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 614 MINORITES MINT MINORITES. See FRANCISCANS. MINOS, in Greek mythology and legends, a Cretan hero and lawgiver. According to Homer, he was the son of Jupiter by Europa, brother of Rhadamanthus, and the father of Deucalion and Ariadne. The logographers make him also the brother of Sarpedon and husband of Pasiphae. Some later writers dis- tinguish two kings of the name, grandfather and grandson, but only one Minos was known to Homer, Hesiod, or the poets and historians to the time of Aristotle. To obtain possession of the throne of Crete, he affirmed that the gods granted to him everything for which he prayed. He accordingly prayed that a bull might come forth from the sea, and promised to sacrifice it to Neptune. The bull appeared, and he obtained the kingdom ; but, admiring the beauty of the animal, he sacrificed another in its place. Thereupon Neptune afflicted his wife Pasiphae with a monstrous passion for the bull, for the gratification of which the in- ventor Daedalus contrived means, and she be- came the mother of Minotaur, a creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull, which was imprisoned by Minos in the Cnos- sian labyrinth. The Cretans traced their legal and political institutions to Minos, and he was said to have been instructed in the art of law- giving by Jupiter himself ; and Lycurgus was believed to have followed his legislation as a model. After death he was constituted one of the judges in Hades. Later accounts represent him as an unjust and cruel tyrant. He is said to have acquired great maritime power, conquered the ./Egean islands, made war upon Athens, and compelled the Athenians to send to Crete periodically a tribute of seven youths and seven maidens to be devoured by the Minotaur. Theseus with the aid of Ariadne at length slew the monster and abolished the tribute. In a subsequent attempt to conquer Sicily Minos failed and was killed. MINOT, George Richards an American jurist, born in Boston, Dec. 28, 1758, died Jan. 2, 1802. He graduated at Harvard college in 1778, practised law in Boston, became clerk of the Massachusetts house of representatives in 1781, secretary of the convention which rati- fied the federal constitution, judge of probate for the county of Suffolk in 1792, and judge of the municipal court of Boston. He pub- lished an oration on the Boston massacre ; a "History of Shays's Rebellion" (8vo, 1788); "Eulogy on Washington" (1800); and a " History of Massachusetts Bay " from 1748 to 1765 (2 vols., 1798-1803), in continuation of Grov. Hutchinson's. MINOT.UR. See MINOB. MINOT'S LEDGE. See LIGHTHOUSE. MtXSIS. See MFXSEES. MIVSK. I. A S. W. government of European Russia, bordering on Vitebsk, Mohilev, Tcher- nigov, Kiev, Volhynia, Grodno, and Wilna ; area, 35,295 sq. m. ; pop. in 1867, 1,135,588. The territory of Minsk is a vast plain, over which are scattered a few hills of moderate ele- vation. In the north and east are large for- ests, and toward the south and southwest ex- tensive marshes. The principal rivers are the Dnieper (which partly bounds it on the east), Niemen, Pripet, and Beresina. The climate is very severe in winter, but pleasant in summer. Agriculture is the principal occupation. The chief manufactures are fine cloths, linen, and sugar. The principal exports are timber, salt, and grain, which are brought by the rivers to the ports of the Baltic and Black seas. The population is composed chiefly of Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, and Jews. Five sevenths of them adhere to the Greek church. The in- habitants of the southern marshy portion are subject to the disease called plica Polonica. Among the more important towns are Pinsk and Slutzk. Minsk is divided into 10 circles, and was formerly a part of the Lithuanian provinces of Poland. II. A city, capital of the government, on the Svislotch, 110 m. S. E. of Wilna ; pop. in 1867, 36,277, a large part of whom are Jews. It is the seat of a Greek arch- bishop and a Roman Catholic bishop. It has a fine cathedral, a number of other churches, a gymnasium, and a theatre. An important trade in grain is carried on. The nuns of Minsk were subjected to persecution by the emperor Nicholas in 1840. MINSTRELS (Lat. minstrellus, diminutive of minister; Fr. menestrel), a class of men in the middle ages who amused their patrons by the arts of poetry and music, singing to the harp their own verses, or the popular ballads and metrical histories of the time. They some- times accompanied their music with mimicry and action, so that they were often called mimi and histr tones. The name minstrel is of Nor- man origin, and they were successors of the skalds and bards of the north. The office be- came degraded, the minstrel on the continent being commonly classed with the dancer and mimic ; while the Latin names mimi, scuna, Tiistriones, wdjoculatores are grouped together. In England Edward II., Henry V., and Henry VI. showed great regard for minstrels ; but the reign of Richard Cceur de Lion was their gold- en age. When Henry V. set out on his great- expedition to France, 18 minstrels, with an allowance of 12rf. a day each, accompanied him. But from the reign of Edward IV. their art seems to have declined. Toward the close of Elizabeth's reign a statute was enacted, by which wandering minstrels were punished along with rogues, tinkers, peddlers, vaga- bonds, and beggars. MINT, the name of plants of the genus mentha (from Mintha, a nymph changed into this plant), of the order labiate, which is distinguished from related genera by an almost regular co- rolla and four fertile stamens ; there are about 30 species, but few of which have any other than a botanical interest. Generally, when mint is spoken of, that which is also known as spe;irmint (M. viridis) is understood, while the