Chapter Mosen to Motion of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

philosophers, and recommended to all ingenious young men and maids, teaching them how to get good wives and husbands. (1760.)

Mother Carey's Chickens Stormy petrels. Mother Carey is Mater Cara. The French call these birds oiseaux de Notre Dame or aves Sanctæ Mariæ. Chickens are the young of any fowl, or any small bird.

“They are called the `sailor's' friends, come to warn them of an approaching storm; and it is most unlucky to kill them. The legend is that each bird contains the soul of a dead seaman.”

   (See Captain Marryat: Poor Jack, where the superstition is fully related.)
   Mother Carey's Goose. The great Black Petrel or Fulmar of the Pacific Ocean.
   Mother Carey is plucking her goose. It is snowing. (See Hulda.)

Mother Country One's native country, but the term applies specially to England, in relation to America and the Colonies. The inhabitants of North America, Australia, etc., are for the most part descendants of English parents, and therefore England may be termed the mother country. The Germans call their native country Fatherland.

Mother Douglas A noted procuress, introduced in The Minor by Foote. She also figures in Hogarth's March to Finchley. Mother Douglas resided at the north-east corner of Covent Garden; her house was superbly furnished and decorated. She grew very fat, and with pious up-turned eyes used to pray for the safe return of her “babes” from battle. She died 1761.

Mother Earth When Junius Brutus (after the death of Lucretia) formed one of the deputation to Delphi to ask the Oracle which of the three would succeed Tarquin, the response was, “He who should first kiss his mother.” Junius instantly threw himself on the ground, exclaiming, “Thus, then, I kiss thee, Mother Earth,” and he was elected Consul.

Mother Goose A name associated with nursery rhymes. She was born in Boston, and her eldest daughter Elizabeth married Thomas Fleet, the printer. Mrs. Goose used to sing the rhymes to her grandson, and Thomas Fleet printed the first edition in 1719.

Mother Hubbard The old lady whose whole time seems to have been devoted to her dog, who always kept her on the trot, and always made game of her. Her temper was proof against this wilfulness on the part of her dog, and her politeness never forsook her, for when she saw Master Doggie dressed in his fine clothes-

“The dame made a curtsey, the dog made a bow,
The dame said, `Your servant,' the dog said, `Bow-wow.' ”

Mother Huddle's Oven Where folk are dried up so that they live for ever. (Howard Pyle: Robin Hood, 211.)

Mother Shipton lived in the reign of Henry VIII., and was famous for her prophecies, in which she foretold the death of Wolsey, Lord Percy, etc., and many wonderful events of future times. All her “prophecies” are still extant.

Mother-sick Hysterical.

Mother-wit Native wit, a ready reply; the wit which “our mother gave us.” In ancient authors the term is used to express a ready reply, courteous but not profound. Thus, when Louis XIV. expressed some anxiety lest Polignac should be inconvenienced by a shower of falling rain, the mother-wit of the cardinal replied, “It is nothing, I assure your Majesty; the rain of Marly never makes us wet.”

Mother of Believers Ay-e'-shah, the second and favourite wife of Mahomet; so called because Mahomet being the “Father of Believers,” his wife of wives was Mother of Believers.

Mother of Books Alexandria was so called from its library, which was the largest ever collected before the invention of printing.