Chapter Montfauçon to Moon of Bright Nights of M by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Mooma, you nger sister of Yeruti. Their father and mother were the only pers ons of the whole Guaruni race who escaped a small-pox plague which ravished that part of Paraguay. They le ft the fatal spot and lived in the Mondai woods, where both the ir children were born. Before the birth of Mooma, her father was eaten by a jaguar, and the three survivors lived in the woods alone. When grown to a youthful age, a Jesuit priest persuaded them to come and live at St. Joachin; so they left the wild woods for a city life. Here the mother soon flagged and died. Mooma lost her spirits, was haunted with thick-coming fancies of good and bad angels, and died. Yeruti begged to be baptized, received the rite, cried, “Ye are come for me! I am ready;” and died also.—Southey: A Tale of Paraguay (1814).

Moon (The) increases with horns towards the east, but wanes with horns towards the west.
The Moon. Dantê makes the moon the first planetary heaven, “the tardiest sphere of all the ten,” and assigned to those whose vows “were in some part neglected and made void” (canto iii.).

It seemed to me as if a cloud had covered us,
Translucent, solid, firm, and polished bright
Like adamant which the sun’s beam had smit,
Within itself the ever-during pearl [the moon]
Received us, as the wave a ray of light
Receives, and rests unbroken.
   —Dante: Paradise, ii. (1311).

Moon (Blue). “Once in a blue moon, “very occasionally; longo intervallo.

“Does he often come of an evening?” asks Jennie.
“Oh, just once in a blue moon, and then always with
a friend.”—Buxton: Jennie of the Prince’s, ii. 140.

Moon (Man in the). (See Man …)

Spots in the Moon. Dantê makes Beatrice say that these spots are not due to diversity of density or rarity, for, if so, in eclipses of the sun, the sun would be seen through the rare portions of the moon more or less distinctly. She says the spots are wholly due to the different essences of the “planet,” which reflect in different ways the effluence of the heaven, “which peace divine inhabits.”

From hence proceeds that which from light to light
Seems different, and not from dense to rare.

Dante: Paradise, ii. (1311).

Milton makes Raphael tell Adam that the spots on the moon are due to clouds and vapours “not yet into the moon’s substance turned,” that is, undigested aliment.

For know whatever was created, needs
To be sustained and fed. Of elements,
The grosser feeds the purer,—earth the sea—
Earth and the sea feed air—the air those fires
Ethereal—and as lowest, first the moon;
Whence, in her visage round, those spots—unpurged
Vapours not yet into her substance turned.

Milton: Paradise Lost, v. 415.; etc.; see also viii. 145, etc. (1665).

The Emperor of the Moon, Irdonozur.—Dominique Gonzales: L’Homme dans la Lune (1648).

Minions of the Moon, thieves or highwaymen. (See Moon’s Men.)

Moon and Mahomet. Mahomet made the moon perform seven circuits round Caaba or the holy shrine of Mecca, then enter the right sleeve of his mantle and go out at the left. At its exit, it split into two pieces, which reunited in the centre of the firmament. This miracle was performed for the conversion of Hahab the Wise.

Moon-Calf, an inanimate, shapeless human mass, said by Pliny to be engendered of woman only.—Nat. Hist., v. 64.

Moon Depository. Astolpho found the moon to be the great depository of misspent time, wasted wealth, broken vows, unanswered prayers, fruitless tears, abortive attempts, unfulfilled desires and intentions,