MOABITE STONE 



5460 



MOBILISATION 



and Judah, and were conquered by 

 David. Solomon took Moabite 

 wives, and introduced the worship 

 of their national god Chemosh (q.v. ) 

 into Jerusalem. The Moabites re- 

 covered their independence, and 

 Mesha, who set up the Moabite 

 stone, won victories over Israel. 

 Moab disappeared after the Baby- 

 lonian conquest. See Palestine. 



Moabite Stone. Black basalt 

 slab from Dibon, Moab. Dis- 

 covered by Klein, 1868, interna- 



Moabite Stone. Ancient record of 



Moab's battles with Israel, dating 



from r . 850 B.C. 



tional competition led to its being 

 shattered by its Beduin custodians. 

 It was recovered for the Louvre, 

 Paris, and its reconstruction was 

 aided by paper squeezes secured 

 by Clermont-Ganneau, covering 34 

 lines of primitive Hebrew script 

 in the Moabite dialect of about 

 850 B.C. This inscription narrates 

 Israel's conflict with Mesha. 



Moat. Large trench round a 

 fortified place for defensive pur- 

 poses. The term is derived from the 

 French motte, meaning an embank- 

 ment and, in Norman-French, the 

 ditch formed by the excavation 

 necessary for providing the soil for 

 such an embankment. Medieval 

 castles were frequently provided 

 with two moats, in many cases 

 filled with water, an inner one en- 

 circling the keep and an outer the 

 precincts. By means of a moat 

 the height of a battlement was 

 very considerably increased. See 

 Bodiam Castle; Castle; Keep. 



Moat Farm Murder. Murder 

 of a Miss Camille Holland by a man 

 named Dougal at the Moat Farm, 

 Clavering, Essex, May 19, 1899. 

 Miss Holland, who had a consider- 

 able fortune when she fell in with 

 Dougal, was persuaded to reside at 

 the Moat Farm, which she pur- 

 chased. On May 19, 1899, she dis- 

 appeared. On Aug. 1, 1900, Dougal 

 produced a document apparently 



signed by Miss Holland, transfer- 

 ring the Moat Farm to himself. 

 On March 18, 1903, he was arrested 

 and charged with forgery. Finally 

 Miss Holland's body, with a bullet 

 in the skull, was dug up hi one of 

 the outlying fields. Dougal was 

 tried, found guilty, and executed. 



Moawiya. Caliph of Damascus 

 661-680, and founder of the Om- 

 miad dynasty. Governor of Syria, 

 he revolted against the caliph Ali, 

 and after the murder of the latter 

 was proclaimed his successor. The 

 dynasty lasted until 750. See Caliph. 



Moberly. City of Missouri, 



undertaken, and the port is visited 

 by steamers from Europe, New 

 York, Cuba, and South America. 

 The original city was founded in 

 1702 by the French, the present 

 city, farther S., being built nine 

 years later. It was the capital of 

 the French colony of Louisiana ; 

 was British, 1763-80, and Spanish, 

 1780-1813. It received a city 

 charter in 1819, and was rechar- 

 tered in 1887. Pop. 60,000. 



Mobilisation (Lat. mob His, 

 movable). Process of raising a 

 fleet or army to war strength, pro- 

 viding it with transport, and ren- 



U.S.A., in Randolph co. It is 130 dering it able to move and operate, 

 m. E.N.E. of Kansas City and is In the Great War it was carried out 



by 



served by the Wabash and the Mis- 

 souri, Kansas, and Texas rlys. Situ- 

 ated in a coal and fireclay district, 

 it trades in agricultural produce 

 and manufactures foundry and 

 machine-shop products, etc. The 

 Wabash Rly. has large works here. 

 Founded in 1866, it was incorpor- 

 ated in 1868 and became a city in 

 1873. Pop. 12,800. 



Mobile. Bay and rivet^ of Ala- 

 bama, U.S.A. The bay is formed 

 by the Alabama and Tombigbee, 

 which, after receiving the drain age of 

 most of the state of Alabama, unite 

 to flow S. to the Gulf of Mexico 

 through an extensive delta of gum 

 and cypress swamps. The Mobile is 

 the W. and the Tensaw the E. of 

 the five main distributaries which 

 reach Mobile Bay, itself a part of 

 the delta. Mobile river is 38 m. 

 long ; the bay is 27 m. long and 8 m. 

 wide and less than 70 ft. deep. 

 Mobile city is at the mouth of the 

 river in the N.W. of the bay. 



Mobile. City and seaport of 

 Alabama, U.S.A!, the co. seat of 

 Mobile co. It is 135 m. E.N.E. of 

 New Orleans, and 

 is served by the 

 Louisville and 

 N a s h vi 1 1 e and 

 other rlys. Its 

 prominent build- 

 ings include the 

 city hall, the 

 Battle House, the 

 city and the U.S. 

 marine hospitals, 

 etc. The seat of a 

 bishop, it has a 

 fine Gothic cathe- 

 dral and several 

 important educational institutions. 

 Cotton, timber, resin, flour, cereals, 

 coal, cotton-seed oil, and provisions 

 are exported, and coffee, tropical 

 fruits, asphalt, sisal grass, and 

 potash imported. 



Industries include saw-milling, 

 shipbuilding, and the manufacture 

 of cotton, veneers, and machine- 

 shop products. There are im- 

 portant fisheries. Large harbour 

 and dock improvements have been 



issuing a mobilisation pro- 

 clamation : Austria and Russia, 

 July 31, 1914; France and Ger- 

 many, Aug. 1 ; United Kingdom, 

 navy, Aug. 3 ; army, Aug. 4. The 

 proclamation usually ordered that 

 the day following that on which it 

 was posted up was to be " the first 

 day of mobilisation." 



On that day, in the case of the 

 armies, began the incorporation 

 and equipment of reservists, re- 

 quisitioning of horses, wagons, and 

 motor transport. Every reservist 

 had orders where to present him- 

 self, usually at the headquarters of 

 the unit to which he belonged. The 

 process of expanding the peace 

 force to war strength occupied, in 

 France and Germany, three days. 

 Each army corps mobilised in its 

 own territory, and then (if not sta- 

 tioned near the frontier) was moved 

 by rly. to the previously deter- 

 mined point of concentration, each 

 corps having a rly. line to itself. 

 The time taken for embarking a 

 corps in trains was about two days, 

 and the further time taken in mov- 



Mobile, Alabama. Dauphin Street, the principal 

 ness thoroughfare of the city 



ing the most distant corps to the 

 front by rail in France and Ger- 

 many, 2J days, so that on the night 

 of the 8th day from mobilisation 

 the armies were able to begin de- 

 ployment and operations. In the 

 case of France, 4,064 trains were 

 required to concentrate the troops 

 and material, the maximum num- 

 ber on any one day being 395 trains 

 on Aug. 10, 1914. 



By about Aug. 12 the French 



