Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/883

* MANDEVILLE. 789 MANDRAKE. the sea in 1322 and traveled through Tartary, Persia, Armenia, Africa, Chaldea, Ethiopia, Amazonia, and India. On his return, he stopped at Rome, where his "book was proved for true' by the Pope's council. He adds that he first wrote it in Latin and then turned it into French and English (1356). Until very recently all these statements were accepted as facts. It now si-ems clear that of the versions named, the French (1371) is the oldest, and that from it were derived the others (early part of fifteenth century). Though the writer of the French origi- nal may have traveled in the East, his work is mainly a compilation from the travels of a German kniglit. William of Boldensele (133(5), the journal of Friar Odoric (1330), the journey of .lohanues de Piano Carpini, a Papal envoy to the Tatars (about 1250), the history of the East by Hetum, the Ai'menian (1307), other itineraries, and the mediaeval specula. He drew upon Pliny, Solinus. Peter Comestor, Vincent of Beauvois, Brunell-Latine, and -Jacques de Vit- ry. With little doubt, the compiler of the work was .Jean de Bourgogne dit a la Barbe (John of Burgoyne with the Beard), who died at Li6ge in 1372. He may have l)een the Jolui of Burgoj-ne who likely quitted England in 1322, and had good reasons for living under an assumed name. The Travels of .S'l'r John ilanderille, abounding in marvels, has delighted many generations. Of the work, there are three English versions extant in at least thirty-four manuscripts. From the poor- est were printed the fifteen editions from 1499 to 1725. A better version, edited anonymously in 1725. was carelessly repr^ted by Halliwell (Lon- don. 1839-68), and edited, with modern spelling, bv Wright, in Early Travels in Palestine (ib., 1848); by Morley (ib., 1886); and, with three illustrative narratives, by Pollard (ib., 1900). A third version (northern dialect) was edited by G. F. Warner for the Eoxburghe Club (Edin- burgh, 1889). MANDINGO (native name, l/a«(?e-npa). An extensive linguistic group of negroes more or less mixed with Hamites, dwelling in West- ern Africa from the Senegal and Upper Niger to ^lonrovia. and numbering many millions. Physically they are spare and athletic; height, 1.700 niiilimeters or 67 inches; the cranial in- dex or proportion of head width to head length is 75.5-78.8. They frequently have aquiline noses and features distinct from the negro, though the hair is woolly. In their food, dress, and habitations they are far above savagery, and, under Arab teachers, have attained a certain degree of culture. The speech, called Mandi, is widespread, and divided into many dialects, en- circling Timbuktu and enroaching on Fulah and Hatisa. About seven hundred years ago the Eini)ire of Mali was founded by the ancestors of this people in the Upper Niger region, and under King Musa (1311-31) it covered the Gam- bia and .Joliba basins. The L'pper Niger tribes still call themselves JIali'-nke. In religion they are Mohanunedan. having embraced that faith centuries ago and propagated it with great vigor. The JIandingos were divided into num- berless tribes, each speaking its own dialect, and, through their lack of cohesion, they were con- quered about 1500 by the Sonrhay. The English l)lanted factories among them in 1618. but the expeditions into the Niger country ended in dis- aster. The French in the next century cut off the progress of the English. In 1862 the Gambia ilandingos waged a propaganda for Islam in which hundreds of settlements of pagan tribes on the Gambia were laid waste. MAN'DIOC. A starch-producing euphorbia- ceous plant. See Cassava. MANDOLIN (Ft. mandoline, from It. mando- lina, diminutive of mandola, mandora, variants of yandora, sort of lute, from Gk. Trav5ovpa,pandoura, Osset. fandur. Arm. pandir, stringed instrument, of Lydian origin). A musical instrument of the lute species. The body of the mandolin is shaped like a shell, formed of a number of narrow pieces of difl'erent kinds of wood, bent into the shape, and glued together. On the open portion of the body is fixed the sounding-board, with a finger- board and neck like a guitar. The Neapolitan mandolin, which is the most perfect, has four double strings, which are tuned, beginning with the lowest, g, d^, a^, e*. The Milanese mandolin has six strings, tuned g, b, e^, a^, d", e-. In Spain the mandolin is built with six double strings tuned g$, c'Jf, f'#, b e", a". There is also a Turkish mandolin, which has seven double strings. The kind of mandolin most generally used to-day is the Neapolitan. Its range is g-e The strings are struck by a plectrum held in the right hand, while the fingers of the left hand regulate the notes as on the violin. As the instrument cannot sustain long notes, it is cus- tomary to play all such as a tremolo, just as is sometimes done on the piano by the rapid change of fingers on the same note. Although the mandolin has never been an orchestral in- strument, operatic composers have occasionally employed it to obtain characteristic effects. MANDRAKE (ME. mandrake, mondrake, 7nandrag,mandrage,mandragora. from Lat. man- dragoras, from Gk. iMiv5pa-y6pa.i, mandragoras ; in- fluenced by popular etymology with man + drake, dragon, in allusion to the shape of the root and XTAKDRAKE {Mandragora otBcinarum). its supposed aphrodisiac qualities), Mandragora. A genus of plants of the natural order Solanacene. Two species are described by some botanists, the autumnal mandrake (Mandragora aittiimnalis), which flowers in autumn, and has lanceolate