(*maille*), a term primarily applied to the meshes or holes in net-work.

**Coat of Mail.** See Coat. It is called also a haubergeon. Anciently they also wore shirts of mail under the waistcoat, to serve as a defence against swords and poniards. We also read of gloves of mail.

**Mail**, or **Mall**, also signifies a round ring of iron; whence the play of pall-mall, from *palla* "a ball," and *maille* "the round ring through which it is to pass."

**Mail**, or **Maille**, in our old writers, a small kind of money. Silver halfpence were likewise termed *Mailles*, 9 Henry V. By indenture in the mint, a pound weight of old sterling silver was to be coined into 360 sterlings or pennies, or 720 mails or half-pennies, or 1440 farthings. Hence the word mail was derived, which is now vulgarly used in Scotland to signify an annual rent.

**Mail**, or **Mail**, on ship-board, a square machine composed of a number of rings interwoven net-wise, and used for rubbing off the loose hemp which remains on lines or white cordage after it is made.

Mail is likewise used for the leather bag wherein letters are carried by the post.

**Mail-Coach.** See Coach.

**Action of Mails and Duties, in Scots Law.** See Law, p. 689, § 20.

**Mail, Black.** See Black-Mail.

**Maillet, Joseph-Anne-Marie de Moyriac de,** a learned Jesuit, was born in the castle of Mailiac in the Bugey, and appointed a missionary to China, whither he went in 1703. At the age of 28 he had acquired to great a skill in the characters, arts, sciences, mythology, and ancient books of the Chinese, as to astonish even the learned. He was greatly beloved and esteemed by the emperor Kham-Hi, who died in 1722. He, together with other missionaries, was employed by that prince to draw a chart of China and Chinese Tartary, which was engraved in France in the year 1732. He drew likewise particular charts of some of the provinces of this vast empire; with which the emperor was so pleased, that he settled the author at his court. The great annals of China were also translated into French by Father Maillet, and his manuscript was transmitted to France in 1737. This work was published in 12 volumes quarto, under the inspection of M. Grofier, and is the first complete history of that extensive empire. The style, which was full of hyperbole and bombast, has been revised by the editor, and the speeches which extended to too great a length, and had too much sameness in them, have been omitted. Father Maillet, after having resided 45 years in China, died at Pekin on the 28th of June 1748, in the 79th year of his age. Kien-Lung the reigning emperor paid the expenses of his funeral. He was a man of a lively and gentle character, capable of the most persevering labour and the most unremitting activity.

**Maillet, Benoît de,** descended from a noble family in Lorraine, was born in 1659, and appointed, at the age of 33, consul general for Egypt. He fulfilled this office for 16 years with great ability, supported the king's authority against the janizaries, and greatly extended the trade of France into that part of Africa. As a recompense for his services, the king bestowed upon him the consulship of Leghorn, which is the first and most considerable consulship in his gift. Being at last appointed in 1715 to visit the sea-ports Maillet, sea-ports in the Levant and on the coast of Barbary, he was so successful in the execution of his commission, that he obtained permission to retire with a considerable pension. He settled at Marseille; where he died in 1738, in the 79th year of his age. He was a man of a lively imagination, and gentle manners; in society he was very amiable, and he possessed the strictest probity. He was fond of praise, and very anxious about the reputation of genius. During the whole of his life he paid particular attention to the study of natural history; and his principal object was to become acquainted with the origin of our globe. On this important subject he left some curious observations, which have been published in octavo under the title of Telliamed, which is the name de Maillet written backwards. The editor Abbé Malcrier has given to this work the form of dialogue. An Indian philosopher is introduced as explaining to a French missionary his opinion concerning the nature of the globe, and the origin of mankind; and, which is very incredible, he supposes it to have come out of the waters, and makes an abode uninhabitable by man the birthplace of the human race. His great object is to prove, that all the strata of which this globe is composed, even to the tops of the highest mountains, have come from the bottom of the waters; that they are the work of the sea, which continually retires to allow them gradually to appear. Telliamed dedicated his book to the illustrious Cyrano de Bergerac, author of the imaginary "Travels to the sun and moon." In the humorous epistle which is addressed to him, the Indian philosopher informs us that these dialogues are nothing but a collection of dreams and fancies. He cannot be accused of having broken his word; but he may well be reproached with not having written them in the same style with his letter to Cyrano, and with not having displayed equal liveliness and humour. A subject the most extravagant is handled in the gravest manner, and his ridiculous opinion is delivered with all the serious air of a philosopher. Of the six dialogues which compose the work, the four first contain many curious observations truly philosophical and important; in the other two we find nothing but conjectures, fancies, and fables, sometimes amusing, but always absurd. To Maillet we are indebted also for "A Description of Egypt;" collected from his memoirs by the editor of Telliamed, 1743, 4to, or in 2 vols. 12mo.