MCURNE 



',', / 1 



MOUSTERIAN 



Mourne. Mt. range of Ireland. 



In tin- S. of co. Down, it extends 

 !,,r It in. in i S.W. to N.E. direo- 

 lioti. S;n\. I >onard, tho culmina- 

 ting Mirnmit, attains 2,7'JU ft. 



Mourning. Outward expres- 

 rtorrow, particularly for the 

 dead. In the modem civilked 

 \vill it takes the form of wear- 

 ing black garments and using that 

 colour in other ways, e.g. on 

 \\ rit inn paper, or black horaes at 

 tin' funeral. White is also a 

 colour, while mauve is 

 tor half mourning. 



Mourning customs are usages 

 and rites attending the public 

 manifestation of sorrow for the 

 .I.M.I. In primitive society some 

 . .11 \ rational signs of mourning 

 denote a condition of taboo, or a 

 desire to placate the ghost, or to 

 avoid recognition, as in the case of 

 dMir\rlMH'tit. The most wide- 

 spread demonstration of grief 

 affects the raiment, which may be 

 white, as in imperial Rome, Japan, 

 and VV. Africa ; red, Gold Coast ; 

 blue, Turkey and Ancient Egypt ; 

 grey, Abyssinia; yellow, China; or 

 black, Europe. The coat may be 

 reversed, as with the Ainu. The 

 material may be hemp, as in 

 China ; haircloth, the sackcloth of 

 Gen. 37 ; network, as in Australia ; 

 or grass mantles, or white shell 

 necklets, as in Melanesia. 



The body may be smeared with 

 clay, mud, ashes, or black paint. 

 The hair may be allowed to grow, or 

 shorn and burned ; it may be buried 

 with the dead, or hung upon trees. 

 Laceration as practised anciently, in 

 Arabia and Scythia, and forbidden 

 by Moses (Lev. 29), still endures, 

 and special scarifiers may be used, 

 as in Polynesia. Finger-amputation 

 survives from palaeolithic Europe. 

 Omaha youths pierce the arms 

 with willow twigs, and chant a 

 dirge while a near relative extracts 

 them. Women may be forbidden 

 speech, and have to rely for one or 

 two years upon gesture-language. 

 Affection for and mystic union with 

 the deceased may be manifested by 

 wearing the skull, or other bones. 

 Wailing tends to develop a class of 

 professional mourners, as with the 

 Pueblo Indians, Semites and Irish 

 keenere. 



In the English-speaking world 

 and to some extent elsewhere, the 

 tendency of the 20th century is to 

 reduce very considerably the signs 

 and time of mourning. The heavy 

 crepe worn by widows in the 

 Victorian era has almost dis- 

 appeared, while the long periods 

 extending to two years, during 

 which black garments were worn, 

 have been reduced. The mourning 

 ring has gone too, but bereaved 

 families still use black-edged note- 



paper. On the death of a royal 

 personage a period of mourning 

 lor those attending court in pre- 

 scribed, and instructions are issued 

 about the clothes to be worn. 

 Set Africa ; Burial Customs ; 

 l-'uniTiil Kites. 



Mousa (Norse, moory isle) Un- 

 inhabited islet, about 1J m. long, 

 <>IT tho S.E. coast of Mainland, 

 She thmd. Upon a rocky promon- 

 tory facing the sound, 13 m. 8. of 

 Lerwick, stands a broch, the most 

 perfectly preserved of the so-called 

 Pictish towers of Scotland, and 

 now scheduled under the Ancient 

 Monuments Protection Acte. The 

 unroofed court, 30 ft. across, with 

 well and hearthstone, is surrounded 

 by two walls 15 ft. thick overall, 

 containing three beehive-roofed 

 chambers, above which six gal- 

 leries lit by slits in the inner wall 

 penetrate to the parapet, 45 ft. 

 high. The outward bulge of the 

 upper courses, giving to the tower 

 the aspect of a dice-box, rendered 

 this prehistoric stronghold un- 



Mouse Deer. Specimen ot tne Indian 

 chevrotain 



W.a. Berridge. f.Z.S. 



scalable. It was unsuccessfully 

 besieged by Harold, earl of Ork- 

 ney, in 1154. See Broch. 



Mouscron (Flemish, Moescro- 

 en ). Town of Belgium, in the prov. 

 of W. Flanders. It lies close to the 

 French frontier, 7 m. S.S.W. of 

 Courtrai and 5 m. N.E. of Tour- 

 coing, on the Ghent-Tournai rly. 

 line. It has spinning mills, soap 

 works, tobacco manufactories, and 

 miscellaneous industries. It was 

 occupied by the Germans through- 

 out the Great War. Pop. 21,000. 



Mouse. Name popularly ap- 

 plied to many small rodents, but 

 correctly onlv to the smaller 



upecioaolthegeoenMiuApodemu* 

 and Alicromy*. Three species occur 

 in Great Britain, the house mouse, 

 the harvest mouse, and the long- 

 tailed field mouse. The fin- 1 

 mucu/u4) is found almost where- 

 over man exists. It is brown in 

 colour, with large ears and long 

 tail, measuring altogether from 4 

 to ins. in length. The harvest 

 mouse (Micromya minutut), dis- 

 covered by Gilbert White, is con- 

 fined in Britain to England and.the 

 S. and E. of Scotland. One of the 

 smallest of British mammals and 

 the only one with a prehensile tail, 

 it is bright orange Drown on the 

 upper parts and white below. It 

 constructs a globular nest amonu 

 the stems of standing corn. 



The long-tailed field mouse 

 (Apodemus aylvaticua) swarms in 

 the fields, and is one of the most 

 prolific of mammals. In genera! 

 form it closely resembles the house 

 mouse, but has a longer tail. Some 

 five distinct local varieties have been 

 recorded for Great Britain. The 

 shrew is not a mouse. In America 

 the word mouse is also applied to 

 a large number of voles. See. Field 

 Mouse ; Shrew ; Vole. 



Mouse Deer. Popular name for 

 the chevrotain (q.v.). This is a 

 small ungulate mammal placed by 

 zoologists between the deer and the 

 camels. 



Mousehold. Heath or open 

 space, near Norwich. Within the 

 city boundaries, it overlooks it on 

 the N.E. Here in 1549 the insur- 

 gents, under Robert Ket, en- 

 camped. Crome has immortalised 

 it in several of his paintings, while 

 it figures in Borrow's writings. 

 There are barracks here, but the 

 heath itself is public property. 



Mousquetaires. French regi- 

 ment of guard cavalry, two com- 

 panies strong, one formed in 1622 

 and the other in 1660. The regi- 

 ment was disbanded in 1775. 



Mousterian. The closing period 

 of the lower palaeolithic age in 

 Europe. After the Acheulian 

 period tho climate varied the 

 bison, musk-ox, steppe horse, rein- 

 deer, and Arctic fox are found 

 and systematic cave life began. 

 The institution of ceremonial 

 burial identifies the race, especi- 

 ally at Chapelle-aux-Saints in 



Mouse. Left, harvest mice on ears ol corn ; right, boose mouse. Mus musculu; 



