MOURNING MOVING PLANT. 



81 



received permission from his government to retire to 

 the country. Flere lie continued to occupy himself 

 on his undertaking during three years, and gave the 

 fruit of forty-five years' labour to the world, in a work 

 which contains, in three separate divisions, a complete 

 view of the Ottoman empire. These three divisions 

 have the separate titles, Tableau historique de I' Orient 

 (a history of all the nations under the Ottoman 

 government) ; Tableau general de r Empire Ottoman 

 (a view of tile Jaws, religion, and customs, &c.); 

 lastly, L'histoire de la Maison Ottomans (from Osman 

 I. till 1758). The whole was nearly completed when 

 interrupted by U'Ohsson's death, August 27, 1807. 

 The last volume of this work, which comprises in the 

 whole seven volumes, appeared in Paris, 1824. 



MOURNING. In most nations it is the custom of 

 bereaved survivors to testify their grief for the loss 

 of friends or relatives by some external change of 

 dress and deportment. Different nations have em- 

 ployed the same emblems as symbols of the most 

 opposite states of the mind, being governed altoge- 

 ther by their previous habits and associations, so that 

 the signs of mourning are very various. Thus some 

 wear the hair long, others cut it oft'; some shave the 

 beard, others allow it to grow. The Eastern nations 

 and the Greeks cut oft' their hair; the Romans allowed 

 the beard and hair to grow, in mourning. Different 

 colours have been adopted as badges of grief; the 

 ancient Egyptians wore yellow ; the Ethiopians gray; 

 the Roman and Spartan women white, which is still 

 the colour of grief in China and Siain ; in Turkey, 

 blue and violet ; and in the other European countries, 

 black is used for this purpose. Some have attempted 

 to trace the associations by which the colours acquired 

 their character to natural causes, but, it must be 

 allowed, with little success. The Jews, in sign of 

 grief at the loss of their relatives, rent their gar- 

 ments, tore out their hair, and wore coarse garments 

 of a dark colour ; they went barefoot, neglected their 

 persons, and performed other acts of penance. The 

 term of mourning with them was short. Among the 

 Greeks and Romans, it was the custom to lay aside 

 all ornaments of dress, to abstain from the bath, and 

 other indulgences. The dress was also of a dark 

 colour (except with the women), and the period of 

 mourning was about a year. Among the ancients, as 

 among the moderns, public mournings were common 

 on the death of a distinguished public benefactor, 

 and in the time of the Roman empire, on the death 

 of the emperors. 



MOURZOUK ; the capital of Fezzan, in the king- 

 dom of Tripoli; lat. 25 54' N. ; Ion. 15 51' E. It 

 is the residence of the sultan of Fezzan, and is sur- 

 rounded by walls twenty feet high and eight feet 

 thick. The houses are of mud, and as rain is rare, 

 are durable. Mourzouk is one of the greatest com- 

 mercial places in Africa, forming the centre of com- 

 munication between the central, northern, and eastern 

 regions of that continent. Caravans arrive yearly 

 from Egypt, Tripoli, Bournou, and Houssa. 



MOUSE (mus). This genus includes not only 

 what are usually termed mice, but also the rats ; and 

 under the common name of mice are also understood 

 several species of arvicola, &c. The common 

 mouse is not a native of the United States, but was 

 brought there by the early settlers, and has now ex- 

 tended, with the increase of population, to every part 

 of the continent. There are several varieties, dis- 

 tinguished by their colour, the rarest of which is the 

 white. The mouse makes a nest not unlike that of 

 a bird, and brings forth several times in a year, 

 generally having from six to ten at each litter. 

 When first born, mice are naked and helpless, but in 

 about fifteen days are able to shift for themselves. 

 The mouse is capable of being tamed, and exhibits 



considerable attachment to its keeper. As, from 

 their numbers and depredations, they are extremely 

 troublesome, several modes have been devised to 

 destroy them ; as cats, traps, poison, &c. The 

 American field mouse (M. leucopus) is very common 

 in all parts of the United States, and is the represen- 

 tative of the European species (M. sylvaticus). They 

 are very injurious to the fanner, from destroying 

 great quantities of grain, which they hoard up ; in a 

 few nights they will almost ruin a field of newly 

 planted Indian corn. This mouse is about three 

 inches long, and h;is a streak of a mixed dusky and 

 ferruginous colour along the back; the tail is dusky 

 above and white beneath. The meadow mouse does 

 not belong to the genus mus, but is an arvicola. This 

 diminutive animal occurs in vast numbers, living in 

 burrows made in the banks of drains or streams. 

 During the warm weather, however, they make nests 

 among the grass, very similar to birds' nests, and 

 generally containing six or eight young ones. In 

 almost all grass fields when they are mown, small 

 lanes or fiirrows may be seen among the roots of the 

 herbage ; these are the various communications made 

 by the field mouse with its nest. Notwithstanding 

 they are preyed upon by owls, hawks, &c., they 

 multiply excessively, and sometimes commit great 

 ravages in the grass fields. 



MOUSQUETAIRES DU ROI (under the old 

 French regime) ; mounted companies of royal guards, 

 splendidly equipped, and composed of gentlemen of 

 noble extraction. One of the companies was called 

 the mousquetaires gi-is, from the colour of their 

 horses being dapple-gray ; the other the mousquelaires 

 noh-s, in which the horses were black. Their arms 

 were a carbine, sword, and pistols. They were insti- 

 tuted by Louis XIII., and served as a school to many 

 of the most distinguished French commanders. 



MOUTH ; in most animals, a cavity in the an- 

 terior part of the body, but very differently formed in 

 different sorts of animals. It commonly serves for 

 the reception of food, and is connected by a cannl 

 with the interior parts of the body, where the food is 

 assimilated. In the higher orders, it is used f< T 

 mastication,, the emission of sound, deglutition, rev 

 piration, suction, and taste, being connected with 

 organs which perform those processes. The lower 

 jaw only is movable in this division. Some of the 

 lower orders seem to be without a mouth, and to 

 nourish themselves by absorption. In birds, the 

 external parts of the mouth are a hard, bony sub- 

 stance, and it is not fitted for suction. In insects, the 

 form of the mouth is very various. 



MOVING PLANT (hedysarum gyrans). This 

 plant is remarkable for the spontaneous motion of 

 its leaves, which does not appear to depend on any 

 external cause that we can determine. No sooner 

 has the plant acquired its ternate leaves, than they 

 begin to revolve this way and that; and this motion 

 continues during the whole course of its vegetation. 

 The whole plant is very seldom in motion at one 

 time; one leaflet turns frequently, while the other, on 

 the same leaf-stalk, is at rest; sometimes a few leaf- 

 lets only move, at others, nearly all will be in motion. 

 These movements are irregular both in time and in 

 their direction, and occasionally, in a very hot /lay, 

 the plant is entirely at rest. A high wind will often 

 put a stop to these movements, but they continue 

 both in the night and during rain. We are unable 

 to excite them by touch, irritation, or any other art 

 that we know of. The plant is a native of the Basin 

 of the Ganges, and is by no means conspicuous in its 

 appearance. It belongs to the legmninoste, and has 

 a jointed pod, purple flowers, and ternate leaves, the 

 lateral leaflets of which are comparatively very 

 small. 



