MASURENLAND, East Prussia a lake lotted district around Lyck, Lfitzen, Sensburg, Ortelsburg, Neidenburg, Oletzka, Osterode, Rossel and Allanstein. It is marked by rolling hills, divided by hundreds of lakes, many of which are joined together by long narrow chan nels. Mauer and Spirding are the most im portant and largest of these bodies of water. A few years ago the imperial government en tered into negotiations with a company which proposed to drain the greater part of the Masu ren region and sell the reclaimed land to set tlers. Negotiations were proceeding apace when von Hindenburg heard of the project. For many years he had studied the region and was convinced that the lakes and surrounding marshes were the equivalent of several army corps in defending Germany against an in vasion by Russia. He opposed the drainage scheme, went to Berlin, interviewed the em peror and as a result the project was aban doned. The view of Hindenburg was vindi
cated in 1914-15 after the battle of Tannen berg, when the aged general partly encircled the Russians with the lakes in their rear. Whole regiments were lost in the qires, and great quantities of stores fell to Ger mans. See WAR, EUROPEAN — EASTERN FRONT.
MA'T, the Egyptian goddess of justice and truth. She was usually represented as wear ing an ostrich feather on her head, with eyes bandaged as a sign of her impartiality. Judges and kings were at all periods her pro fessed worshippers. The father of the god dess was Re, the sun god. Her Greek com peer was Themis. Consult Budge, A. E. T. W., 'The Gods of the Egyptians' (Vol. I, London 1904) and Wiedemann, Alfred, 'Religion of the Ancient Egyptians' (New York 1897).