e was a handsome man, with
fascinating manners (1810-1857).

MUTSU HITO, the Mikado of Japan, ascended the throne in 1867,
married in 1869; has one son, Prince Yoshihito, and three daughters; his
reign has been marked by great reforms, and especially the abolition of
the feudal system which till then prevailed, to the great and increasing
prosperity of the country, and the opening of it to the ideas and arts of
Western civilisation; _b_. 1852.

MUZAFFER-ED-DIN, Shah of Persia, second son of Nasr-ed-Din, who
nominated him to succeed him; succeeded his father on his death by
assassination in 1896, on the 1st of May; _b_. 1853.

MYCENAE, capital of Agamemnon's kingdom, in the NE. of the
Peloponnesus, was in very ancient days a great city, but never recovered
the invasion of the people of Argos in 468 B.C.; excavations point to
its civilisation being more akin to Phoenician than Greek.

MYRMIDONS, "ant-men," so-called because Zeus was said to have
peopled Thessaly, from which originally they came, by transforming ants
into men; they were the people of AEgina, whose warriors followed Achilles
to the siege of Troy.

MYSORE (4,900), a native State, half the size of England, embedded
in the Madras Presidency, occupies a lofty, broken, but fertile
tableland; the upper waters of the Kistna and Kaveri are used for
irrigation purposes; betel-nut, coffee, cotton, rice, and silk are
exported; cloth, wheat, and precious metals are imported; the climate is
healthy and pleasant; under British government from 1831, it was restored
to its prince in 1881, under British protection; the capital is
MYSORE (74), a prosperous, well-built town.

MYSTAGOGUE, in Greece, was the priest who instructed candidates and
prepared them for initiation into the various religious mysteries; in the
Christian Church it denoted the catechist who prepared catechumens
previous to their admission to the sacraments.

MYSTERIES, sacred rites and ceremonies of stated observance among
the Greeks and Romans in connection with the worship of particular
divinities, to which only the initiated were admitted, and in which, by
associating together, they quickened and confirmed each other in their
faith and hope, and in which it would seem they made solemn avowal of
these; the name is also applied to the MIRACLE PLAYS (q. v.) of
the Middle Ages.

MYSTICISM, a state of mind and feeling induced by direct communion
with the unseen, and by indulging in