MAMELUKES
"54
MAMMOTH
River, Virginia, southeast of Richmond. After the battle of Gaines's Mill, June 26,1862, when the Federals were driven back with heavy loss, McClellan began a retreat to the James. ^ His left wing, which was south of the Chickahominy, led the way through White Oak Swamp. His right wing, which was north of the Chickahominy, was with difficulty withdrawn across that stream, and, following through White Oak Swamp, was attacked by Lee at Savage Station and again at Frazier's Farm, where desperate battles were fought on June 29 and 30. Then McClellan reached Malvern Hill, on the north bank of the James, where he secured a strong position. Massing his artillery, he repelled the attack of the Confederates on July i with great slaughter. Next day McClellan withdrew to Harrison's Landing, and the "seven days' fight" was at an end. McClellan's losses, including killed, wounded and missing, were 15,849; Lee's were 19,749. But McClellan had lost the campaign, for the attempt to capture Richmond had failed.
Mamelukes (mam'd-luks), the Arabic word for white slaves, and especially the name of the slave kings of Egypt. They came from a body of slaves, brought in the 13th century from Asia Minor and the Caucasus to act as the mounted bodyguard of the sultan of Egypt. On the death of their master in 1250 they chose one of their own number his successor, and from that year to 1517 the Mamelukes ruled Egypt and Syria. There were 48 Mameluke sultans, often keeping the throne but a few years or months, in two royal houses, the Turkish and the Circassian Mamelukes. The Ottoman Turk conquered Egypt in 1517. The Ottoman pasha, who now ruled, allowed 24 beys to rule the provinces. These beys, all Mamelukes, soon got all the power, and the pasha became a cipher. Their last brilliant achievement was their desperate charge on Napoleon's squares at the battle of the Pyramids in 1798. Soon afterwards Mehemet AH came to power, and, by two treacherous massacres in 1805 and 1811, blotted out the Mameluke princes, except a few who fled to Sudan. See S. Lane-Poole's Art of the Saracens in Egypt.
Mamma'lia, the highest class in the animal kingdom, including all those forms with breasts (mammfz) by means of which they suckle their young. The group is a varied one, and contains animals ranging from the smallest harvest-mouse to whales nearly 100 feet long. They are all air-breathers, for even those forms living in the water, as whales, sea-cows and seals, come to the surface to breathe. The lungs and heart are in the thorax, which is cut off from the abdominal cavity by a partition — the diaphragm. All have a four-chambered heart, a complete circulation and red blood corpuscles without nuclei. All possess hair at some stage of
their life on some portion of the body. Even the young whale has hairs that disappear in the adult or are confined to the snout. This covering is variously modified; it may be fine fur, wool, long coarse hair, or developed into sharp spines, as in the porcupine, spiny ant-eater and others. The outer part of the horns of ruminants is believed to be modified hairs, and the horn of the rhinoceros is regarded by many anatomists as made of compacted hairs. The other parts derived from the outer cell-layer, as claws, hoofs, the plates of the armadillo, if not modified hairs are equivalent structures. The bony system is well-developed. The skull articulates by two processes with the vertebral column. There usually are two pairs of limbs, but in whales and manatees the hinder pair is lacking. The brain and sense-organs are highly developed. Most mammals live on dry land; the bats, however, have the power of flight; and other forms, as flying squirrels and flying lemurs, make long leaps through the air. Whales, sea-cows, seals and walruses live in the water. Squirrels and others live upon trees, and among the burrowers, belonging to this class, are moles, prairie-dogs, rabbits and others. An idea of the extent of the class will be obtained by naming the orders into which it is subdivided, and the common animals belonging to each order. There are three subclasses: ORNITHODEL-PHIA, DIDELPHIA and MONODELPHIA. The first contains a single order — the Monotrem-ata, represented by the duck-bill and echidna of Australia. The second, likewise, contains a single order — the Marsupialia or pouched animals like the opossum, kangaroo etc. The third subclass is the largest and most important. It embraces 12 orders as follows: Edentata, toothless animals, like the armadillo, hairy ant-eater etc.; Rodentia, the gnawers, including squirrels, hares, ^ the mouse, rat, beaver and the like; Insectivora, the insect-eaters, like shrews, hedgehogs, moles and similar animals; Chiroptera, the bats; Cetacea, the whales and dolphins; Sir-enia, the dugong and manatees; Proboscidia, elephants, the extinct mammoth, mastodon etc.; Hyracoidea, the conies; Toxodontia, an extremely curious group, containing some extinct forms — Toxodon and Nesodon — found in South America; Ungulata, a very important group of hoofed animals, containing the tapir, rhinoceros, horses, swine, camels, deer, cattle, giraffe, yak, goats, sheep, antelope, musk-ox and a few others; Carnivoraf the flesh-eating mammals, as bear, otter, raccoon, badger, mink, dog, fox, hyena, tiger, lion, lynx, walrus, seal etc.; and Primates, the highest order, embracing lemurs, monkeys, apes and man. See Mammals, Living and Extinct by Flower and Lydekker and Schmidt's Mammalia.
Mam'moth, a very large elephant-like animal now extinct. The bones of this animal are abundant in various parts of the world.
