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

See also Melanchlaeni on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​MELANCHLAENI (from Gr. μέλας, and χλανῖα, “Blackcloaks”), an ancient tribe to the north of Scythia, probably about the modern Ryazan and Tambov (Herodotus iv. 106). They have been identified with the Finnish tribes Merja (now extinct) and Cheremis, now driven north-east on to the middle Volga. These, till recently, wore black. There has been confusion between this tribe and another of the same name mentioned by Pliny (N. H. vi. 15), and Ptolemy in the Caucasus. (E. H. M.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Melanesia

See also Melanesia on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​MELANESIA, one of the three great divisions of the oceanic islands in the central and western Pacific. It embraces the Bismarck Archipelago, N.E. of New Guinea, the Louisiade, Solomon, Santa Cruz, New Hebrides and Loyalty islands, New Caledonia, Fiji and intervening small groups. The name (Gr. μέλας, black, and νῆσος, island) is derived from the black colour of the prevailing native race, the Papuan and its allied tribes. Many of these differ widely from the parent race, but all the Melanesian peoples have certain common characteristics which distinguish them sharply from the inhabitants of Polynesia and Micronesia. Their civilization is lower. The Melanesians are mostly “negroid,” nearly black, with crisp, curly hair elaborately dressed; their women hold a much lower position than among the Polynesians; their institutions, social, political and religious, are simpler, their manners ruder; they have few or no traditions; cannibalism, in different degrees, is almost universal; but their artistic skill and taste, as with some of the lower African negroes, are remarkable, and they are amenable to discipline and fair treatment. Their languages, which exhibit considerable difference among themselves, have features which mark them off clearly from the Polynesian, notwithstanding certain fundamental relations with the latter.
See R. H. Codrington, The Melanesian Languages (Oxford, 1885) and The Melanesians (Oxford, 1891); the articles Papuans and Pacific Ocean; also those on the several island-groups, &c.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Melaconite

See also Melaconite on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​MELACONITE, a mineral consisting of cupric oxide, CuO, and known also as black copper ore. In appearance it is strikingly different from cuprite (q.v.) or red copper ore, which is cuprous oxide. Crystals are rare; they belong to the monoclinic, or possibly to the anorthic system, and have the form of thin triangular or hexagonal scales with a steel-grey colour and brilliant metallic lustre. More often the mineral is massive, earthy or pulverulent, and has a dull iron-black colour. Hence the name melaconite, from the Greek μέλας, black and κόνις, dust, which was originally given by F. S. Beudant in 1832 in the form melaconise. The crystallized Vesuvian mineral was later named tenorite, a name commonly adopted for the species. The hardness of the crystals is 3–4, but the earthy and powdery forms readily soil the fingers; the spec. grav. is 5·9. Crystals have been found only at Mt Vesuvius, where they encrust lava, and in Cornwall. The other forms of the mineral, however, are common in copper mines, and have resulted by the alteration of chalcocite, chalcopyrite and other copper ores, on which they often form a superficial coating. (L. J. S.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Melampus

See also Melampus on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​MELAMPUS, in Greek legend, a celebrated seer and physician, son of Amythaon and Eidomene, brother of Bias, mythical eponymous hero of the family of the Melampodidae. Two young serpents, whose life he had saved, licked his ears while he slept, and from that time he understood the language of birds and beasts. In the art of divination he received instruction from Apollo himself. To gain the consent of Neleus, king of Pylos, to the marriage of his daughter Pero with Bias, Melampus ​undertook to obtain possession of the oxen of the Thessalian prince Iphiclus. As Melampus had foretold, he was caught and imprisoned, but was released by Phylacus (the father of Iphiclus) on giving proof of his powers of divination, and was finally presented with the oxen as a reward for having restored the virility of the son. Melampus subsequently obtained a share in the kingdom of Argos in return for having cured the daughters of its king Proetus, who had been driven mad for offering resistance to the worship of Dionysus or for stealing the gold from the statue of Hera. At Aegosthena in Megara there was a sanctuary of Melampus, and an annual festival was held in his honour. According to Herodotus, he introduced the cult of Dionysus into Greece from Egypt, and his name (“black foot”) is probably “a symbolical expression of his character as a Bacchic propitiatory priest and seer” (Preller). According to the traditional explanation, he was so called from his foot having been tanned by exposure to the sun when a boy. In his character of physician, he was the reputed discoverer of the herb melampodium, a kind of hellebore. Melampus and Bias are symbolical representatives of cunning and force.
See Apollodorus i. 9, 11, 12; ii. 2, 2; Odyssey, xv. 225–240; Diod. Sic. iv. 68; Herodotus ii. 49; ix. 34; Pausanias ii. 18, 4; iv. 36, 3; scholiast on Theocritus iii. 43; Ovid, Metam. xv. 325; C. Eckermann, Melampus und sein Geschlecht (1840).
Melampus is also the name of the author of a short extant treatise of little value on Divination by means of Palpitation (Παλμῶν) and Birthmarks (Ἐλαιῶν). It probably dates from the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus (3rd cent. B.C.). Edition by J. G. Franz in Scriptores physiognomiae veteres (1780).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Melancholy

See also Melancholy on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​MELANCHOLY (Gr. μελαγχολία, from μέλας, black, and χολή, bile), originally a condition of the mind or body due to a supposed excess of black bile, also this black bile itself, one of the chief “humours” of the body, which were, according to medieval physiology, blood, phlegm, choler and melancholy (see Humour); now a vague term for desponding grief. From the 17th century the name was used of the mental disease now known as “melancholia” (see Insanity), but without any reference to the supposed cause of it.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Melanthius

See also Melanthius on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​MELANTHIUS, a noted Greek painter of the 4th century B.C. He belonged to the school of Sicyon, which was noted for fine drawing.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tana

See also Tana on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​TANA, a river of British East Africa, which gives its name to the Tanaland province of that protectorate. It has a course, following the main windings only, of over 500 m. Its sources are along the watershed close to the eastern wall of the eastern rift-valley, and it enters the Indian Ocean in 2° 40′ S., about 110 m. N. by E. of Mombasa. One series of its numerous head streams traverses the Kikuyu plateau north of the Athi, while others flow down the southern and eastern slopes of Kenya. The main stream, from about 37° E. 1° S., where it runs close to the upper waters of the Athi, flows in a wide curve N.E., nearly reaching the equator. About 39° E. it turns S., and from this point is not known to receive any tributary of importance. Its course is very tortuous, the current rapid, and the channel much obstructed by snags. Its width varies, as a general rule, between 100 and 200 yds. The banks are usually low, in part forested and inundated at high water, but away from the river the country appears to consist of dry plains covered with mimosa scrub. Adjoining, the lower Tana are many backwaters, which seem to show that the course has been subject to great changes. In 2° 20′ S. the river again turns east, but during the last 10 m. it flows south-west, parallel to the coast, entering the sea across a dangerous bar. The Tana has been navigated in a steam-launch for some 300 m. from the mouth. North of the Tana is the Ozi, a small river connected with the Tana by the Belazoni canal.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tamworth

See also Tamworth on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​TAMWORTH, a market town and municipal borough of England, in the Lichfield parliamentary division of Staffordshire and the Tamworth division of Warwickshire, on the river Tame, a southern tributary of the Trent. Pop. (1901) 7271. It is 110 m. N.E. from London by the London and North-Western railway, and is also served by the west and north line of the Midland railway (Bristol-Birmingham-Derby). The castle, situated on a height above the Anker near its junction with the Tame, is chiefly of the Jacobean period, but is enclosed by massive ancient walls. Here was a residence of the Mercian kings, and, after being bestowed on the Marmions by William the Conqueror, the castle remained for many years an important fortress. Formerly the town was surrounded by a ditch called the King's Dyke, of which some trace remains. The church of St Editha, originally founded in the 8th century, was rebuilt, after being burned by the Danes, by Edgar, who made it collegiate, but the existing Decorated building, was erected after a fire in 1345. The free grammar school, refounded by Edward IV., was rebuilt in 1677, and again in 1867. The charities include Guy's almshouses, endowed in 1678 by Thomas Guy, founder of Guy's Hospital, London. On the commons or moors burgesses have rights of pasture. Coal, fireclay and blue and red brick clay are dug in the neighbourhood; and there are also market gardens. In the town are a clothing factory, paper-mills, and manufactures of small wares. The town is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors. Area, 285 acres.
Tamworth (Tamwurda, Thamworth, Tomworth) is situated near the Roman Watling Street. It was burned by the Danes and restored in 913 by Aethelflead, lady of the Mercians, who built the fort which was the origin of the later castle. The town was again destroyed by the Danes in 943. There is no description of Tamworth in Domesday, but its burgesses are incidentally mentioned several times. In Anglo-Saxon and Norman times it possessed a mint, and it is called a borough in the Pipe Rolls of Henry II., but it was not then in a flourishing condition. Tamworth was incorporated by Elizabeth in 1560 by letters patent, which state that it is an “ancient mercate town,” and suggest that the charters have been lost or burned. The governing charter in 1835 was that of Charles II., incorporating it under the title of the bailiffs and commonalty of the borough of Tamworth in the counties of Stafford and Warwick. Edward III. granted two fairs, still kept up in 1792, to be held respectively on St George's day and the day of the Translation of St Edward; another ancient fair, in honour of St Swithin, or perhaps originally of St Editha, is still held (July 26). Tamworth sent two members to parliament from 1562 to 1885, when its representation was merged in that of the county.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tanauan

See also Tanauan, Batangas on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​TANAUAN, a town of the province of Batangas, Luzon, Philippine Islands, about 38 m. S.S.E. of Manila. Pop. (1903) 18,263. Tanauan is situated on a rolling upland plain. It formerly produced much sugar, but its inhabitants are now engaged chiefly in the cultivation of rice, Indian corn and fruit. Oranges and hogs are sent from Tanauan to the Manila market. The language is Tagalog.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tancred (Sicily)

See also Tancred, King of Sicily on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​TANCRED (d. 1194), King of Sicily, an illegitimate son of Roger, the eldest son of King Roger II., was crowned in January 1190 in succession to William II. (q.v.). He was supported by the chancellor Matthew d'Ajello and the official class, while the rival claims of Roger II.'s daughter Constance and her husband, Henry VI., king of the Romans and emperor, were supported by most of the nobles. Tancred was a good soldier, though his tiny stature earns from Peter of Eboli the nickname “Tancredulus.” But he was ill-supported in his task of maintaining the Norman kingdom, faced with general apathy, and threatened by a baronial revolt, and, in addition, Richard Coeur-de-Lion, at Messina, 1190, threatened him with war. Henry, skilfully winning over Pisa, Genoa and the Roman Commune, isolated Tancred and intimidated Celestine III., who, on the 14th of April 1191, crowned him emperor at Rome. He, however, failed to capture Naples in August and retired north, leaving garrisons along the frontiers of the Regno. Tancred now sought to win over the towns by extensive grants of privileges, and at Gravina (June 1192) was recognized by the pope, whose ineffectual support he gained by surrendering the royal legateship over Sicily. In 1192 and 1193 he commanded personally and with success against the Apulian barons, but his death at Palermo (20th of February 1194) a few days after that of Roger, his son and joint-king, made Henry's path clear. His wife Sibilla indeed maintained a regency for her second son William III., but on Henry's final descent, Naples surrendered almost without a blow in May 1194, and the rest of the Regno followed. Sibilla and the loyal Margarito prepared to defend Palermo, but the citizens admitted the emperor on the 20th of November 1194. Tancred's family fell into Henry's hands, and William III. seems to have died in Germany in 1198.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tanega-shima

See also Tanegashima on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​TANEGA-SHIMA, an island lying to the south of Kiushiu, Japan, in 30º 50' N. and 131º E., 36½ m. long and 7¼ m. broad at its widest part. It is a long low stretch of land, carefully cultivated, and celebrated as the place where Mendez Pinto landed when he found his way to Japan in 1543. Until modern times firearms were colloquially known in Japan as “Tanega-shima,” in allusion to the fact that they were introduced by Pinto.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tamworth (New South Wales)

See also Tamworth on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​TAMWORTH, a municipality of Inglis county, New South Wales, Australia, on the Peel and Cockburn rivers, 285 m. by rail N. of Sydney. Pop. (1901) 5799. It is an attractive town in a pleasant situation, with fine broad streets lined with shady trees, and was the first town in Australia to be lighted by electricity. Tamworth is the centre of several goldfields, at one of which, Bingera, diamonds are found. It is also the market of a pastoral and agricultural district. Brewing, malting, steam, saw and flour milling, coach building and the manufacture of boots and galvanized iron are its principal industries.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Tanaquil

See also Tanaquil on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​TANAQUIL. the Etruscan name of the wife of Tarquinius Priscus, or of one of his sons. After her immigration to Rome she is said to have received the name Gaia Caecilia. She was famous for her shrewdness and prophetic gifts, which enabled her to foretell the future greatness of her husband and of Servius Tullius. There was a statue of her as Gaia Caecilia in the temple of Sancus, which possessed magical powers. She was celebrated as a spinner of wool, and was supposed to exercise influence over Roman brides. Tanaquil and Gaia Caecilia are, however, really distinct personalities. The anecdotes told of Gaia Caecilia are aetiological myths intended to explain certain usages at Roman marriages.
See Livy, i. 34, 41; Pliny, Nat. Hist., viii. 74, xxxvi. 70; Schwegler, Römische Geschichte, bk. xv. 8.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gibara

See also Gibara on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​GIBARA, or Jibara (once “Punta del Yarey” and “Yarey de Gibara”), a north-coast city of Oriente Province, Cuba, 80 m. N.W. of Santiago de Cuba. Pop. (1907) 6170. It is served by railway to the S.S.W., to Holguín and Cacocum (where it connects with the main line between Santiago and Havana), and is a port of call for the American Munson Line. It lies on a circular harbour, about 1 m. in diameter, which, though open to the N., affords fair shelter. At the entrance to the harbour is San Fernando, an old fort (1817), and the city is very quaint in appearance. At the back of the city are three stone-topped hills, Silla, Pan and Tabla, reputed to be those referred to by Columbus in his journal of his first voyage. Enclosing the town is a stone wall, built by the Spaniards as a defence against attack during the rebellion of 1868–1878. Gibara is the port of Holguín. It exports cedar, mahogany, tobacco, sugar, tortoise-shell, Indian corn, cattle products, coco-nuts and bananas; and is the centre of the banana trade with the United States. Gibara is an old settlement, but it did not rise above the status of a petty village until after 1817; its importance dates from the opening of the port to commerce in 1827.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Giant's Kettle

See also Giant's kettle on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​GIANT’S KETTLE, Giant’s Cauldron or Pot-Hole, in physical geography, the name applied to cavities or holes which appear to have been drilled in the surrounding rocks by eddying currents of water bearing stones, gravel and other detrital matter. The size varies from a few inches to several feet in depth and diameter. The commonest occurrence is in regions where glaciers exist or have existed; a famous locality is the Gletscher Garten of Lucerne, where there are 32 giant’s kettles, the largest being 26 ft. wide and 30 ft. deep; they are also common in Germany, Norway and in the United States. It appears that water, produced by the thawing of the ice and snow, forms streams on the surface of the glacier, which, having gathered into their courses a certain amount of morainic débris, are finally cast down a crevasse as a swirling cascade or moulin. The sides of the crevasse are abraded, and a vertical shaft is formed in the ice. The erosion may be continued into the bed of the glacier, and, the ice having left the district, the giant’s kettle so formed is seen as an empty shaft, or as a pipe filled with gravel, sand or boulders. Such cavities and pipes afford valuable evidence as to the former extent of glaciers (see J. Geikie, The Great Ice Age). Similar holes are met with in river beds at the foot of cascades, and under some other circumstances. The term “pot-hole” is also sometimes used synonymously with “swallow-hole” (q.v.).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Giant's Causeway

See also Giant's Causeway on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​GIANT’S CAUSEWAY, a promontory of columnar basalt, situated on the north coast of county Antrim, Ireland. It is divided by whin-dykes into the Little Causeway, the Middle Causeway or “Honeycomb,” as it is locally termed, and the Larger or Grand Causeway. The pillars composing it are ​close-fitting and for the most part somewhat irregular hexagons, made up of articulated portions varying from a few inches to some feet in depth, and concave or convex at the upper and lower surfaces. In diameter the pillars vary from 15 to 20 in., and in height some are as much as 20 ft. The Great Causeway is chiefly from 20 to 30, and for a few yards in some places nearly 40 ft. in breadth, exclusive of outlying broken pieces of rock. It is highest at its narrowest part. At about half a dozen yards from the cliff, widening and becoming lower, it extends outwards into a platform, which has a slight seaward inclination, but is easy to walk upon, and for nearly 100 yds. is always above water. At the distance of about 150 yds. from the cliff it turns a little to the eastward for 20 or 30 yds., and then sinks into the sea. The neighbouring cliffs exhibit in many places columns similar to those of the Giant’s Causeway, a considerable exposure of them being visible at a distance of 500 to 600 yds. in the bay to the east. A group of these columns, from their arrangement, have been fancifully named the “Giant’s Organ.” The most remarkable of the cliffs is the Pleaskin, the upper pillars of which have the appearance of a colonnade, and are 60 ft. in height; beneath these is a mass of coarse black amygdaloid, of the same thickness, underlain by a second range of basaltic pillars, from 40 to 50 ft. in height. The view eastward over Bengore and towards Fair Head is magnificent. Near the Giant’s Causeway are the ruins of the castles of Dunseverick and Dunluce, situated high above the sea on isolated crags, and the swinging bridge of Carrick-a-Rede, spanning a chasm 80 ft. deep, and connecting a rock, which is used as a salmon-fishing station, with the mainland. In 1883 an electric railway, the first in the United Kingdom, was opened for traffic, connecting the Causeway with Portrush and Bushmills. After a protracted lawsuit (1897–1898) the Causeway, and certain land in the vicinity, were declared to be private property, and a charge is made for admission.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gibbon

See also Gibbon on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​GIBBON, the collective title of the smaller man-like apes of the Indo-Malay countries, all of which may be included in the single genus Hylobates. Till recently these apes have been generally included in the same family (Simiidae) with the chimpanzee, gorilla and orang-utan, but they are now regarded by several naturalists as representing a family by themselves—the Hylobatidae. One of the distinctive features of this family is the presence of small naked callosities on the buttocks; another being a difference in the number of vertebrae and ribs as compared with those of the Simiidae. The extreme length of the limbs and the absence of a tail are other features of these small apes, which are thoroughly arboreal in their habits, and make the woods resound with their unearthly cries at night. In agility they are unsurpassed; in fact they are stated to be so swift in their movements as to be able to capture birds on the wing with their paws. When they descend to the ground—which they must often do in order to obtain water—they frequently walk in the upright posture, either with the hands crossed behind the neck, or with the knuckles resting on the ground. Their usual food consists of leaves and fruits. Gibbons may be divided into two groups, the one represented by the siamang, Hylobates (Symphalangus) syndactylus, of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, and the other by a number of closely allied species. The union of the index and middle fingers by means of a web extending as far as the terminal joints is the distinctive feature of the siamang, which is the largest of the group, and black in colour with a white frontal band. Black or puce-grey is the prevailing colour in the second group, of which the hulock (H. hulock) of Assam, H. lar of Arakan and Pegu, H. entellöides of Tenasserim (fig.), and H. agilis of Sumatra are well-known representatives. A female of the Hainan gibbon (H. hainanus) in confinement changed from uniform sooty-black (without the white frontal band of the black phase of the hulock) to puce-grey; but it is probable that this was only an individual, or at most a sexual, peculiarity. The range of the genus extends from the southern bank of the Bramaputra in Assam to southern China, the Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra and Borneo.  (R. L.*)
* The Tenasserim Gibbon (Hylobates entellöides).