Word To Use Today: manes.

 You might see manes (MAYNZ) in a herd:

photo by Fitindia

or a pride:

photo by Clément Bardot

but on the other hand if you say the word MARnis or MARnayz then you'll only see them somewhere haunted, because they are the ghosts of dead people (who were sometimes, in Roman times, minor gods).

But on the other hand (if you have three hands) and you say the word MARNeez then you're talking about the Persian prophet usually called Mani who founded Manichaeism.

Sometimes I wonder if writing as a system is all it's cracked up to be.

Word To Use Today: manes. The animal hair word was manu in Old English. The ghost-word comes from Latin and probably means the good ones, from mānus, good.