Ma'an

“ A moment of intense bewilderment, and she sank in a death-like swoon upon the floor of the gallery, for Maon lay stunned upon the field, beneath his prostrate steed. The shout that hailed the victor was unheard by the maiden as they bore her from the throng, and placed her insensible form upon the couch in her tower. ”

“ He, his eldest son, and about twenty-five Arabs, dined with me, and were all enchanted, and the meleki, (the queen) is in the mouth of every Arab, both in Damascus and the desert. As to the Wahabees, Mahanna assures me that, as one of his family, he shall guarantee me with his life, and whether I meet or do not meet with them it is the same thing. To see this extraordinary people is what I wish, but not in the town or environs of Damascus, to be confounded with the crowd of those they wish to injure. ”

“ King Mahon inquired.
"Save the fifteen faithful men that remain to me in the caves of Uim-Bloit," said the lad, "the bones of my followers rest on many a field from the mountains of Connaught to the gates of Limerick; for their chieftain, O my brother, maketh no truce with the foe."
"Thou art but a boy, O Brian, and like a boy thou dost talk," said the king, reprovingly. "Thy pride doth make thee imprudent. For what hast thou gained, since, spite of all, thy followers lie dead!" ”

“ Mamun resolved to hold out, and found pretexts for remaining in Khorasan. Amīn, in anger, caused the will of his father, which, as we have seen, was preserved in the Kaʽba, to be destroyed, declared on his own authority that Mamun’s rights of succession were forfeited, and caused the army to swear allegiance to his own son Mūsā, a child of five, on whom he bestowed the title of an-Nātiq bil-Haqq (“he who speaks according to truth”) , A.H. 194 (A.D. 809–810) . On hearing the news, Mamun, strong in the rightfulness of his claim, retaliated by suppressing the caliph’s name in all public acts. ”

“ These crossroads and the abundance of water, which is not found farther eastward, explain why the settlement of Maʻan has been preserved till the present day, instead of being destroyed by the innumerable attacks of the nomads to which all the surrounding settlements to the southwest and northwest have already succumbed. It would have been surprising had the settlement of Maʻân not been of considerable importance during the period when the greater part of international trade was directed along the above-mentioned routes. ”

“ At its head stood Itzamna, the father of the gods and creator of mankind, the Mayan Zeus or Jupiter. He was the personification of the East, the rising sun, and, by association, of light, life, and knowledge. He was the founder of the Maya civilization, the first priest of the Maya religion, the inventor of writing and books, and the great healer. Whether Itzamna has been identified with any of the deities in the ancient Maya picture-writings is uncertain, though there are strong reasons for believing that this deity is the god represented in figure 1. ”

“ Balar then set fire to the sea before them in hopes of burning them, but Mananaun threw out a stone, and extinguished the sea.
"Now, Kian, son of Contje, you are safe and sound home, and what will you give me for it?"
"I have nothing but the boy, and we will not go to make two halves of him, but I will give him to you entirely."
"I am thankful to you. That is what I was wanting. There will be no champion in the world as good as he," said Mananaun. ”

“ The king agreed, and brahmans familiar with the mystery of dreams were summoned to the palace. When they had heard Maya's story they spoke in this manner:
"A great joy is to be yours, O king, O queen. A son will be born to you, distinguished by the favor of the Gods. If, one day, he should renounce royalty, leave the palace, cast love aside; if, seized with compassion for the worlds, he should live the wandering life of a monk, he will deserve marvellous praise, he will richly deserve magnificent gifts. He will be adored by the worlds, for he will give them that which they hunger after. ”

“ Every heresy, every religion, every schism, every sect of east and west and south and north had its followers among the crowds that visited the great commercial centers of Mesopotamia. Mani listened to all the different preachers and prophets and then distilled a philosophy of his own which was a mixtum-compositum of Buddhism, Christianity, Mithraism and Judaism, with a slight sprinkling of half a dozen old Babylonian superstitions. ”

“ Before leaving Asia Minor, in order to seek in Egypt the vestiges of the Mayas, I will mention the fact that the names of some of the natives who inhabited of old that part of the Asiatic continent, and many of those of places and cities seem to be of American Maya origin. The Promised Land, for example—that part of the coast of Phœnicia so famous for the fertility of its soil, where the Hebrews, after journeying during forty years in the desert, arrived at last, tired and exhausted from so many hard-fought battles—was known as Canaan. ”

“ Their heaven was a happy hunting ground where life was a continual round of pleasure. The chief characteristics of their hell were perpetual hunger and cold. Over this lower world they imagined a sovereign-devil ruled, whom they called Hun Ahau. The Mayans were essentially polytheistic, and they worshipped many gods and goddesses, each with different attributes, the idols of which, made of stone, wood or pottery, were adored in the temples. There were also family gods which had their place in the houses, and which were bequeathed as heirlooms by the fathers to their sons. ”

“ Where the God of Life plants the tree, Death breaks it in twain (fig. 8) ; where the former offers food, the latter raises an empty vase symbolizing famine; where one builds, the other destroys. The contrast is complete, the conflict eternal.
Fig. 7. Xaman Ek, the North Star God (note his name glyph, below) .
The Maya believed in the immortality of the soul and in a spiritual life hereafter. As a man lived in this world so he was rewarded in the next. The good and righteous went to a heaven of material delights, a place where rich foods never failed and pain and sorrow were unknown. ”

“ MAMUN (c. 786–833) , originally Abdallah, surnamed Al-Maʽmūn (“in whom men trust”) , the seventh of the Abbasid caliphs of Bagdad, was born about A.D. 786, and was the second son of Harun al-Rashīd. By Harun’s will he was successor-designate to his brother Amin, during whose reign he was to be governor of the eastern part of the empire. On Harun′s death (809) Amin succeeded and Mamun acquiesced. Irritated, however, by the treatment he received from Amin, and supported by a portion of the army, Mamun speedily rebelled. ”

“ To return, however, to the Mahommedan account of Manes’ doctrine. This last by no means confined his survey of the state of man’s soul after death to the single case of the justified dead.
“When death draws nigh to a man who has fought for religion and justice, [he is represented as saying,] and who has protected them by protecting the Just, the gods whom I have mentioned appear and the devils are there also. Then he calls the gods to his help and seeks to win them by showing to them his works of piety, and that which he has done to protect the religion and the Just. ”

“ And he so wrought upon Mahon that he determined to adopt his brother’s advice, and they called an assembly of the tribe, who with one heart gave their voice for war. From that time forward Mahon and Brian grew stronger and stronger. They gained a great victory over the foreigners at Limerick, plundered their goods and sacked the fort; after that they set fire to the town and reduced it to ashes, and they banished Ivar, Prince of Limerick, to Wales. The soldiers of the Norsemen, who were billeted on the people, and did them grievous wrong, were driven out, and Mahon reigned as undisputed king. ”

“ Something was in me that made me want to dance, and I used to rise up through the water, and dance on the shore of the island that is called Hathony.
Mananaun, as you, creatures, know, is Lord of the Sea, and what he commands in the Kingdoms-Under-Wave has to be. Now Mananaun [Pg 134] made a promise to a King of an Earth-Kingdom, and the promise was that he would give this King whatever he asked for. The King died according to the ways of men, and his son, whose name was Branduv, came to rule him. ”

“ The first plan concocted by Manh for stopping, at the very outset, the progress of Phralaong, was to flatter his ambition by promising him all the kingdoms of this world and their glory. From that day the tempter never lost sight of the benevolent Buddha, but followed him everywhere, endeavouring to prevent the immense success that was to attend his future mission. The evil propensities which constitute, as it were, the very essence of Manh's nature, are concupiscence, envy, and an irresistible proneness to do harm. The devil indeed could hardly be made up of worse materials. ”

“ Having now passed in brief review the objective side of Mayan remains, let us turn our attention to the subjective.
The Serpent in Mayan Art.
Mayan art is strange and unintelligible at first sight, but after careful study many wonderful qualities appear in it. In the knowledge of foreshortening and composition, the Mayas were superior to the Egyptians and Assyrians. They could draw the human body in pure profile and in free and graceful attitudes and they could compose several figures in a rectangular panel so that the result satisfies the eye of a modern artist. ”

“ Although the deities above described represent only a small fraction of the Maya pantheon, they include, beyond all doubt, its most important members, the truly great, who held the powers of life and death, peace and war, plenty and famine—who were, in short, the arbiters of human destiny. ”

“ It now remains to join the tonalamatl, which gives the complete names of the 260 Maya days, to the haab, which gives the positions of the days in the divisions of the year, in such a way that any one of the days whose name-part is Ik, Manik, Eb, or Caban shall occupy the first position of the first division of the year; that is, 0 Pop, or, as we should write it, the first day of Pop. It matters little which one of these four name parts we choose first, since in four years each one of them in succession will have appeared in the position 0 Pop. ”

“ Mangan's suppers were as generous as her own contours, and were noted for their excellence. She herself was not so much to the priest's taste. He was celibate by nature as well as by profession. Women were antagonistic to him, and Mrs. Mangan, godly matron though she was, seemed to him to symbolize a very different ordering of life to that which he approved; but the Big Doctor was an asset of the Church who must be simpered upon, and for whose sake a little social boredom must be unrepiningly endured. ”

“ A certain Mani (or Manes, as the ecclesiastical writers call him) , born in Persia about A.D. 240, grew to manhood under Sapor, exposed to the various religious influences of which we have spoken. With a mind free from prejudice and open to conviction, he studied the various systems of belief which he found established in Western Asia—the Cabalism of the Babylonian Jews, the Dualism of the Magi, the mysterious doctrines of the Christians, and even the Buddhism of India. ”

“ This struggle and fighting, however, was quite in accord with the somewhat one-sided development of the Mahâyâna in the direction of speculative philosophy. Intellect is always inclined to dissent, to quarrel, to become self-conceited. The existence of ten or twelve sects of Japanese Buddhism was the inevitable result of the general movement of the speculative Mahâyâna. ”

“ Alongside of Mānā rabbā frequent mention is made of D’mūthā, his “image,” as a female power; the name “image of the father” arises out of the same conception as that which gives rise to the name of ἔννοια among the Greek Gnostics. Mānā rabbā called into being the highest of the aeons properly so called, Hayyē Kadmāyē, “Primal Life,” and then withdrew into deepest secrecy, visible indeed to the highest but not to the lowest aeons (cf. Σοφία and Προπάτωρ) , yet manifesting himself also to the souls of the more pious of the Mandaeans after their separation from the body. ”

“ The incorrect 10 of the manuscript has been changed to 9. The hieroglyphs are as follows:—
and there are four figures of gods.
The sign of the rising Moan with its usual prefix and superfix (d) forms the principal part of this section, the meaning of which, however, is not yet very intelligible. This sign appears not merely as the 1st, 5th, 9th and 13th hieroglyphs, but all the four gods hold it in their hands. Placed after each of these signs are hieroglyphs 2, 6, 10 and 14, which are the double Manik or hand sign denoting a sacrifice (i) . ”

“ The Assyrian name Badana is somewhat like the Hebrew Madan, as it is vocalized in the Septuagint version of Genesis, 25: 2. At the beginning of a word b is often interchanged with m. According to the Bible, Madan is related to the Madianites just as is ʻÊfa’, the Assyrian Ḫajappa. The Assyrian record unites the last-named with Badana, thus justifying us in assigning Madan or Badana to the Biblical tribe of ʻÊfa’ and in locating its camping place near the oasis of Tejma: that is to the southeast of the present settlement of al-ʻAḳaba, or the ancient Elath. ”

“ Though the volumes of Lord Mahon are distinguished by research and varied learning, by a spirit at once candid, patient, and investigating—though his lordship possesses considerable ability as a narrator, and is a master of a style at once easy, flowing, and thoroughly English, yet with all his calm discrimination, and all his spirit of truth and justice, there 18 something of the leaven of old Toryism about his tone of thought. ”