Chapter MOOCHY to MOONGA of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

and the metallic lustre of the humming-birds on the scale of the turkey. “This splendid pheasant is found throughout the whole extent of the Himalayas, from the hills bordering Afghanistan as far east as Sikkim, and probably also to Bootan” (Jerdon). “In the autumnal and winter months numbers are generally collected in the same quarter of the forest, though often so widely scattered that each bird appears to be alone” (Ibid.). Can this last circumstance point to the etymology of the name as connected with Skt. muni, ‘an eremite’?

It was pointed out in a note on Marco Polo (1st ed. i. 246, 2nd ed. i. 272), that the extract which is given below from Aelian undoubtedly refers to the Munal. We have recently found that this indication had been anticipated by G. Cuvier, in a note on Pliny (tom. vii. p. 409 of ed. Ajasson de Grandsagne, Paris, 1830). It appears from Jerdon that Monaul is popularly applied by Europeans at Darjeeling to the Sikkim horned pheasant Ceriornis satyra, otherwise sometimes called ‘Argus Pheasant’ (q.v.).

c. a.d. 350.—“Cocks too are produced there of a kind bigger than any others. These have a crest, but instead of being red like the crest of our cocks, this is variegated like a coronet of flowers. The tail- feathers moreover are not arched, or bent into a curve (like a cock’s), but flattened out. And this tail they trail after them as a peacock does, unless when they erect it, and set it up. And the plumage of these Indian cocks is golden, and dark blue, and of the hue of the emerald.”—De Nat. Animal. xvi. 2.

MOON BLINDNESS. This affection of the eyes is commonly believed to be produced by sleeping exposed to the full light of the moon. There is great difference of opinion as to the facts, some quoting experience as incontrovertible, others regarding the thing merely as a vulgar prejudice, without substantial foundation. Some remarks will be found in Collingwood’s Rambles of a Naturalist, pp. 308–10. The present writer has in the East twice suffered from a peculiar affection of the eyes and face, after being in sleep exposed to a bright moon, but he would hardly have used the term moon-blindness.

MOONG, MOONGO, s. Or. ‘green-gram’; Hind. mung, [Skt. mudga]. A kind of vetch (Phaseolus Mungo, L.) in very common use over India; according to Garcia the mesce (mash?) of Avicenna. Garcia also says that it was popularly recommended as a diet for fever in the Deccan; [and is still recommended for this purpose by native physicians (Watt, Econ. Dict. vi. pt. i. 191)].

c. 1336.—“The munj again is a kind of mash, but its grains are oblong and the colour is light green. Munj is cooked along with rice, and eaten with butter. This is what they call Kichri (see KEDGEREE), and it is the diet on which one breakfasts daily.”—Ibn Batuta, iii. 131.

1557.—“The people were obliged to bring hay, and corn, and mungo, which is a certain species of seed that they feed horses with.”—Albuquerque, Hak. Soc. ii. 132.

1563.—

“Servant-maid.—That girl that you brought from the Deccan asks me for mungo, and says that in her country they give it them to eat, husked and boiled. Shall I give it her?

“Orta.—Give it her since she wishes it; but bread and a boiled chicken would be better. For she comes from a country where they eat bread, and not rice.”—Garcia, f. 145.

[1611.—“… for 25 maunds Moong, 28m. 09 p.”—Danvers, Letters, i. 141.]

MOONGA, MOOGA, s. Beng. muga. A kind of wild silk, the produce of Antheraea assama, collected and manufactured in Assam. [“Its Assamese name is said to be derived from the amber munga, ‘coral’ colour of the silk, and is frequently used to denote silk in general” (B. C. Allen, Mono. on the Silk Cloths of Assam, 1899, p. 10).] The quotations in elucidation of this word may claim some peculiar interest. That from Purchas is a modern illustration of the legends which reached the Roman Empire in classic times, of the growth of silk in the Seric jungles (“velleraque ut foliis depectunt tenuia Seres”); whilst that from Robert Lindsay may possibly throw light on the statements in the Periplus regarding an overland importation of silk from Thin into Gangetic India.

1626.—“… Moga which is made of the bark of a certaine tree.”—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 1005.

c. 1676.—“The kingdom of Asem is one of the best countries of all Asia. … There is a sort of Silk that is found under the trees, which is spun by a Creature like our Silk-worms, but rounder, and which lives all the year long under the trees. The Silks which are made of this Silk glist’n very much, but they fret presently.”—Tavernier, E.T. ii. 187–8; [ed. Ball, ii. 281].

1680.—“The Floretta yarn or Muckta examined and priced.