). The epilogue.

The oldest known MS. of the original is the earl of Ashburnham's MS. Libri xxiv., dated 1371, but nevertheless very inaccurate in proper names. The English version was made, at least as early as the beginning of th e 15th century, from a French MS. defective between p. 36 l. 7 ("And there") of Halliwell's edition and p. 62 l. 25 ("And that Valey"), and is represented in this state by nearly every known English MS. It was completed and revised by two independent editors, neither of them later than the first quarter of the 15th century. One of these revisions is represented by the British Museum MS. Egerton 1982, and the very badly abbreviated Bodleian MS. e Mus. 116. The other is represented by the British Museum MS. Cotton Titus C. xvi. The first printed edition of the English version is apparently the undated edition of Pynson, which gives the version in its original defective shape. So do Wynkyn de Worde's edition of 1499 and eleven editions before 1725, except that they insert a paragraph seemingly abbreviated from the revision represented by Cotton TitusvC. xvi. This latter revision was, however, followed in full by the editions of 1725 and 1727, and is, in Halliwell's editions, the text now current. The other revision seems never to have been printed.

That none of the forms of the English version can conceivably be from the same hand which wrote the original work is made patent to any critical reader by their glaring errors of translation, but the form now current asserts in the preface that it was made by Mandeville himself, and this assertion has been taken on trust by almost all modern historians of English literature. The words of the original "je eusse cest livret mis en latin mais  je l'ay mis en rōmant" were mistranslated as if "je eusse" meant "I had" instead of "I should have," and then (whether of fraudulent intent or by the error of a copyist thinking to supply an accidental omission) the words were added "and translated it ajen out of Frensche into Englyssche." Schönborn and Mätzner respectively seem to have been the first to show that the current Latin and English texts cannot possibly have been made by Mandeville himself. Dr J. Vogels states the same of unprinted Latin versions which he has discovered in the British Museum, and he has proved it as regards the Italian version.

The terseness, the simplicity, and the quaintness of the English version, together with the curiosity of the subject-matter, will always make it delightful reading; but the title "father of English prose," which in its stricter sense already belonged to King Alfred, must in its looser sense be now transferred to Wickliffe.

See Schönborn's Bibliographische Untersuchungen über die Reise-Beschreibung des Sir John Mandeville, Breslau, 1840; Mätzner's Alteglishe Sprachproben. I. ii. pp. 454-55; letters by E. B. Nicholson in The Academy of November 11, 1876, and February 12, 1881; Vogels, "Das Verhältniss der italienischen Version der Reisebeschreihung Mandeville's zur französischen" in a Festschrift, dem Gymnasium zu Moers zur Feier seines 300jahrigen Bestehens gewidmet vom Lehrer-Collegium des Crefelder Gymnasiums, Bonn, 1882, and his forthcoming "Handschriftliche Untersuchungen über Mandeville's Reisebeschribung," in Vollmöller's Romanische Forschungen; also for the bibliography of editions and translations, up to 1867, Tobler's Bibliographia geographica Palæstinæ. See also Yule's Cathay and the Way Thither (Hakluyt Society), i, 27, 28, on the sources of the book. At least two critical editions are understood to be in preparation—by Vogels(French and English), and by Michelant (French, for the Société de l'Orient Latin). On a French Lapidaire and other works attributed to Mandeville see Pannier's Lapidaires français du moyen âge, Paris, 1882, pp. 189-201.

 MANDI, a native state in the Punjab, India, lying between 31° 23′ 45″ and 32° 4′ N. lat., and between 76° 40′ and 77° 22′ 30″ E. long., and bounded on the N. and E. by Kullu, on the S. by Suket, and on the W. by Kángrá. The country is very mountainous, being intersected by two great parallel ranges, reaching to an average height of from 5000 to 7000 feet above sea. The valleys between the hill ranges are very fertile, and produce all the ordinary grains, besides more valuable crops of rice, maize, sugar cane, poppy, and tobacco. Salt-mines contribute about one-third of the state revenue. Iron is found in places, and also gold in small quantities. The area of the state is estimated at about 1200 square miles, and a census in 1881 gives the population as 147,017. The chief, a Rájput by caste, enjoys an approximate income of £36,500, and the state pays a tribute to the British Government of £10,000 a year. Mandi town, the capital, is situated on the Biás, in 31° 43′ N. lat. and 76° 58′ E. long.

 MANDINGOES, otherwise known as, or (the last probably their primitive designation), are one of the most widely distributed and important peoples of Western Africa to the north of the equator, and perhaps form the best representatives of the Negro stock. The country of Manding, from which their ordinary name is derived, is a comparatively small district on both banks of the Niger, about the intersection of 12° N. lat. with 9° E. long. A Mandingo empire, usually called after Mali, the chief town, which stood on the bank of the Niger to the north of Buré, was founded by a certain prince Baramindana or Baramangole in the 12th century; and its power was gradually extended till, in the reign of Mansa Musa (1311-31), Songhai, Timbuctoo, and, in fact, the whole of the Sudan with the exception of Genné