MORWENSTOW 



MOSCHELES 



323 



Morwenstow, or MOORWINSTOW, a parish in 

 the extreme north of the Cornish coast, 7 miles N. 

 of Bude ; pop. 810. Its church, dedicated to St 

 Morwenna, is mainly of Norman date ; R. S. 

 Hawker (q.v.) was its vicar. 



Mosaics. Mosaic work (Lat. opus musivum) 

 consists of small pieces of diversely coloured 

 marble, glass, or other substances set together 

 so as to produce a geometrical or artistic design. 

 Mosaics are principally used for ornamental floors 

 and pavements, and for the permanent artistic 

 decoration of the walls of churches and other 

 public buildings. The art is of ancient origin ; 

 by the Ijook of Esther we may infer that it 

 was practised in the days of Ahasuerus ; but 

 among the Romans it was very common, for 

 scarcely have the remains of any ancient Roman 

 villa been discovered without finding in it a 

 mosaic pavement. These ancient pavements being 

 composed of small tessera? or dice of coloured 

 marble, and rarely also of glass, are known as 

 tesselated mosaics. The pieces used consist of 

 irregular cubes varying from a quarter to half 

 an inch in size, and they are carefully bedded 

 in a cement surface set over a prepared concrete 

 foundation. The designs, pictorial or otherwise, 

 are produced by selecting and setting togetlrer, 

 in proper position and relation, tesserae of the 

 required colour and size. The most famous tes- 

 related mosaic of ancient Rome now existing is 

 that obtained from Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, pre- 

 served in the Capitoline Museum at Rome, and 

 known as ' Pliny s pigeons' from the subject it 

 depicts. Under the By/antine empire mosaic 

 became a distinctively Christian art, employed for 

 decorating the walls of churches with figures of 

 the Saviour, apostles, saints, &c., and the remains 

 of such Byzantine art form a link of great import- 

 ance between classical anil mediaeval periods. The 

 art was revived in Italy alxmt the beginning of the 

 13th century, when it was employed with great 

 effect for the decoration of churches ; and since 

 that time it has remained, with many fluctuations, 

 a distinctively Italian pursuit. Modern mosaics 

 are also made in Russia, forming a department of 

 the imperial glass manufactory at St Petersburg ; 

 and in Paris some excellent work has l>een done. 

 The cubes of oiiaqne glass for mosaic pictures, 

 technically called smalts (Ital. smtillo), are of all 

 possible varieties of colour, as many as 25,000 

 shades being prepared. With these the finest 

 gradation* in tune may le produced, and copies 

 of any painting m.-iy lx; niailc, but mosaics of real 

 artistic significance are simple in composition, and 

 broad ami snlcr in treatment. Italian mosaics are 

 of two distinct classes Florentine and Roman, the 

 former being composed of pieces of stones or shells 

 of natural colours shaped and inlaid in marble 

 slabs according to the design to be produced ; but 

 it is limited in its application chiefly to floral 

 scrolls and Aral>esqiie designs. This variety of 

 mosaic is extensively produced in India, having 

 been there introduced by the Frenchman Au-tin 

 de Bordeaux in the decoration of tUe famous Taj 

 Mahal at Agra, whence it is distinguished as Agra 

 work. Roman mosaic is made up of the small 

 cubes above mentioned, and, while the larger wall 

 decorations are composed of pieces which may be 

 half an inch in size and upwards, small mo.-.-iirs 

 are composed of almost microscopical squares, these 

 being used by jewellers for the ornamentation of 

 brooches, small lioxes, and miscellaneous bijous. 

 Mosaic pavements are extensively made of small 

 cubes or tessera? of coloured marbles, and baked 

 clay or terra-cotta similar to the ancient Roman 

 tesselated pavements. 



See Thomas Morgan, Romano-Brituh Motaic Pave- 

 mentt (1&SG); Parker's Church Decoration! and Motaic 



Pictures ( Archaol. of Rome, vol. xi. 1876) ; and Gerspach, 

 La Mosaique (1SSS). 



illosasaiirus. a huge fossil reptile, belonging 

 to the remarkable group of Pythonomorphs or 

 ' sea-serpents,' which suggest both lizards and 

 snakes. The remains of three species have been 

 disinterred from Cretaceous strata. They were 

 aquatic animals, furnished with paddles, and are 

 estimated to have attained a length of as much as 

 75 feet ( see REPTILES ). 



Mosaylima, or MOSEILEMA ('Little Moslem"), 

 one of the most important rivals of Mohammed, 

 belonged to the clan Dfil, a division of the tribe of 

 the Beni Hanifah, of Yamama in Nejd. The 

 traditions about his life and a"e are extremely 

 contradictory and legendary. It appears, how- 

 ever, tolerably certain that he had risen to some 

 eminence in his tribe, probably as a religious 

 teacher only at first, before Mohammed assumed 

 his prophetical office. It was in the ninth year 

 of the Hegira that Mosaylima, at the head of 

 an embassv sent by his tribe, appeared before 

 Mohammed", in order to settle certain points of dis- 

 pute. Shortly after this event Mosaylima openly 

 professed himself to be a prophet as well as 

 Mohammed. The latter sent a messenger to him, 

 as soon as he heard of this, to request him to 

 reiterate publicly his profession of Islam. Mosav- 

 lima's answer was a request that Mohammed should 

 share his power with him. ' From Mosaylima, the 

 Apostle of God,' he is said to have written, 'to 

 Mohammed, the Apostle of God. Now let the 

 earth 1 half mine, and half thine.' Mohammed 

 replied: 'From Mohammed, the Apostle of God, 

 to Mosaylima, the liar. The earth is God's : He 

 giveth the same for inheritance unto such of his 

 servants as He pleases, and the happy issue shall 

 attend those who fear Him.' Yet notwithstanding 

 these testimonies, of probably late dates, it seems, 

 on the other hand, perfectly certain that Mohammed 

 made very great concessions to his rival conces- 

 sions that point to his having secretly nominated 

 Mosaylima his successor, and that he by this 

 means bought Mosaylima's open allegiance during 

 his lifetime. It was not a question of dogmas, 

 though they each had special revelations, but a 

 question of supremacy which was thus settled 

 amirably. 



After Mohammed's death, in the llth year of the 

 Hcgiia, it at last came to an open breach between 

 the two rival powers. Abu Bekr, the calif, sent 

 Khalid, 'the Sword of the Faith," with a number 

 of choice troops, to compel Mosaylima to sub- 

 mi-<sion. Mosaylima awaited the enemy at 

 Rowdah, a village in the AVadi Hanifah. So 

 formidable indeed was Mosaylima's force that 

 Khalid is said to have hesitated for a whole day 

 and night. On the second morning, however, he 

 advanced, and, in a battle which lasted until the 

 evening, contrived, with fearful losses of his own, 

 to -;ain the victory, in which Mosaylima fell, 

 and nis heresy was practically stamped out. It is 

 extremely difficult to come to any clear notion of 

 Mosaylima's real doctrines, as all the accounts 

 that nave survived of them come from victorious 

 adversaries. See Sir W. Muir, Annals of the 

 Early Caliphate ( 1883). 



Mos<'ll'clcs, IONAZ, pianist and musical com- 

 poser, born at Prague, 30th May 1794, of Jewish 

 parents, was between 1808 and 1816 the favourite 

 musician and music-master of Vienna. Settling 

 in London in 1825, he taught at the Academy of 

 Music and directed at the Philharmonic Concerts. 

 From 1844 he laboured at the conservatory in Leip- 

 zig until his death, 10th March 1870. A brilliant 

 performer on the piano and an able composer, 

 Moscheles ranks high amongst modern writers 

 for the pianoforte. He also edited, in English, 



