Part 24 (1/2)

=Moon-Calf=, an inanimate, shapeless human ma.s.s, said by Pliny to be engendered of woman only.--_Nat. Hist._, x. 64.

=Moon's Men=, thieves or highwaymen, who ply their vocation by night.

The fortune of us that are but moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea.--Shakespeare, 1 _Henry IV._ act i. sc. 2 (1597).

=Moons.h.i.+ne= (_Saunders_), a smuggler.--Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_ (time, William III.).

=Moore= (_Mr. John_), of the Pestle and Mortar, Abchurch Lane, immortalized by his ”worm-powder,” and called the ”Worm Doctor.”

=Moors.= The Moors of Aragon are called Tangarins; those of Granada are Mudajares; and those of Fez are called Elches. They are the best soldiers of the Spanish dominions. In the Middle Ages, all Mohammedans were called _Moors_; and hence Camoens, in the _Lusiad_, viii., called the Indians so.

=Mopes= (_Mr._), the hermit, who lived on Tom Tiddler's Ground. He was dirty, vain, and nasty, ”like all hermits,” but had landed property, and was said to be rich and learned. He dressed in a blanket and skewer, and, by steeping himself in soot and grease, soon acquired immense fame.

Rumor said he murdered his beautiful young wife, and abandoned the world. Be this as it may, he certainly lived a nasty life. Mr. Traveller tried to bring him back into society, but a tinker said to him ”Take my word for it, when iron is thoroughly rotten, you can never botch it, do what you may.”--C. d.i.c.kens, _A Christmas Number_ (1861).

=Mopsus=, a shepherd, who, with Menalcas, celebrates the funeral eulogy of Daphnis.--Virgil, _Eclogue_, v.

=Mora=, the betrothed of Oscar, who mysteriously disappears on his bridal eve, and is mourned for as dead. His younger brother, Allan, hoping to secure the lands and fortune of Mora, proposes marriage, and is accepted. At the wedding banquet, a stranger demands ”a pledge to the lost Oscar,” and all accept it except Allan, who is there and then denounced as the murderer of his brother. Oscar then vanishes, and Allan dies.--Byron, _Oscar of Alva_.

=Moradbak=, daughter of Fitead, a widower. Hudjadge, king of Persia, could not sleep, and commanded Fitead, his porter and jailer, under pain of death, to find some one to tell him tales. Fitead's daughter, who was only 11, undertook to amuse the king with tales, and was a.s.sisted in private by the sage Abou'melek. After a perfect success, Hudjadge married Moradbak, and at her recommendation, Aboumelek was appointed overseer of the whole empire.--Comte de Caylus, _Oriental Tales_ (1743).

=Morakan'abad=, grand vizier of the Caliph Vathek.--Beckford, _Vathek_ (1784).

=Moral Philosophy= (_The Father of_), Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274).

=Moran, Son of Fithil=, one of the scouts in the army of Swaran, king of Lochlin (_Denmark_).--Ossian, _Fingal_.

=Moran's Collar=, a collar for magistrates, which had the supernatural power of pressing the neck of the wearer if his judgments deviated from strict justice, and even of causing strangulation if he persevered in wrong doing. Moran, surnamed ”the Just,” was the wise counsellor of Feredach, an early king of Ireland.

=Morat=, in _Aurungzebe_, a drama by Dryden (1675).

Edward Kynaston [1619-1687] shone with uncommon l.u.s.tre in ”Morat”

and ”Muley Moloch.” In both these parts he had a fierce, lion-like majesty in his port and utterance, that gave the spectators a kind of trembling admiration.--Colley Cibber.

=Morbleu!= This French oath is a corrupt contraction of Mau'graby; thus, _maugre bleu_, _mau'bleu_. Maugraby was the great Arabian enchanter, and the word means ”barbarous,” hence a barbarous man or barbarian. The oath is common in Provence, Languedoc, and Gascoigne. I have often heard it used by the medical students at Paris.

Probably it is a punning corruption of _Mort de Dieu_.