the produce being largely transmitted to France. The yield of oil is very considerable, and Inca is the centre of the oil district. The wines are light but excellent, especially the Muscadel and Montona. During the summer there is often great scarcity of water; but, according to a system handed down by the Moors, the rains of autumn and winter are collected in enormous reservoirs, which contain sufficient water to last through the dry season; and on the payment of a certain rate, each landholder has his fields flooded at certain intervals. Mules are used in the agriculture and traffic of the island. The cattle are small, but the sheep are large and well fleeced. Pigs are reared for export to Barcelona, and there is abundance of poultry and small game. Brandy is made and exported in large quantities. Excellent woollen and linen cloths are woven; the silkworm is reared and its produce manufactured; and canvas, rope and cord are largely made, from both native and foreign materials.
The roads are excellent, the four principal being those from Alcudia, Manacor, Sóller and Andraitx to the capital. Forty-eight miles of railway were open at the beginning of the 20th century. The main line runs from Palma to Manacor and Alcudia. The telegraphic system is fairly complete, and there is regular steam communication with Barcelona and Alicante. The principal towns include—besides Palma (63,937), Felanitx (11,294) and Manacor (12,408), which are described in separate articles—Andraitx (6516), Inca (7579), Llummayor (8859), Pollensa (8308), Santañy (6692) and Sóller (8026).
MAJORIAN (Julius Valerius Majorianus), emperor of the West from 457 to 461. He had distinguished himself as a general by victories over the Franks and Alemanni, and six months after the deposition of Avitus he was declared emperor by the regent Ricimer. After repelling an attack by the Vandals upon Campania (458) he prepared a large force, composed chiefly
of barbarians, to invade Africa, which he previously visited in disguise. Having during his stay in Gaul defeated and concluded an alliance with Theodoric the Visigoth, at the beginning of 460 he crossed the Pyrenees for the purpose of joining the powerful
fleet which he had collected at Carthagena. The Vandal king
Genseric, however, after all overtures of peace had been rejected,
succeeded through the treachery of certain officers in surprising
the Roman fleet, most of the ships being either taken or destroyed.
Majorian thereupon made peace with Genseric. But
his ill-success had destroyed his military reputation; his efforts
to put down abuses and improve the condition of the people had
roused the hatred of the officials; and Ricimer, jealous of his
fame and influence, stirred up the foreign troops against him. A
mutiny broke out in Lombardy, and on the 2nd of August 461
Majorian was forced to resign. He died five days afterwards,
either of dysentery or by violence. Majorian was the author of
a number of remarkable laws, contained in the Theodosian
Code. He remitted all arrears of taxes, the collection of which
was for the future placed in the hands of the local officials. He
revived the institution of defensores, defenders of cities, whose
duty it was to protect the poor and inform the emperor of abuses
committed in his name. The practice of pulling down the ancient
monuments to be used as building material, which was connived
at by venal officials, was strictly prohibited. He also passed
laws against compulsory ordination and premature vows of
celibacy.
See Sidonius Apollinaris, Panegyric of Majorian; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. xxxvi. (where an outline of the “novels” of Majorian is given); J. B. Bury, Later Roman Empire, bk. iii.
MAJORITY (Fr. majorité; Med. Lat. majoritas; Lat. major,
greater), a term signifying the greater number. In legislative
and deliberative assemblies it is usual to decide questions by a
majority of those present at a meeting and voting. In law,
majority is the state of being of full age, which in the United
Kingdom is twenty-one years of age. A person attains his
majority at twelve o’clock at night of the day preceding his
twenty-first birthday (see Infant; Age).
MAJUBA (properly Amajuba, Zulu for “the hill of doves”),
a mountain in northern Natal, part of the Drakensberg range,
rising about 7000 ft. above the sea and over 2000 ft. above the
level of the surrounding country. It overlooks the pass through
the Drakensberg known as Laing’s Nek, is 8 m. S. of the Transvaal
border and 18 m. N. of the town of Newcastle. The railway
from Durban to Johannesburg skirts the base of the mountain.
During the Boer War of 1880–81 Majuba was occupied on the
night of the 26th of February 1881 by some 600 British troops
under Sir George Pomeroy Colley. On the following morning
the hill was stormed by the Boers under Piet Joubert and the
British routed, Colley being among the slain.
MAKALAKA, a general designation used by the Bechuana,
Matabele and kindred peoples, for conquered or slave tribes.
Thus many of the tribes subjugated by the Makololo chief,
Sebituane, about 1830 were called Makalaka (see David Livingstone’s
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa,
London, 1857). By early writers on south-central Africa certain
of the inhabitants of Barotseland were styled Makalaka; the
name is more frequently used to designate the Makalanga, one
of the tribes now classed as Mashonas (q.v.), who were brought
into subjection by the Matabele.
MAKARAKA, or Iddio (“Cannibals”), a negroid people of
Central Africa, closely related to the powerful Azandeh or Niam-Niam
race, occupying the Bahr-el-Ghazal west of Lado. They
came originally from the country of the Kibas, north of the
Welle. Dr W. Junker described them as among the most trustworthy,
industrious and intelligent people of the Bahr-el-Ghazal.
They are a reddish-black, with nose less flat and cheek-bones
less prominent than the ordinary negroes, and, unlike the latter,
do not extract the incisors. Their long silky hair is built up in
the most fantastic form by means of vegetable substances. They
are well-known for strength and staying power.
See W. Junker, Travels in Africa (1890–1892).
MAKART, HANS (1840–1884), Austrian painter, born at Salzburg, was the son of an inspector of the imperial castle. He has been aptly called the first German painter of the 19th century. When he, as a youth, entered the Vienna Academy German art was under the rule of Cornelius’s cold classicism. It was entirely intellectual and academic. Clear and precise drawing, sculpturesque modelling, and pictorial erudition were
the qualities most esteemed; and it is not surprising that Makart,
poor draughtsman to the very last, with a passionate and sensual
love of colour, and ever impatient to escape the routine of art-school
drawing, was found to be “devoid of all talent” and
forced to leave the Vienna Academy. He went to Munich, and
after two years of independent study attracted the attention of
Piloty, under whose guidance he made rapid and astonishing
progress. The first picture he painted under Piloty, “Lavoisier
in Prison,” though timid and conventional, attracted attention
by its sense of colour. In the next, “The Knight and the Water
Nymphs,” he first displayed the decorative qualities to which he
afterwards sacrificed everything else in his work. With the
“Cupids” and “The Plague in Florence” of the next year
his fame became firmly established. “Romeo and Juliet” was
soon after bought by the Austrian emperor for the Vienna
Museum, and Makart was invited to come to Vienna, where a
large studio was placed at his disposal. In Vienna Makart
became the acknowledged leader of the artistic life of the city,
which in the ’seventies passed through a period of feverish
activity, the chief results of which are the sumptuously decorated
public buildings of the Ringstrasse.
The enthusiasm of the time, the splendour of the fêtes over which Makart presided, and the very obvious appeal of his huge compositions in their glowing richness of colour, in which he tried to emulate Rubens, made him appear a very giant to his contemporaries in Vienna, and indeed in all Austria and Germany. The appearance of each of his ambitious historical and allegorical paintings was hailed with enthusiasm—the “Catherina Cornaro,” “Diana’s Hunt,” “The Entry of Charles V. into Antwerp,” “Abundantia,” “Spring,” “Summer,” “The Death of Cleopatra” and the “Five Senses.” He reached the zenith of his fame when, in 1879, he designed, single-handed, the costumes, scenic setting, and triumphal cars of the grand pageant with
