Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/589

* MIMICRY. 529 MINMANS. the mimickers belong to more primitive groups than the models, and that they are as a rule rare, and apparently on the verge of extinetion, indi- cates that they are the relies of an earlier geo- logical period, and having been exposed to the same liieal and modifying changes in the environ- ment as the models, have thus been preserved. Most of the eases of mimicry are really eases of convergence produced by similar conditions of life. Moreover, the ground colors of butterllies are restricted in range to reds, shades of brown, yellow, white, and more rarely l)lue and green. Al.so the patterns are limited; nature has re- peated them over and over again. It is no won- der that there should l>e ai)parent cases of mimicry, in regions so similar as the hot and damp forest-covered plains of Brazil, or the up- land hot plains of Southern Africa, and the deep forests of the East Indies. As authorities difl'er so greatly in their inter- pretations of the facts, the subject ma}' be con- sidered an open one. That the bad-tasting but- terflies are not eaten by birds any more than hairy and liad-tasting caterpillars, is an acknowl- edged fact; that the edible species mimicking and Hying with them are in very rare cases de- voured by birds, may be allowed, but its impor- tance as a factor in evolution has been in some ipiaiters unduh' magnified. For other cases of mimicry, see Pigment; Protective Coloration .Nn Resemblance. BinLioGRApnY. Bates, "Insect Fauna of the Amazon Valley," in Transactions of the Linnean Hociety, vol. xxiii. (London, 1862) ; Wallace, Dar- n-inism (London, 1891); Wallace, Tropical Na- ture (London. 1.891) ; F. Miiller. "Ituna and Thy- ridia : A Remarkable Ca.se of Mimicry in But- terHies," in Kosmos, May, 1879 (trans, by Jlel- dola in Transactions of the Entomolofiicnl Societ;/ of Lonrlon, 1879, p. 20) ; "Mimicry in Butterflies Explained by Xatural Selection," in American Xaturalist, vol. x. (Salem, 1876) ; R. Trimen. "On some Remarkable ilimetic Analogies Among African Butterflies." in Transactions of the Lin- nean .S'ociV/.!/. vol. xxvi. (London, 1807) ; Mar- shall and Poulton, "'Bionomics of South African Insects," in Transactions of the Entoniotof/ical Societii (I^ondon, 1902) ; Poulton, Colors of Ani- in<ils (London, 1890) ; Beddard. Animal Colora- tion (New York, 1895). MIMIK, me'mir. A water giant of Norse mythology, who dwelt beneath the world-ash Yggdrasil and guarded a spring, considered the soiirce of memory and wisdom and called ^liniir's well. Odin in liis wanderings asked for a drink from the well and was obliged in exchange to give one of his eyes, the moon, which Mimir sank deep in the spring. MIMNER'MTJS (Lat., from Ok. Mf^^PMos) OF Colophon' (or Smyrna). A Oreek poet, who lived in the latter half of the seventh century. His book Xanno was so named from a flute- player whom he had loved in vain; it is a col- lection of elegies that were models for later poets in sustained calmness and tender sentimentality as opposed to the political elegiac verse previous- ly in vogue. !Mimnermus is credited with having brought the elegv' back to its original design of expressing personal grief, and his musical tem- perament found it a fitting medium. MIMS; Fort. See Fort Mims, Massacre of. MIN, men. An Egyptian deity, the local god of Panopolis or Akhniim (ipv.) and of Koptos (((.v.). He was the god of agriculture, typifying the generative forces of nature, and annual har- vest festivals were held in his honor. He is gen- erally repje-sentcd as an ithyphallic human figure wearing a headdress of two enormous feathers, and holding in his right hand a flail. Behind him is a shrine with trees upon it or near it. His sacred animal was the ram. In later times he was often identified with Ammon-RC. The Greeks identified him with their god Pan. Con- sult: Wiedenuiim, Hcliyion of the Ancient Egyp- tians (New York, 1897) ; Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt (London, 1894). MI'NA, or MNA (Lat. mina, from Gk. /ij-a, tnna. measure of weight, sum of money, from Heb. mdneh, weight, from mdnah, to divide, measure out). A Greek weight and sum of money, equal to 100 drachmas (q.v.), and the sixtieth part of a talent. The value varied ac- cording to the talent used. The Attic mina was x'orth about $18. It was used for purposes of account, and was never minted as a coin. MINA, me'na, Francisco Javier (1789- 1817). A Spanish soldier. He was born at Otan in Navarre, took part with his uncle in the guerrilla warfare of 1808-09 against the French, but was taken prisoner in 1810, and detained four years at Vincennes. In 1814 he was in arms against Ferdinand VII., but was forced to flee to France. Thence he went to England, where he interested himself in the cause of the Mexican jiatriots, and with the aid of some prominent Englishmen organized an expedition and sailed for America. In the United States he received sympathy and substantial support, and took 200 volunteers with him, arriving at Galveston in November. 1816. Soon afterwards, crossing over to New Orleans, he obtained more assistance, and after being reinforced by 100 Americans at Gal- veston, landed' at Soto ilarina. Province of Tamaulipas, April, 1817. At the head of 300 men he defeated Generals Armiuan and Or- donez, and took the towns of Leon and Guana- juato with the fortress of Sombrero. Deserted by most of his followers, he was surprised on October 17th by an overwhelming force, taken to Mexico and shot, November 11, 1817. MINA BIRD. See Myna Bird. MINJE'ANS. A Yemenite people who played an ini|i(irtaiit part in the early history of Arabia. The native name was Ma'in: hence the Greek Mtirarot (U- Miraioi. It is possible that the name was originally MaTui. which has been identified by some scholars with Magi'in, a country south- east of Babylonia, referred to as early as the in- scriptions of Naram Sin of Agade in the fourth millennium B.C. and Gudea of Lagash e.3000 B.C. But the identification is doibtful. There is good reason for supposing that the Jlina-ans are mentioned in .Judges x. 12: in I. Chron. iv. 41, in connection with the Amalekites against whom the tribe of Simeon made a raid in the time of Hezekiah : in II. Chron. xx. 1 among the enemies of .Tehoshaphat : in TL Chron. xxvi. 7 in con- nection with Philistines and Arabs in the days of Uzziah : and in .Tob ii. 11, where the Greek rendering suggests that Zophar was a Minivan. While there are many references in the Assyrian inscriptions to Kedar. Nebayoth. Aribi. and Sheba, (q.v.), there is no mention of a kingdom