Chapter Motley to Moussa of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Motley to Moussa

Motley Men of motley. Licensed fools; so called because of their dress.

“Motley is the only wear.”
Shakespeare: As You Like It, ii. 7.

Motu Proprio A law brought in by Consalvi, to abolish monopolies in the Papal States (1757).

Mouch (To). To live as a vagrant.

Mouchard (French). A spy, “qui fait comme les mouches, qui voient si bien sans en avoir l'air. ” At the close of the seventeenth century, those petits-maitres who frequented the Tuileries to see and be seen were called mouchards (fly-men). (Dictionnaire Etymologique de Menage.)

Moulds In the moulds. In the grave.

“After Sir John and her [the minister's wife] were ... baith in the moulds.”- Sir W. Scott: Redgauntlet (Letter xi.).

Mound The largest artificial mound in Europe is Silbury Hill, near Avebury (Wiltshire). It covers 5 acres, 34 perches, and measures at the base 2,027 feet; its diameter at top is 120 feet; its slope is 316 feet; perpendicular height, 107 feet; and it is altogether one of the most stupendous monuments of human labour in the world.
   Alyattes, in Asia Minor, described by Herodotus, is somewhat larger than Silbury Hill.

Mount Zion The Celestial City or Heaven. (Bunyan: Pilgrim's Progress.)

“I am come from the City of Destruction, and am going to Mount Zion.” (Part i.)

Mountain (The) or Montagnards. The extreme democratical party in the first French Revolution; so called because they seated themselves on the highest benches of the hall in which the National Convention met. Their leaders were Danton and Robespierre, but under them were Marat, Couthon, Thuriot, St. André, Legendre, Camille-Desmoulins, Carnot, St. Just, and Collot d'Herbois, the men who introduced the “Reign of Terror.” Extreme Radicals are still called in France the “Mountain Party,” or Montagnards.
   Old Man of the Mountain. Imaum Hassan ben Sabbah el Homairi. The Sheik Al Jebal was so called, because his residence was in the mountain fastnesses of Syria. He was the prince of a Mahometan sect called Assassins (q.v.), and founder of a dynasty in Syria, put an end to by the Moguls in the twelfth century. In Rymer's Fœdera (vol. i,) two letters of this sheik are inserted. It is not the province of this Book of Fables to dispute their genuineness.
   If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the mountain. If what I seek will not come to me without my stir, I must exert myself to obtain it; if we cannot do as we wish, we must do as we can. When Mahomet first announced his system, the Arabs demanded supernatural proofs of his commission. “Moses and Jesus,” said they, “wrought miracles in testimony of their divine authority; and if thou art indeed the prophet of God, do so likewise.” To this Mahomet replied, “It would be tempting God to do so, and bring down His anger, as in the case of Pharaoh.” Not satisfied with this answer, he commanded Mount Safa to come to him, and when it stirred not at his bidding, exclaimed, “God is merciful. Had it obeyed my words, it would have fallen on us to our destruction. I will therefore go to the mountain, and thank God that He has had mercy on a stiffnecked generation.”
   The mountain in labour. A mighty effort made for a small effect. The allusion is to the celebrated line of Horace, “Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus, ” which Creech translates, “The travailing mountain yields a silly mouse;” and Boileau, “La montagne en travail enfante une souris. ”

Mountain Ash (The), or “Rowantree,” botanically called Pyrus aucuparia, which does not belong to the same family of plants as the fraxinus, or Common Ash. The Mountain Ash is icosandria, but the Common Ash is diandria. The Mountain Ash is pentagunia, but the Common Ash is monogynia. The Mountain Ash is of the Natural Order rosaceæ, but the common Ash is of the Natural Order sepiariae; yet the two trees resemble each other in many respects. The Rowan or Rown-tree is called in Westmoreland