OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Manych

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​MANYCH, a river and depression in S. Russia, stretching between the lower river Don and the Caspian Sea, through the Don Cossacks territory and between the government of Astrakhan on the N. and that of Stavropol on the S. During the greater part of the year it is either dry or occupied in part by a string of saline lakes (limans or ilmens); but in spring when the streams swell which empty into it, the water flows in two opposite directions from the highest point (near Shara-Khulusun). The western stream flows westwards, with an inclination northwards, until it reaches the Don, though when the latter river is running high, its water penetrates some 60 miles up the Manych. The eastern stream dies away in the sandy steppe about 25 miles from the Caspian, though it is said sometimes to reach the Kuma through the Huiduk, a tributary of the Kuma. Total length of the depression, 330 m. For its significance as a former (geologic) connexion between the Sea of Azov and the Caspian Sea, see Caspian Sea. By some authorities the Manych depression is taken as part of the boundary between Europe and Asia.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Manzanares

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​MANZANARES, a town of Spain, in the province of Ciudad Real, on the river Azuer, a large sub-tributary of the Záncara, and on the railways from Madrid to Ciudad Real and Lináres. Pop. (1900), 11,229. Manzanares is one of the chief towns of La Mancha, and thus in the centre of the district described by Cervantes in Don Quixote. Its citadel was founded as a Christian fortress after the defeat of the Moors at Las Navas de Tolosa (1212). Bull-fights were formerly held in the main plaza, where galleries to accommodate spectators were built between the buttresses of an ancient parish church. Manzanares has manufactures of soap, bricks and pottery, and an active trade in wheat, wine, spirits, aniseed and saffron.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Manyema

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​MANYEMA (Una-Ma-Nyema, eaters of flesh), a powerful and warlike Bantu-Negroid people in the south-east of the Congo basin. Physically they are of a light colour, with well formed noses and not over-full lips, the women being described as singularly pretty and graceful. Manyemaland was for the greater part of the 19th century an Eldorado of the Arab slave raiders.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Manuel II., Palaeologus

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​MANUEL II. PALAEOLOGUS (1350–1425), Byzantine emperor from 1391 to 1425, was born in 1350. At the time of his father’s death he was a hostage at the court of Bayezid at Brusa, but succeeded in making his escape; he was forthwith besieged in Constantinople by the sultan, whose victory over the Christians at Nicopolis, however (Sept. 28, 1396), did not secure for him the capital. Manuel subsequently set out in person to seek help from the West, and for this purpose visited Italy, France, Germany and England, but without material success; the victory of Timur in 1402, and the death of Bayezid in the following year were the first events to give him a genuine respite from Ottoman oppression. He stood on friendly terms with Mahommed I., but was again besieged in his capital by Murad II. in 1422. Shortly before his death he was forced to sign an agreement whereby the Byzantine empire undertook to pay tribute to the sultan.
Manuel was the author of numerous works of varied character—theological, rhetorical, poetical and letters. Most of these are printed in Migne, Patrologia graeca, clvi.; the letters have been edited by E. Legrand (1893). There is a special monograph, by B. de Xivrey (in Mémoires de l’Institut de France, xix. (1853), highly commended by C. Krumbacher, whose Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897) should also be consulted.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Manul

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​MANUL (Felis manul), a long-haired small wild cat from the deserts of Central Asia, ranging from Tibet to Siberia. The coat is long and soft, pale silvery grey or light buff in hue, marked with black on the chest and upper parts of the limbs, with transverse stripes on the loins and rings on the tail of the same hue. The Manul preys upon small mammals and birds. A separate generic name, Trichaelurus, has been proposed for this species by Dr K. Satunin.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Manwaring, Robert

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​MANWARING, ROBERT, English 18th-century furniture designer and cabinet maker. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. He was a contemporary and imitator of Chippendale, and not the least considerable of his rivals. He prided himself upon work which he described as “genteel,” and his speciality was chairs. He manifests the same surprising variations of quality that are noticed in the work of nearly all the English cabinet-makers of the second half of the 18th century, and while his best had an undeniable elegance his worst was exceedingly bad—squat, ill-proportioned and confused. Some of his chairbacks are so nearly identical with Chippendale’s that it is difficult to suppose that the one did not copy from the other, and most of the designs of the greater man enjoyed priority of date. During a portion of his career Manwaring was a devotee of the Chinese taste; he likewise practised in the Gothic manner. He appears to have introduced the small bracket between the front rail of the seat and the top of the chair leg, or at all events to have made such constant use of it that it has come to be regarded as characteristic of his work. Manwaring described certain of his own work as “elegant and superb,” and as possessing “grandeur and magnificence.” He did not confine himself to furniture but produced many designs for rustic gates and railings, often very extravagant. One of his most absurd rural chairs has rock-work with a waterfall in the back.
Among Manwaring’s writings were The Cabinet and Chair Makers’ Real Friend and Companion, or the Whole System of Chairmaking Made Plain and Easy (1765); The Carpenters’ Compleat Guide to Gothic Railing (1765); and The Chair-makers’ Guide (1766).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Khaskoy

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​KHASKOY (also Chaskoi, Haskoi, Khaskioi, Chaskovo, Haskovo, and in Bulgarian Khaskovo), the capital of the department of Khaskoy in the eastern Rumelia, Bulgaria; 45 m. E.S.E. of Philippopolis. Pop. (1900), 14,928. The town has a station 7 m. N. on the Philippopolis-Adrianople section of the Belgrade-Constantinople railway. Carpets and woollen goods are manufactured, and in the surrounding country tobacco and silk are produced.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Khattak

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​KHATTAK, an important Pathan tribe in the North-West Frontier Province of India, inhabiting the south-eastern portion of the Peshawar district and the south-eastern and eastern portions of Kohat. They number 24,000, and have always been quiet and loyal subjects of the British government. They furnish many recruits to the Indian army, and make most excellent soldiers.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kheri

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​KHERI, a district of British India, in the Lucknow division of the United Provinces, which takes its name from a small town with a railway station 81 m. N.W. of Lucknow. The area of the district is 2963 sq. m., and its population in 1901 was 905,138. It consists of a series of fairly elevated plateaus, separated by rivers flowing from the north-west, each bordered by alluvial land. North of the river Ul, the country is considered very unhealthy. Through this tract, probably the bed of a lake, flow two rivers, the Kauriala and Chauka, changing their courses constantly, so that the surface is seamed with deserted river beds much below the level of the surrounding country. The vegetation is very dense, and the stagnant waters are the cause of endemic fevers. The people reside in the neighbourhood of the low ground, as the soil is more fertile and less expensive to cultivate than the forest-covered uplands. South of the Ul, the scene changes. Between every two rivers or tributaries stretches a plain, considerably less elevated than the tract to the north. There is very little slope in any of these plains for many miles, and marshes are formed, from which emerge the headwaters of many secondary streams, which in the rains become dangerous torrents, and frequently cause devastating floods. The general drainage of the country is from north-west to south-east. Several large lakes exist, some formed by the ancient channels of the northern rivers, being fine sheets of water, from 10 to 20 ft. deep and from 3 to 4 m. long; in places they are fringed with magnificent groves. The whole north of the district is covered with vast forests, of which a considerable portion are government reserves. Sāl occupies about two-thirds of the forest area. The district is traversed by a branch of the Oudh & Rohilkhand railway from Lucknow to Bareilly.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kherson (town)

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​KHERSON, a town of south Russia, capital of the above government, on a hill above the right bank of the Dnieper, about 19 m. from its mouth. Founded by the courtier Potemkin in 1778 as a naval station and seaport, it had become by 1786 a place of 10,000 inhabitants, and, although its progress was checked by the rise of Odessa and the removal (in 1794) of the naval establishments to Nikolayev, it had in 1900 a population of 73,185. The Dnieper at this point breaks into several arms, forming islands overgrown with reeds and bushes; and vessels of burden must anchor at Stanislavskoe-selo, a good way down the stream. Of the traffic on the river the largest share is due to the timber, wool, cereals, cattle and hides trade; wool-dressing, soap-boiling, tallow-melting, brewing, flour-milling and the manufacture of tobacco are the chief industries. Kherson is a substantially built and regular town. The cathedral is the burial-place of Potemkin, and near Kherson lie the remains of John Howard, the English philanthropist, who died here in 1790. The fortifications have fallen into decay. The name Kherson was given to the town from the supposition that the site was formerly that of Chersonesus Heracleotica, the Greek city founded by the Dorians of Heraclea.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Khevenhüller, Ludwig Andreas

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​KHEVENHÜLLER, LUDWIG ANDREAS (1683–1744), Austrian field-marshal, Count of Aschelberg-Frankenburg, came of a noble family, which, originally Franconian, settled in Carinthia in the 11th century. He first saw active service under Prince Eugène in the War of the Spanish Succession, and by 1716 had risen to the command of Prince Eugène’s own regiment of dragoons. He distinguished himself greatly at the battles of Peterwardein and Belgrade, and became in 1723 major-general of cavalry (General-Wachtmeister), in 1726 proprietary colonel of a regiment and in 1733 lieutenant field marshal. In 1734 the War of the Polish Succession brought him into the field again. He was present at the battle of Parma (June 29), where Count Mercy, the Austrian commander, was killed, and after Mercy’s death he held the chief command of the army in Italy till Field Marshal Königsegg’s arrival. Under Königsegg he again distinguished himself at the battle of Guastalla (September 19). He was once more in command during the operations which followed the battle, and his skilful generalship won for him the grade of general of cavalry. He continued in military and diplomatic employment in Italy to the close of the war. In 1737 he was made field marshal, Prince Eugène recommending him to his sovereign as the best general in the service. His chief exploit in the Turkish War, which soon followed his promotion, was at Radojevatz (September 28, 1737), where he cut his way through a greatly superior Turkish army. It was in the Austrian Succession War that his most brilliant work was done. As commander-in-chief of the army on the Danube he not only drove out the French and Bavarian invaders of Austria in a few days of rapid marching and sharp engagements (January, 1742), but overran southern Bavaria, captured Munich, and forced a large French corps in Linz to surrender. Later in the summer of 1742, owing to the inadequate forces at his disposal, he had to evacuate his conquests, but in the following campaign, though now subordinated to Prince Charles of Lorraine, Khevenhüller ​reconquered southern Bavaria, and forced the emperor in June to conclude the unfavourable convention of Nieder-Schönfeld. He disapproved the advance beyond the Rhine which followed these successes, and the event justified his fears, for the Austrians had to fall back from the Rhine through Franconia and the Breisgau, Khevenhüller himself conducting the retreat with admirable skill. On his return to Vienna, Maria Theresa decorated the field marshal with the order of the Golden Fleece. He died suddenly at Vienna on the 26th of January 1744.
He was the author of various instructional works for officers and soldiers (Des G. F. M. Grafen v. Khevenhüller Observationspunkte für sein Dragoner-regiment (1734 and 1748) and a règlement for the infantry (1737), and of an important work on war in general, Kurzer Begriff aller militärischen Operationen (Vienna, 1756; French version, Maximes de guerre, Paris, 1771).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Khedive

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​KHEDIVE, a Persian word meaning prince or sovereign, granted as a title by the sultan of Turkey in 1867 to his viceroy in Egypt, Ismail, in place of that of “vali.”
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Kherson (government)

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​KHERSON, a government of south Russia, on the N. coast of the Black Sea, bounded W. by the governments of Bessarabia and Podolia, N. by Kiev and Poltava, S. by Ekaterinoslav and Taurida. The area is 27,497 sq. m. The aspect of the country, especially in the south, is that of an open steppe, and almost the whole government is destitute of forest. The Dniester marks the western and the Dnieper the south-eastern boundary; the Bug, the Ingul and several minor streams drain the intermediate territory. Along the shore stretch extensive lagoons. Iron, kaolin and salt are the principal minerals. Nearly 45% of the land is owned by the peasants, 31% by the nobility, 12% by other classes, and 12% by the crown, municipalities and public institutions. The peasants rent 1,730,000 acres more from the landlords. Agriculture is well developed and 9,000,000 acres (51.1%) are under crops. Agricultural machinery is extensively used. The vine is widely grown, and yields 1,220,000 gallons of wine annually. Some tobacco is grown and manufactured. Besides the ordinary cereals, maize, hemp, flax, tobacco and mustard are commonly grown; the fruit trees in general cultivation include the cherry, plum, peach, apricot and mulberry; and gardening receives considerable attention. Agriculture has been greatly improved by some seventy German colonies. Cattle-breeding, horse-breeding and sheep-farming are pursued on a large scale. Some sheep farmers own 30,000 or 40,000 merinos each. Fishing is an important occupation. There are manufactures of wool, hemp and leather; also iron-works, machinery and especially agricultural machinery works, sugar factories, steam flour-mills and chemical works. The ports of Kherson, Ochakov, Nikolayev, and especially Odessa, are among the principal outlets of Russian commerce; Berislav, Alexandriya Elisavetgrad, Voznesenask, Olviopol and Tiraspol play an important part in the inland traffic. In 1871 the total population was 1,661,892, and in 1897 2,744,040, of whom 1,332,175 were women and 785,094 lived in towns. The estimated pop. in 1906 was 3,257,600. Besides Great and Little Russians, it comprises Rumanians, Greeks, Germans (123,453), Bulgarians, Bohemians, Swedes, and Jews (30% of the total), and some Gypsies. About 84% belong to the Orthodox Greek Church; there are also numerous Stundists. The government is divided into six districts, the chief towns of which are: Kherson (q.v.), Alexandriya (14,002 in 1897), Ananiev (16,713), Elisavetgrad (66,182 in 1900), Odessa (449,673 in 1900), and Tiraspol (29,323 in 1900). This region was long subject to the sway of the Tatar khans of the Crimea, and owes its rapid growth to the colonizing activity of Catherine II., who between 1778 and 1792 founded the cities of Kherson, Odessa and Nikolayev. Down to 1803 this government was called Nikolayev.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Khevsurs

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​KHEVSURS, a people of the Caucasus, kinsfolk of the Georgians. They live in scattered groups in East Georgia to the north and north-west of Mount Borbalo. Their name is Georgian and means “People of the Valleys.” For the most part nomadic, they are still in a semi-barbarous state. They have not the beauty of the Georgian race. They are gaunt and thin to almost a ghastly extent, their generally repulsive aspect being accentuated by their large hands and feet and their ferocious expression. In complexion and colour of hair and eyes they vary greatly. They are very muscular and capable of bearing extraordinary fatigue. They are fond of fighting, and still wear armour of the true medieval type. This panoply is worn when the law of vendetta, which is sacred among them as among most Caucasian peoples, compels them to seek or avoid their enemy. They carry a spiked gauntlet, the terrible marks of which are borne by a large proportion of the Khevsur faces.
Many curious customs still prevail among the Khevsurs, as for instance the imprisonment of the woman during childbirth in a lonely hut, round which the husband parades, firing off his musket at intervals. After delivery, food is surreptitiously brought the mother, who is kept in her prison a month, after which the hut is burnt. The boys are usually named after some wild animal, e.g. bear or wolf, while the girls’ names are romantic, such as Daughter of the Sun, Sun of my Heart. Marriages are arranged by parents when the bride and bridegroom are still in long clothes. The chief ceremony is a forcible abduction of the girl. Divorce is very common, and some Khevsurs are polygamous. Formerly no Khevsur might die in a house, but was always carried out under the sun or stars. The Khevsurs like to call themselves Christians, but their religion is a mixture of Christianity, Mahommedanism and heathen rites. They keep the Sabbath of the Christian church, the Friday of the Moslems and the Saturday of the Jews. They worship sacred trees and offer sacrifices to the spirits of the earth and air. Their priests are a combination of medicine-men and divines.
See G. F. R. Radde, Die Chevs’uren und ihr Land (Cassel, 1878); Ernest Chantre, Recherches anthropologiques dans le Caucase (Lyons, 1885–1887).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Avernus

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​AVERNUS, a lake of Campania, Italy, about 11/2 m. N. of Baiae. It is an old volcanic crater, nearly 2 m. in circumference, now, as in Roman times, filled with water. Its depth is 213 ft., and its height above sea-level 31/2 ft.; it has no natural outlet. In ancient times it was surrounded by dense forests, and was the centre of many legends. It was represented as the entrance by which both Odysseus and Aeneas descended to the infernal regions, and as the abode of the Cimmerii. Its Greek name, Ἄορνος, was explained to mean that no bird could fly across it. Hannibal made a pilgrimage to it in 214 B.C. Agrippa in 37 B.C. converted it into a naval harbour, the Portus Iulius; joining it to the Lacus Lucrinus by a canal, and connecting the latter with the sea, he reduced the distance to Cumae by boring a tunnel over 1/2 m. in length, now called Grotta della Pace, through the hill on the north-west side of Lake Avernus. After Sextus Pompeius had been subdued, the chief naval harbour was transferred to Misenum. Nero’s works for his proposed canal from Baiae to the Tiber (A.D. 64) seem to have begun near Lake Avernus; indeed, according to one theory, the Grotta della Pace would be a portion of this canal. On the east side of the lake are remains of baths, including a great octagonal hall known as the Temple of Apollo, built of brickwork, and belonging to the 1st century. The so-called Grotto of the Cumaean Sibyl, on the south side, is a rock-cut passage, ventilated by vertical apertures, possibly a part of the works connected with the naval harbour. To the south-east of the lake is the Monte Nuovo, a volcanic hill upheaved in 1538, with a deep extinct crater in the centre. To the south is the Lacus Lucrinus.
See J. Beloch, Campanien (2nd ed., Breslau, 1890), pp. 168 seq. (T. As.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aventail

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​AVENTAIL, or Avantaille (O. Fr. esventail, presumably from a Latin word exventaculum, air-hole), the mouthpiece of an old-fashioned helmet, movable to admit the air.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Aventinus

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​AVENTINUS (1477–1534), the name taken by Johann Turmair, author of the Annales Boiorum, or Annals of Bavaria, from Aventinum, the Latin name of the town of Abensberg, where he was born on the 4th of July 1477. Having studied at Ingolstadt, Vienna, Cracow and Paris, he returned to Ingolstadt in 1507, and in 1509 was appointed tutor to Louis and Ernest, the two younger sons of Albert the Wise, the late duke of Bavaria-Munich. He retained this position until 1517, wrote a Latin grammar, and other manuals for the use of his pupils, and in 1515 travelled in Italy with Ernest. Encouraged by William IV., duke of Bavaria, he began to write the Annales Boiorum, about 1517, and finishing this book in 1521, undertook a German version of it, entitled Bayersche Chronik, which he completed some years later. He assisted to found the Sodalitas litteraria Angilostadensis, under the auspices of which several old manuscripts were brought to light. Although Aventinus did not definitely adopt the reformed faith, he sympathized with the reformers and their teaching, and showed a strong dislike for the monks. On this account he was imprisoned in 1528, but his friends soon effected his release. The remainder of his life was somewhat unsettled, and he died at Regensburg on the 9th of January 1534. The Annales, which are in seven books, deal with the history of Bavaria in conjunction with general history from the earliest times to 1460, and the author shows a strong sympathy for the Empire in its struggle with the Papacy. He took immense pains with his work, and to some degree anticipated the modern scientific method of writing history. The Annales were first published in 1554, but many important passages were omitted in this edition, as they reflected on the Roman Catholics. A more complete edition was published at Basel in 1580 by Nicholas Cisner. Aventinus, who has been called the “Bavarian Herodotus,” wrote other books of minor importance, and a complete edition of his works was published at Munich (1881–1886). More recently a new edition (six vols.) has appeared.
See T. Wiedemann, Johann Turmair gen. Aventinus (Freising, 1858); W. Dittmar, Aventin (Nördlingen, 1862); J. von Döllinger, Aventin und seine Zeit (Munich, 1877); S. Riezler, Zum Schutze der neuesten Edition von Aventins Annalen (Munich, 1886); F. X. von Wegele, Aventin (Bamberg, 1890).