562 M A R M A R is 360 feet. Hydrographically Haute-Marne belongs for the most part to the basin of the Seine, the remainder to those of the Rhone and the Meuse. The principal stream is the Marne, which rises here, and has a course of 75 miles within the department. Among the more important affluents of the Marne are on the right the Rognon, and on the left the Blaise, one of the rivers of France most fully utilized for the supply of water-power. The Saulx, another tributary of the Marne on the right, also rises in Haute-Marne. Westward the department is watered by the Aube and its tributary the Aujon, both of which have their sources on the plateau of Langres. The Meuse also rises in the Monts Faucilles, and has a course of 31 miles within Haute-Marne. On the Mediterranean side the department sends to the Saone the Apance, the Amance, the Salon, and the Yingeanne. The climate is partly that of the Seine region, partly that of the Vosges, and partly, that of the Rhone ; the mean temperature is 51 F., nearly that of Paris ; the rainfall is slightly below the average for France. Of the total area rather more than one half is arable, about a third is under wood, a twentieth under meadow, and a fortieth is occupied by vineyards. There are 39,000 horses (extensively bred in Bassigny), 86,000head of cattle, 170,000 sheep, 58,000 pigs, 6000 goats, 25,000 beehives, and a large quantity of all kinds of poultry. Though not very fertile, the soil is well cultivated, and in 1878 yielded 1,271,363 hectolitres of wheat, 144,348 of barley, 1,446,421 of oats, 1,177,187 of potatoes, besides meslin, rye, buckwheat, dried legumes, colza, beetroot, and hemp. Upwards of 8 million gallons of wine of ordinary quality were produced in 1881. The timber consists chiefly of oak, beech, elm, ash, maple, birch, and aspen ; the orchards produce cherries, apples, pears, and prunes. The department is very rich in iron ; the annual output of 300,000 tons is exceeded only by that of Meurthe-et-Moselle. Building and paving stones are quarried. The warm springs cf Bourbonne-les-Bains are among the longest-known and most fre quented in France. The leading industry is the metallurgical ; in 1881 76,000 tons of pig iron and 85,000 of wrought iron were pro duced. The establishments include blast furnaces, foundries, forges, plate-rolling works, and shops for nailmaking and smith work of varioiis descriptions. St Dizier, the place of largest population, is the chief centre of manufacture and distribution. The cutlery trade alone occupies 6000 persons in the neighbourhood of Langres. The department employs 1800 spindles in the woollen manufacture ; glove-making, basket-making, brewing, tanning, and other industries are also carried on. The principal import is coal, while iron, stone, wood, and cereals are exported. The population in 1876 was 253,943, making an increase of 27,288 since 1801. There are three arrondissements (Chaumont, Langres, and Vassy), the capital being Chaumont. MAROCCO. See MOROCCO. MARONITES (Syriac, Mdr&noye ; Arabic, Mawdrina), an ecclesiastical community, and therefore also, according to the usage of the Christian East, a distinct political or social body, found mainly in or near the Lebanon, acknowledg ing the headship of the pope and the Latin standard of orthodoxy, bat still retaining some peculiar privileges, including the use of a Syriac service which few even of the priests now understand and permission for the inferior clergy to marry. Maronite writers, trained either at Rome (in the Maronite college, founded by Gregory XIII. in 1584) or under Roman influences, have not unnaturally striven to prove that their church wa.s always in essential accord with the Church of Rome except in ritual, but there is clear evidence that this is incorrect. The earliest references to the Maronites (beginning in the 8th century) leave no doubt that they were Monothelites, and there is contem porary evidence (William of Tyre) that they only abjured their heresies in 1182, when with their patriarch and some bishops they joined the Latin Church. Even in later times it has cost Rome much pains and money to attach them closely to herself and produce real conformity to Latin or ultimately to Tridentine orthodoxy. The origin of the Maronites and their earlier history are obscure. The name is no doubt connected with the monastery of St Maron, near the source of the Orontes, one of the chief monasteries of Syria in the 6th century; 1 the Maronites themselves (Assemani, J>ib. Or., i, 496 sq.) have much to tell of their great patriarch John Maron, or rather John of Maron, who studied at the convent of St Maron, converted the Lebanon to orthodoxy, and died 707 A.D. Much of the history of this personage is certainly fabulous. 2 Though the Marouite college at Rome sent forth some distinguished scholars the grammarian Anrira, Gabriel Sionita, Abraham Ecchellensis, and the three Assemanis the Maronite community never took on much Western culture. A simple warlike race, they long maintained a great measure of internal freedom under their native nobility, only paying tribute to the pasha of Tripoli ; and for a time, when the princely house of Shihal) left Islam and became Maronites, they greatly outweighed the Druses in their influence in the Lebanon. 3 Since the fall, in 1840. of the Maronite emir Beshir, who was only by outward pro fession a Moslem, their power has sunk. For their subse quent history see vol. vii. p. 486, and for statistics, &c., at the present time, see LEBANON. The seat of the Maronite patriarch is at Kannobiu (Coenobium); the bishoprics are Aleppo, Baalbek, Jebeil, Tripoli, Ehden, Damascus, Beirut, Tyre, and Cyprus. See in general Le Quien, Oricns Christianus, iii. 1-100 ; Nairon. De origine, etc., Maronitarum, Home, 1679 ; Dandini s account ol the mission of 1596 in the French translation with K. Simon s notes (Voyage du Mont Lebanon, Paris, 1685); Schnurrer, DC, Ecclesi" Mnronitica, 1810-1811; and Kodiger s article " Maronitcn " < Herzog s Rcul-Encycl. MAROONS. A negre marron is defined by Littre as a fugitive slave who betakes himself to the woods ; a similar definition of cimarron (apparently from cima, a mountain top) is given in the Dictionary of the Spanish Academy. The old English form of the word is symaron (sec Hawkins s Voyage, sec. 68). The designation in modern English is applied almost as a proper name to the descendants of those negroes in Jamaica who at the first English occupation in the 17th century fled to the moun tains. See vol. xiii. p. 550. MAROS-VASARHELY, a royal free town of Hungary, and capital of the Transylvanian county of Maros-Torda. is situated on the Maros and on the Hungarian Eastern Railway, 50 miles north-east of Hermannstadt, in 46 30 N. lat., 24 31 E. long. It is the seat of the " royal table " court of appeal for the Transylvanian circle, of royal and circuit courts of law, of a board of works, and of offices of assay and of the Government tobacco monopoly ; as also the headquarters both of the militia and regular infantry for the district. The town is well built, partly upon rising ground, and has a citadel with barracks, three churches (one large and handsome), and a college belonging to the Calvinists ; Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches, religious houses, and schools ; a public library of 80,000 volumes, with a picture gallery and fine collec tion of minerals ; a theatre, a hospital, and several philan thropic and industrial institutes. The trade is chiefly in timber, planks, materials for house-roofing, grain, wiqe, tobacco, and other products of the neighbourhood. Both weekly and special markets are held. At the end of 1880 the population amounted to 12,843 (6265 males, 6578 females), Magyars and Roumanians by nationality. 1 The ruins of this place are described by Robinson, Bib. Researches, iii. 539 ; Renan, Phenicie, p. 119. 2 The John of Maron known to Bar- Hebrosus (Chron. Eccles., i. 463), and placed in the 10th century, was apparently a Monophysite. That Monophysite as well as Monothelite doctrine was once current among tli Maronites appears from various tilings in their ecclesiastical books, which they now try to explain away or reject as interpolations. 3 See Niebuhr, Reisebeschr. , vol. ii. ; Volney, Voyage; Robinson.
Researches, ii. 506.