MANYCH

manych, a river and depression in s. russia, stretching between the lower river don and the caspian sea, through the don cossacks territory and between the government of astrakhan on the n. and that of stavropol on the s. during the greater part of the year it is either dry or occupied in part by a string of saline lakes (_limans_ or _ilmens_); but in spring when the streams swell which empty into it, the water flows in two opposite directions from the highest point (near shara-khulusun). the western stream flows westwards, with an inclination northwards, until it reaches the don, though when the latter river is running high, its water penetrates some 60 miles up the manych. the eastern stream dies away in the sandy steppe about 25 miles from the caspian, though it is said sometimes to reach the kuma through the huiduk, a tributary of the kuma. total length of the depression, 330 m. for its significance as a former (geologic) connexion between the sea of azov and the caspian sea, see caspian sea. by some authorities the manych depression is taken as part of the boundary between europe and asia. manyema (_una-ma-nyema_, eaters of flesh), a powerful and warlike bantu-negroid people in the south-east of the congo basin. physically they are of a light colour, with well formed noses and not over-full lips, the women being described as singularly pretty and graceful. manyemaland was for the greater part of the 19th century an eldorado of the arab slave raiders.