solute, is able to bring into the field a hundred thousand fighting men.... Walker.

MOSS, a vegetable that grows on the bark of trees. In northern Europe the moss vegetates beneath the snow, where the degree of heat is always about forty; that is, in the middle, between the freezing point and the common heat of the earth; and is, for many months of the winter, the sole food of the rein-deers, which dig furrows in the snow to find it. And as the milk and flesh of this animal is almost the only sustenance which can be procured during the long winters of the higher latitudes, so this moss may be said to support some millions of mankind. Moss is very hurtful to fruit trees. The mosses which grow on the bark of trees take much nourishment from them; hence it is observed, that trees which are annually cleared from moss with a brush, grow nearly twice as fast. In the cider countries (in England) they brush their apple-trees annually. This vegetable loves the shade: it is observed that moss is thickest on the north side of trees. this mark the savages of America know their course in cloudy weather, and many of our hunters have learned of them to travel without a compass....Darwin, Winterbotham.

By

MUFTI, the High Priest of the Mahometan religion. The Mufti is sovereign pontiff, expounder of the law of Mahomed, and supreme director of all religious concerns. He is regarded as the oracle of sanctity and wisdom; and having an extensive authority, both over the actions and consciences of men, his office is one of the most dignified and lucrative in the Turkish empire. ....Hunter. About two centuries ago there was a great shaking among the Mahomedans: for Mahomed, having promised to come and visit his followers, and to translate them to paradise after a thousand years, this term of time being expired, many of them, particularly the Persians, began to doubt and to suspect the cheat; till the Mufti told them that it was a mistake in the figure, and assured them, that upon a more diligent survey of the records, he had found it to be two thousand instead of one.

MULBERRY TREE...MULLET...MUMBO JUMBO. 255

MULBERRY TREE, a tree of vast importance to mankind; as its leaves are food for the silkworm, which gives employment and furnishes clothing to millions. of people. The white mulberry may be raised from the seed or by layers, which are small shoots of trees, or limbs bent down and buried in the ground; in which method they make mulberry hedges of long duration and great use for fences. The growth of this tree is so rapid, that in seven years it will grow from the seed to a trunk of six inches diameter, and bears plenty of fruit, which is rich and nourishing food for hogs, fowls, &c. The timber is very firm, as durable as red cedar, and suitable for ship timber and fence-posts: the tree is favorable to the growth of vegetables under it, and forms a most delightful shade. Miss Rhodes, who made some ingenious experiments on the culture of silk, has taken notice that no animal seems to prey upon the mulberry leaf, except the silkworm alone; nor did she find (after trying several sorts) any other vegetable that was wholesome to the silkworm, except lettuce; on which the worm could be kept in perfect health four out of five weeks, that is, feeding on mulberry leaves a fifth part, the residue of the time on lettuce....American Museum, Academy of Arts.

MULLET, a fish of a delicious flavor, and which, unlike all other fishes, is charmed by noise. The negroes of Africa avail themselves of this instinct as the means of catching them. They tie to a piece of wood surrounded with hooks, a sort of cornet with its clapper thus furnished, it is thrown into the sea; and the motion of the waves tossing about the cornet, produces a certain noise which attracts the fish, so that, in attempting to lay hold of the piece of wood, they are caught with the hooks....St. Pierre.

MUMBO JUMBO, a strange minister of justice in the Mandingo towns, in the interior of Africa. Here it is common for a man to have several wives; among whom, of course, there are frequent and bitter contentions; and when this happens a person disguised in a masquerade-habit, announces his coming by loud and dismal screams in the woods near the town. He begins

256

MUMMY....MUREX.

his yell at the approach of night; and as soon as it is dark he enters the town, and proceeds to the Bentang, or place of public resort; at which all the inhabitants immediately assemble. The wives, however loth, dare not refuse to appear when they are summoned; and the ceremony begins with songs and dances, which continue till midnight; about which time Mumbo fixes upon the offender. This victim being thereupon immediately seized, is stripped and tied to a post, and severely Scourged with Mumbo's rod, amidst the shouts and derision of the whole assembly; the women on these occasions being the loudest in their exclamations against their unfortunate sister....Park.

MUMMY, an Egyptian embalmed corpse. Of all nations, the ancient Egyptians carried the art of embalming to the highest perfection. As it was a principle of their religion to suppose the soul continued only coeval to the duration of the body, so they tried every art to extend the life of the one, by preventing the dissolution of the other. In this practice they were exercised from the earliest ages; and the mummies they embalmed, continue in great numbers to the present day.

In the early part of the eighteenth century, mummies were purchased from Egypt by the Europeans for medicinal uses. At that time a thousand imaginary virtues were ascribed to mummy, for the cure of most disorders; and no physician thought he had properly treated his patient without adding this to his prescription. Several Jews, both of France and Italy, taking advantage of this fashionable folly, found out the art of embalming mummy so exactly, that they, for a long time, deceived all Europe. This they did by drying dead bodies in ovens, after having prepared them with myrrh, aloes, and bitumen. Thus, for a time, the poor patients had to swallow not only parts of the Egyptian corpses, but also of those in their own neighborhood.At length it was found, that mummy did no good in medicine, but harm.

MUREX, or Purpura, a water animal of a wonderful nature and construction. It is said that this animal foresecs tempestuous weather, and, sinking to the bottom

MUSCADINE GRAPE..MUSK .NANTUCKET. 257

of the sea, adheres firmly to sea-plants, or other bodies, by means of a substance that resembles the horns of snails. Above twelve hundred of these fillets have been counted, by which this animal fixes itself; and when afloat, it contracts these little fillets between the basis of its points.... Dictionary of Arts. .

MUSCADINE GRAPE, a grape of unequalled excellence, produced from the famous Constantia Vine, of the Cape of Good Hope. This vine, strange as it may seem, succeeds perfectly only on a small spot of ground, situated at the bottom of a little hill; whereas the adjoining and surrounding vineyards cannot be made to produce the Muscadine Grape of any thing like the same quality....St. Pierre.

MUSK, an animal that is found in large herds, in the interior parts of North America, on the west side of Hudson's Bay. It is somewhat lower than a deer, but more bulky. It has short legs, humped shoulders, and red hair, very fine, and so long as to reach to the ground. Beneath the hair, the body is covered with exquisitely fine wool; and the stockings which are made of it are said to be even finer than silk. With the hairs from its tail the Esquimaux Indians make caps, which are so contrived, that this long hair, falling round their faces, defends them from the bite of the musquetoes. The horns are two feet long, and two feet round at the base; and some of them will weigh sixty pounds.... Winterbot

ham.

N.

NANTUCKET, an island belonging to the state of

Massachusetts; situated about eight leagues southward of Cape Cod, extending fifteen miles in length, and eleven in breadth. This island was patented in the year 1671, by twenty-seven proprietors, under the province of New-York, which then claimed all the islands from the Neway Sink to Cape Cod. They found it so uni

258

NAPTHA....NATURE's DIKES.

versally barren and unfit for cultivation, that they mutually agreed not to divide it; as each could neither live on or improve that lot which might fall to his share.— They then cast their eyes on the sea: they became fishermen; and their descendants have been and now are among the most enterprising and expert mariners in the world.... St. John.

NAPTHA, an oily inflammable substance that is found floating on waters, particularly in Persia. When the weather is thick and hazy, the Naptha-Springs (in Persia) boil up the higher, and the naptha often takes fire on the surface of the earth, and runs in a flame in great quantities to a distance almost incredible. In clear weather the springs do not boil up above two or three feet. In boiling over, this oily substance makes so strong a consistency as by degrees almost to close the mouth of the spring; sometimes it is quite closed, and forms hillocks which look as black as pitch. Naptha is used among the poorer sort of people in Persia, as we use oil in lamps; also for boiling their victuals; but it is unpleasant to the smell, and gives food that is boiled over it a disagreeable taste.... Gentleman's Magazine.

NATURE's DIKES. The Dikes of Holland, for preventing the inundation of the ocean, are justly considered as an astonishing effort of human industry; but they dwindle into nothing in comparison with the ramparts which, for the same purpose, have been raised on the sea coasts, in various parts of the world, by the hand of the Almighty Creator. These natural fortifications against the inroads of the sea, are chiefly found where they are most needed. Brazil, in particular, opposes to the winds which blow continually from the east, and to the current of the sea, a prodigious rampart of rocks, · more than three thousand miles long, twenty paces broad at the summit, and of an unknown thickness at the base. This enormous dike is composed of one solid mass lengthwise, as has been ascertained by repeated borings; and it would be impossible for a vessel to get into Brazil, were it not for the several inlets which nature has formed, expressly, as it would seem, for that pur pose....St. Pierre. See NORWAY.