larger than life stood round it, and on each side two rows of gilt idols, with twenty arms each. On either side of the temple, running from end to end, were ten platforms rising like steps one behind the other, on each of which stood fifty images of Quanwon as large as life — 1000 in all, each on its separate pedestal, so arranged as to stand in rows of five, one behind the other, and all visible at the same time, each with its twenty hands. On the heads and hands of all these are placed smaller idols, to the number of forty or more. The whole num- ber of images is stated bj' the Japanese to be 33,000" (Ae?« American Cyclopcedia, vol. xi, s. v.). jMiako is also the head-quarters of literature, science, and art. The imperial palace, on the northern side of the city, is, together with its ward, a town of itself. See Japan ;
INIlKADO.
Mi'amiu (Heb. Miyamin', 'j^'''^, a contracted form of the name Miniamin), the name of three persons after the exile.
1. (Sept. Mtia^iiiv v. r. Mtiaixiv, Vulg. Maiman, Auth. Vers. " Mijamin.") The head of the sixth division of the sacerdotal order as distributed by David (1 Chron. xxiv,7). B.C. 1014.
2. (Sept. Mta/iEiVv.r. MtajutV, Vulg. ii/iamim.) One of the chief priests who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Neh. xii, 5). B.C. 536. He must have attained a great age if identical with the priest who subscribed the religious covenant with Nehemiah (Neh, X, 7, where the name is Anglicized "Mijamin"). B.C. cir. 410. He is probably the same person called Minia- JIIN in Neh. xii, 17, but his son's name appears there to have accidentally escaped from the text. See Moa-
DIAH.
3. (Sept. Mf «/[«'»' V. r. Mea/xi'jit, Vulg. Miamin.) One of the Israelites, a " son" (i. e. inhabitant) of Parosh, who divorced hio Gentile Avife after the captivity (Ezra X, 25). B.C. 459.
Miautse, the hill-tribes of China, are generally sup- posed to be the aborigines of that country. From the dawn of Chinese history, we find the people of the plains contending against those of the high lands, and to the present day the hardy mountaineers have maintaiaed their independence. The IHiautse consist of forty-one tribes, occupying large portions of Kwang-se, Kwei- chow,Yun-nan,Sze-chuen,and adjacent provinces. Some of them own Chinese sway ; other tribes are absolutely independent. They are smaller in size and stature, and have shorter necks, and their features are somewhat more angular, than the Chinese. Their dialects are va- rious, and wholly different from the Chinese ; their af- finity is most likely with the Laos and other tribes be- tween Burmah, Siam, and China. Dr. Macgowan, a well-known ethnologist, describes them as skilful in manufacturing. He holds to an identity of the IMiautse of Western China and the hill-tribes of Burmah. See Karens. The degree of civilization they have attained to is much belo;v that of the Chinese. Both sexes wear their hair braided in a tuft on the top of the head, but never shaven and twisted as the Chinese ; they dress in loose garments of cotton and linen ; car-rings are in uni- versal use among them. They live in huts constructed upon the branches of trees, and in mud hovels. Their agriculture is rude, and their garments are usually ob- tained by barter from other people. Their religious ob- servances are of the same peculiar nature as those o*f the other Asiatic tribes uninfluenced by Christian civilization. Their marriage and funeral usages are particularly striking. In one tribe it is the custom for the father of the new-born child, as soon as the mother has become strong enough to leave her couch, to get into bed himself, and there receive the congratulations of his acquaintances as he exhibits his offspring. See Chinese Repository, i, 29 ; xiv, 105 sq. ; Williams, The Middle Kingdom, i, 37, 147 sq.
Mib'har (Heb. Mibchar', ^nn^, choice, as in Isa. xxii, 7, etc. ; Sept. Ma/Sap v. r. Mf/SaaX), a Hagarene
MIBSAM
212
MICAH
("son of Haggeri"), one of David's famous warriors (1 | dering Levito, named Jonathan, became the priest, at Chron. xi, 38) ; apparently the same called in the par- a yearly stipend (Judg. xvii). Subsequently the Danite allel passage (2 Sam. xxiii, 36) Hani the Gadite. B.C. ' array, on their journey to settle northward in Laish, 1046 See David. '■ It is easy to .see, if the latter be , took away both the establishment and the priest, which the true reading, how ^nr.n ^3, 5am Aa</-r7«(//, coiUd i they afterwards maintained in their new settlement
° .^ - . T^ '' •'^ ^_^^ j (Judg. XVll). Sec DaX; JoXATItAN.
The establishments of this kind, of which there are other instances — as that of Gideon at Ophrah — were,
be corrupted into i"iJij~"|2, hen-hag-geri ; and "^nan is actually the reading of three of Kennicott's MSS. in 1 Chron., as well as of the Syriac and Arabic versions, and the Targum of K. Joseph. But that ' Mibhar' is a cor- ruption of n^S'O (or X^Iiw, ace. to some MSS.), viits- tsobuh, 'of Zobah,' as Kennicott {Dissert, p. 215) and Cappellus (Crit. Sacr. i, c. 5) conclude, is not so clear, though not absolutely impossible. It would seem from the Sept. of 2 Sam., Avhere instead of Zobah we tind TToXvcvvci^tutQ, that both readings originally co-existed, and were read by the Sept. NHSn "insp, viibchar hats-isaba, ' choice of the host.' If this were the case, the verse in 1 Chron. would stand thus: ' Igal the brother of Nathan, flower of the host; Baiii the Gad- ite' " (Smith).