equally vague acceptation, it nevertheless seems to have pointed more precisely to the northern tribes of the Cau- casus, between the Euxine and the Caspian Seas. The people of that region, it seems, were a terror to middle Asia; and they have often been named the Scythians of the East. Jerome says of Magog that it means " Scythian nations, fierce and innumerable, who live be- yond the Caucasus and the lake Mteotis, and near the Caspian Sea, and spread out even onward to India." The people dwelling among the Caucasian Mountains have preserved their original character down to the present hour, as is evident from their recent long-continued con- tests with the Kussians. The famous Caucasian wall, probably erected by some of the successors of Alexander the Great, as a defence against the incursions of the northern barbarians, and wliich extended from Derbend, on the western shore of the Caspian, to near the Euxine or Black Sea, is still called "the icall of Gog and Magog.'' (See Reinegg, Beschr. d. Caucasus, ii, 79.) The traveller Gmelin visited this wall in 1770, in the course of the scientific mission upon which he was sent by the Rus- sian government. From Derbend, on the Caspian Sea, the head-quarters of the Russian military guard in that country, Gmelin directed his course westward, towards the Euxine, and he soon met with some ruins of the ancient wall, which he describes as in some places thirty feet liigh, and for large distances nearly entire, and in other places partially or wholly fallen down. There are watcli-towera along the wall at signal distances ; two of these he ascended, and from their tops he could descry the snowj' ridges of Caucasus. This wall seems to have been built in almost a straight line from the Caspian to the Euxine, and the watch-towers and fortresses were probably erected as a means of keeping up communica- tion between Derbend, the garrison at the eastern ex- tremity, and the fastnesses in the mountains. (See Bayer, De Muro Caucasia, in Acta A cad. Scientiar. Petrojwl. i, 425 ; Ker Porter, Travels, ii, 520 ; Kitter, Erdk. ii, 834 sq.) In Rev. XX, 7, 9, the terms Gog and Magog are evidently used tropically, as names of the enemies of Christianity, who will endeavor to extirpate it from the earth, but will thereby bring upon themselves signal destruction. But that Ezekiel, in his prophecy, meant to be under- stood as predicting the invasion of Palestine by Gog and Magog in the literal sense, is hardly credible. He uses these names to designate distant and savage nations; and in the same way John employs them. Just in the same manner we now employ the word barbarians. That both writers should employ these two names in a trop- ical way is no more strange than that we should employ the words Scythian, Tartar, Indian, etc., in the same manner. Nothing could be more natural than for Eze- kiel, who lived in Jlesopotamia, to speak of Gog and Magog, since they were the formidable enemies of all that region ; and that John, writing on the same subject, should retain the same names, was equally natural. (See Stuart's Comment, on the Apoc. ad loc.) See Gog.
Ma'gor-mis'sabib (Hebrew, Magor' mis-sabib', 3''3a"2 ^ij>^, terror from round about ; Sept. Ms roi/coc (ci'/cXiiS-fv, Vulg. Pauor undique), an epithet applied at the divine instance by Jeremiah to the persecuting Pashur (q. v.), emblematical of his signal fate, ss ex- plained in the context (Jer. xx, 3). "It is remarkable that the same phrase occurs in several other passages of Jeremiah (vi, 25 ; xx, 10 ; xlvi, 5 ; xlix, 29 ; Lam. ii, 22), and is only found besides in Psa. xxxi, 13" (Smith).
Mag'piash (Heb. Magpiash', dSi55^, perhaps for d"iSi'"?, moth-killer; Sept. mayarpi]Q v. r. Mfya^/}*,-, Viilg. Megphias), one of the chief Israelites who joined in the sacred covenant instituted on the return from Babylon (Neh. x, 20). B.C. cir. 410. Some suppose the name, however, to be the same as aiAGnisii (^q. v.) of Ezra ii, 30.
Magyars. See Hungary.
Maha-bharata (from the Sans. 7?«a/ia^— changed
MAHA-DEVA
654
MAHALATH
to 7)iahd — great, and Bharala, a famous Hindu prmce) is the name of a great epic poem of ancient India. As its main story relates to tlie contest between two rival families, both descendants of a king, Bharata, the title pr(ihal)!y implies " the great history of the descendants of Jiliarata." In its present shape the poem consists of npwards of 100,000 verses, eacli containing 32 syllables, and is divided into 18 parvans or books. That this huge composition was not the work of one single individual, but a production of successive ages, clearly appears from the multifariousness of its contents, from the difference of style which characterizes its various parts, and even from the contradictions which disturb its harmony. Hindu tradition ascribes it to Vydsa; but as Vyasa means '• the distributer or arranger," and as the same individual is also the reputed compiler of the Vedas, Puranas, and several other works, it is obvious that no historical value can be assigned to this generic name.
The contents of the poem may be distinguished into the leading storj' and the episodical matter connected with it. The former is probably founded on real events in the oldest history of India, though in the epic narra- tive it will be dilficult to disentangle the reality from the fiction. Tlie story (which covers about one fourth of the whole poem) comprises the contest of the cele- brated families called the Kauravas and Pandavas, end- ing in the victory of the latter, and in the establishment of their rule over the northern part of India. Of course no unimportant part is assigned in the contest to the deities, and, consequently, Hindu mythology'' is pretty extensively interwoven with these events of semi-his- torical Hindu antiquity. This episodical matter, as it were, incidentalh' linked with the main story, may be distributed under three principal heads. One category of such episodes comprises narratives relating to the an- cient or mythical history of India, as, for instance, the episodes of Nala and Sakuntala ; a second is more strict- ly mythological, comprising cosmogony and theogony ; a third is didactic or dogmatic — it refers to law, religion, morals, and philosophy, as in the case of the celebrated Bhagavadgita, and the principal portions of the r2th and 13th books. By means of this episodical matter, which at various periods, and often without regard to consistency, was superadded to the original structure of the work, the Mahabharata gradually became a collec- tion of all that was needed to be known by an educated Hindu ; in fact, it became the encyclopaedia of India, notwithstanding that the Brahmanic authors themselves intended it mainly for the Kshattriya, or military caste, whose history, interests, religion, and deities it specially dwells upon. The text of the Mahabharata has been I)ublishcd at Calcutta (5 vols. 4to, 1834-1839. Vol. v is a table of ciintents). Two other editions are in course of publication at Bombay. The best researches on it are those by Lassen, in his Ztitschrift fiir die Kunde des Morgenlundes (1837 sq.), and in his Indisclie AUtrthums- kiimle. A sort of analysis of the leading storj' of the Mahabharata (not of the episodes) has lately been given by F. G. EichhofiF (Poesie Ilero'ique des Indiens, Paris, 18G0), and Iiy Professor Monicr Williams {Indian E]nc Vcninj, London, 1863). See also Schack, aS^iotjhcw vom GaiKjcs (Berl. 185G) ; Chambers, Cyclop, s. v.