Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/520

* UIDHAT FASHA. 468 MIDWAY ISLAND. others, upon the charge of murdering Abdiil- Aziz, and was condeuuied to dea(h, but the sen- tence was commuted, lie died in Arabia, Jlay 8, 1884. He was the author of La Turquic, son passe, son avenir (I'aris. 1878). Consult: I.e'- ouzon Le Duo. Midlial I'dsha (ib., 1870) : Bruns- vik, /.<( vcritr stir Midhat Fasha (ib., 1877). MID'IANITES. A name applied somewhat indefinitely in the Old Testament to groups of Bedouins. According to Gen. xxv. 2, Midian, the eponymous ancestor, is a son of Abraham through his 'Arabic' wife Keturah. That the ilidianites are to be reckoned with the Arabs is clear, but ■we find them now at Mount Sinai (Ex. iii. 1), again to the east of Israel (Gen. xxv. 4), while in the days of Gideon they advance from the Syrian desert (.Judges vi.), and again (Num. xxv. G-9) they occupy the northern portion -of Moab. This shifting about is to be accounted for not merely by the natural movements of nomadic tribes, but through the generic mean- ing that ilidian seems to have acquired, much as in the Talmud, Tai, which originally designated -a particular Arabic clan, Ijecomcs the designation for Arabs in general. The Miiiianites as de- scribed in .Judges (vi.-viii.) are thorough Bed- ouins, whereas the ilidianites around Sinai are .a pastoral people. The latter seem to have been -the original Midianites. and the fact that Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, is described as a 'ilidian- ite' ( Ex. iii. 1 ), whereas in Judges i. 16 he is •called the 'Kenite,' is due to the more compre- hensive character of the former term, which led to its gradual extension until it became synony- mous with Bedouin. The land of Midian ex- tended northward from Horeb. or Sinai, close to the eastern shore of the (iulf of Akabah. A place, called Modiana is mentioned by Ptolemy ■close to the Red Sea. and about opposite the ex- tremity of the Sinaitic peninsula, an<l no doubt this stands in some relationship in the original application of !Midian in the Old Testament. •Consult Burton, (lold Mines of Midian (London, 1878); I.iiiid of Midian lievisited ( ib., 1870). MIDLOTHIAN, mid-lO'Tiii-an. A county of Scotland. See Edixiuroiisiiiue. MIDNAPUR, niid'naponr'. The capital of ■a district of Bardwan. Bengal, British India. (IS miles by rail west of Calcutta, with which it is also connected by a canal. It is an educational centre with a municipal college, high schoid. pub- lic library, and printing establishments, and is also the scat of an active American missionary settlement. It has manufactiircs of <'opper, brass, silk, and indigo, and an imporlant trade. Popu- lation, in ISOl. 32.2r,4: in 1001, .■(3.140. MIDNIGHT APPOINTMENTS. In Ameri- can histoiv, :i tfiiii appliril 1o the appointments made by .John Adams on the last night of his administration as President. MIIVRASH (Heb., from diirash, to seek, scan li I . Till' general name given to the expo- sition of the Old Testament which, for about 1.500 years after the Exile, formed the centre of all mental activity both in an<l nut of the schools, among the .Tews. The prohibitions and ordinances contained in the Pcniatcuchal codes •vere specified and particularizj'd according to certain hermeneuticnl rules, and further sur- rounded by traditional ordinances and inhibi- tions. This division of Alidrash is represented ^by the Halaclm (q.v.). the binding authoritative. civil, and religous law as laid down in the Tal- mud. Another branch of the Midrash. however, is the llaggada (q.v.), a kind of free |)oetical homiletics, on the wliole body of the Old Testa- ment, and the term ilidrash wilhuut further speeitlcation generally refers to this branch of rabbinical literature. The chief collections of this part of the Midrash are Midrash lluhha or Midrash haggadol (on the Pentateuch and the five scrolls), and I'csikta to various sections of the Bible. A complete German translation of the Midrash Rabba was begim by August Wiinsche in 1880. Besides this there are Midrashim to the separate books of the Pentateuch, Exodus, Leviticus, Xumbers, and Deuteronomy. Con- sult: Steinschneider, Jewish Literatii/-e (Lon- don, 18.i7) ; Chenery, "Legends from the Mid- rash," in l^wj', Miscellanies of Hebrew Literw- lure (ib., 1877) ; Abrahams, Jeicish Literature, c. iv. (Philadelphia, 1899). MIDRIFF. The diaphragm (q.v.). MIDSHIPMAN. A title in the United States Xavy abolished by act of Congress of Au- gust, 1882; but revived in 1902 and substituted for the title of naval cadet. The term is de- rived from the fact that the 'young gentlemen' under instruction on British men-of-war to be- come oflicers were assigned to quarters amidships abreast the mainmast on the lower deck. In the American na-y midshipmen rank next below ensigns. Formerly, those not yet graduated from the naval academy were styled cadet midshipmen. MIDSHIPMAN. See S.vpo. MIDSHIPMAN EASY, Mr. A story by Frederick iMarryat (183U). It sets forth the perilous and amusing adwntures of Jack Easy, a J'oung scapegrace, who enlists in the British Navy, and after a long course of discipline re- nounces his early theories of the equality of men. MIDSUMMER EVE. See S.ixT .John's Eve. MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, A. A comedy by Sliakesjieare, written about 1.50.5, printed in 1600. when two editions appeared, by Thomas Fisher and by .James Roberts, the lat- ter being u.sed for the folio reprint. It is evi- dently a masc]ue or festival play, and is a jumble of chissic, niedia'val, and fairy lore. The p:irts of Theseus and llippolyta may have been taken from Chaucer's "Kniglit's Tale," but more prob- ably from North's translations of Plutarch's "Theseus" (1579). Pyranms and Thisbe, drawn from Ovid's Metamorphoses, may have come through Chaucer's Legend of tlood ironiCH. or was based on Robinson's HandfiiU of Pleasant Delights. Oberon. originating in the French Hiion of Hordcaux in the Cliarleiuagne cycle, is found in (heene's ./anus I. (1500). 'Titania. without the name, can be traced to Chaiicer's "Wife of Bath's Tale." Puck is the Robin Good- fellow of old English folk-lore. The rest of the fairy scenery is Shakespeare's own, except for a slight debt to John l.yly. MIDWAY ISLAND. A small island in the Pacific in about latitude 28^ N. and longitude 179= .30' V.. important only as the cable station of the ComuKTcial Pacific Cable Company be- tween Honolulu and Guam. The cable was laid in lOO.'i. The cable distance to Honolulu is