Chapter Mind your Own Business to Miramolin of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Minnehaha [Laughing-water]. The lovely daughter of the old arrow-maker of the Dacotahs, and wife of Hiawath'a. She died of famine. Two guests came uninvited into Hiawatha's wigwam, and the foremost said, “Behold me! I am Famine;” and the other said, “Behold me! I am Fever;” and Minnehaha shuddered to look on them, and hid her face, and lay trembling, freezing, burning, at the looks they cast upon her. “Ah!” cried Laughing-water, “the eyes of Pauguk [death] glare upon me, I can feel his icy fingers clasping mine amidst the darkness,” and she died crying, “Hiawatha! Hiawatha!” (Longfellow: Hiawatha.)

Minnesingers Minstrels. The earliest lyric poets of Germany were so called, because the subject of their lyrics was minne-sang (love-ditty). These poets lived in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Minories (3 syl.) (London). The cloister of the Minims or, rather, Minoresses (nuns of St. Clare). The Minims were certain reformed Franciscans, founded by St. Francis de Paula in the fifteenth century. They went barefooted, and wore a coarse, black woollen stuff, fastened with a woollen girdle, which they never put off, day or night. The word is derived from the Latin minimus (the least), in allusion to the text, “I am less than the least of all saints”. (Eph. iii. 8).

Minos A king and lawgiver of Crete, made at death supreme judge of the lower world, before whom all the dead appeared to give an account of their stewardship, and to receive the reward of their deeds.

Minotaur [Minos-bull]. The body of a man and head of a bull. Theseus slew this monster.

Minotti Governor of Corinth, then under the power of the doge. In 1715 the city was stormed by the Turks, and during the siege one of the magazines in the Turkish camp blew up, killing 600 men. Byron says it was Minotti himself who fired the train, and leads us to infer that he was one of those who perished in the explosion. (Byron: Siege of Corinth.)

Minstrel simply means a servant or minister. Minstrels were kept in the service of kings and princes for the entertainment of guests. James Beattie has a poem in Spenserian verse, called The Minstrel, divided into two books.
   The last minstrel of the English stage. James Shirley, with whom the school of Shakespeare expired. (1594-1666.)

Mint So called from the nymph Minthe, daughter of Cocytus, and a favourite of Pluto. This nymph was metamorphosed by Pluto's wife (Proserpine) out of jealousy, into the herb called after her name. The fable is quite obvious, and simply means that mint is a capital medicine. Minthe was a favourite of Pluto, or death, that is, was sick and on the point of death; but was changed into the herb mint, or was cured thereby.

“Could Pluto's queen, with jealous fury storm
And Minthe to a fragrant herb transform?”
Ovid.

Minuit (2 syl.). “Enfants de la messe de minuit, ” pickpockets. Cotgrave gives “night-walking rakehells, such as haunt these nightly rites only to rob and play the knaves.”

Minute Make a minute of that. Take a note of it. A law term; a rough draft of a proceeding taken down in minute or small writing, to be afterwards engrossed, or written larger.

Minute Gun A signal of distress at sea, or a gun fired at the death of a distinguished individual; so called because a minute elapses between each discharge.

Miolnier (3 syl.) [the crusher]. The magic hammer of Thor. It would never fail to hit a Troll; would never miss to hit whatever it was thrown at; would always return to the owner of its own accord; and became so small when not in use that it could be put into Thor's pocket. (Scandinavian mythology.)

Mirabel A travelled, dissipated fellow, who is proof against all the wiles of the fair sex. (Beaumont and Fletcher: Wildgoose Chase.)