contains the only mention of Israel to be found on the Egyptian monuments, was published with a German translation by Spiegelberg, in the Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache, vol. xxxiv. (Leipzig, 1896), under the title “Der Siegeshymnus des Merneptah auf der Flinders Petrie Stele.” The mummy of Meneptah was found at Thebes in 1898, and is now in tlie JIuseum of Cairo. Consult Budge, A History of Egypt (New York, 1902). See also Egypt.
MENES, mē′nēz (Egyptian Meni; Gk. Μήν, Mēn, Μήνης, Mēnēs). A king of Egypt whom the Egyptians regarded as their first historical monarch. His name invariably stands at the head of all monumental lists of Egyptian kings, but little is known in regard to him. According to Manetho he was a native of This, and reigned for sixty-two years. Herodotus and other Greek writers attribute to him the foundation of Memphis, and relate many other fables concerning him. In modern times certain scholars have believed that he was the Pharaoh who united Upper and Lower Egypt under a single monarchy, but recent discoveries indicate that the union took place at an earlier date. At present there is a tendency to identify Menes with an early king of whom many small memorials have been found near This. Two large tombs—one at Naggadah, near Coptos, the other near Abydos—are filled with objects bearing the name of this King. The reading of the name is, however, not altogether certain, and the proposed identification is therefore doubtful. Consult: Budge, A History of Egypt (New York, 1902); Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin, 1897); Revue Critique (Paris, 1897); Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache, vol. xxxvi. (Leipzig, 1898). See also Egypt.
MENFI, mĕn′fē̇. A town in the Province of Girgenti, Sicily, 30 miles south by east of Marsala (Map: Italy, H 10). It exports corn, barley, cotton, and wine. The quarries of the vicinity are supposed to have furnished the building material for the temples of ancient Selinus. Population, in 1901 (commune), 10,281.
MENG′ER, Karl (1840—). An Austrian economist, born at Neu-Sandez, in Galicia. He studied law and political science in Vienna and Prague, and in 1873 became professor of political economy at the University of Vienna. Since 1900 he has been a member of the Austrian House of Peers. He was the leader of a reaction against the historical method in economics, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the so-called Austrian school of political economy. His most important work, from a theoretical standpoint, is Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre (1871). Other important works of his are: Untersuchungen über die Methode der Sozialwissenschaften und der politischen Oekonomie inshesondere (1883); Die Irrtümer des Historismus in der deutschen Nationalökonomie (1884); and Beiträge zur Währungsfrage in Oesterreich-Ungarn (1892).
MENGS, mĕngs, Raphael (1728-79). A German historical and portrait painter. He was born at Aussig, Bohemia, March 12, 1728, the son of Ismael Mengs, a miniature painter of some repute, who in 1741 took him to Rome. On his return to Dresden in 1744 he was appointed Court painter by the Elector Augustus III., who permitted him to continue his studies at Rome. There he painted the first of his larger compositions, a “Holy Family,” now in the Gallery of Vienna, and of additional interest because the model for the Madonna was Marguerita Guazzi, a beautiful peasant girl whom he married, and for whose sake he embraced Catholicism. The financial distress occasioned by the Seven Years' War caused his pension to be stopped, and he was in distress at Rome, but his fortune turned when the Duke of Northumberland employed him to paint a copy of Raphael's “School of Athens.” In 1754 he was made director of the new Art Academy on the Capitol; in 1757 he painted the ceiling in San Eusebio, and soon after the “Mount Parnassus” in the Villa Albani.
On a visit to Naples he attracted the attention of the King, who, on his accession to the throne of Spain as Charles III., invited Mengs to Madrid. During this first sojourn at Madrid (1761-69) he executed several frescoes in the royal palace, of which “Aurora and the Four Seasons” is the best. Intrigues against him and feeble health caused his return to Italy, but he was summoned back to Madrid in 1772 to complete his work in the royal palace. He painted there the “Apotheosis of Trajan,” his most important fresco, and the “Temple of Fame.” In 1775 he returned to Rome, where he died, June 29, 1779.
His fresco paintings are superior to his canvases. Good examples of the latter are a “Nativity” in Madrid, and an “Annunciation” in the Vienna Gallery. Mengs was an eclectic who endeavored to blend the beauty of antique art with that of the great Italian masters. Living at a time of extreme degradation in art, he commanded great admiration by his skill in composition and his thorough knowledge of technical processes. He exercised a profound inlluence upon his contemporaries, and trained numerous pupils. Consult Woermann, Ismael und Raphael Mengs (Leipzig, 1893).
MENG-TSZE, mĕng′tsĕ′. A town in the Province of Yun-nan, China, situated amid mountains at an elevation of about 4600 feet, about 40 miles from the frontier of Tongking (Map: China, B 7). It is a well built city with traces of its splendor and importance before the Taiping Rebellion. It was opened to foreign commerce in 1889 in accordance with the French Treaty of Tien-tsin of 1886. The trade is mostly transit and with Hong Kong. The merchandise is transported by the Red River as far as Man-has, a village on the left side of the river about 40 miles from Meng-tsze, and from there is carried by coolies and pack animals inland. The chief exports are tin from the adjacent mines and opium; textiles and tobacco are imported. The total trade amounted in 1900 to over $4,000,000. Meng-tsze is connected by telegraph lines with Yun-nan-fu and the frontier of Tongking. The French Government has obtained a concession for the construction of a railway line from Lao-kai on the frontier to Yun-nan-fu via Meng-tsze. Population, about 12,000.
MENHADEN, mĕn-hā′den (corrupted from Narragansett Indian munnawhatteaúg, fertilizer; in allusion to its use as a fertilizer in the cornfields). A small fish (Brevoortia tyrannus), closely related to the shad (q.v.), which is caught in great quantities on our eastern coast during the
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