342 
M O U 
from Egypt, and had adopted the manners and cufloms 
of the people. He fuppofes that it might have been built 
by the Arabs, who had conquered Egypt under the Ihep- 
herd-kings, and adopted the Egyptian manners during 
their refidence there. As it mult have belonged to an 
opulent city, however, he owns that there is a great dif¬ 
ficulty in accounting for the exigence of fuch a city in 
the midfc of a defert. 
The tranflator of Volney’s Travels afcribes thefe in- 
fcriptions to the pilgrims who vifit Mount Sinai. But to 
this, as well as to every other conjecture, there is this 
objection, that, whether the inferiptions be well executed 
or not, whether they contain matters of importance or 
not, they ought to have been written in a language which 
fomebady could underhand; but, from the copies that 
have been taken of them by Dr. Pococke and others, it 
does not appear that they could be explained either by 
him or any other perfon. 
When Dr. Clayton, bifhop of Clogher, vifited this part 
of the world about the year 1723, he exprefled the greateft. 
defire to have the matter concerning this Written Moun¬ 
tain or Mountains afeertained, as noticed under Mount 
Sinai, p. 135. But the very exiftence of the mountains 
is teftified only by the fuperior of a convent at Cairo; 
who gave the account mentioned in the beginning of this 
article. Until that part of the world, therefore, become 
more accefiible to travellers, there is but little hope that 
we can come to any certainty in the matter. 
MOUNTAIN LAN'D,/! in agriculture, a term applied 
to fuch land as lies on the lides of hills, and which is 
often of a poor barren nature. 
MOUNTAIN LE'ATHER. See vol. xv. p. 44.5. 
MOUNTAINS of the LI'ONS, a chain of mountains 
in Africa, which divide Nigritia from Guinea, and ex¬ 
tend as far as Ethiopia. They were ltyled by the ancients 
the Mountains of God, on account of their being greatly 
fubjeft to thunder and lightning. 
MOUNTAIN ME'AL. Fabbroni has lately difeovered 
a bed of a peculiar kind of earthy matter at Santa Fiora, 
between Tufcany and the papal dominions, capable of 
forming bricks fo light as to fwim in water. This mi¬ 
neral has been admitted into fyftematic books of mine¬ 
ralogy under the name of mountain-meal; and, from the 
quantity.of filica it contains, we fuppofe it will be con- 
fidered as a fpecies of Pyromachus, or flint. Klaproth 
lately analyfed it, and found its conftituents as follows: 
In 99 parts, it contained of filica 79, alumina 5, oxyd of 
iron 3, and water 12. 
MOUNTAINS in the MOO'N. See the article Astro¬ 
nomy, vol. ii. p. 380. 
MOUNTAINS of the MOO'N. See Moon, vol.xv. 
P- 753 - 
MOUNTAIN PARSLEY. See Athamanta. 
MOUNTAIN RO'SE-BAY. See Rhododendron. 
MOUNTAIN-SPRING BA'Y, a bay on the north coalt 
of Jamaica. Lat. 18. 31. N. Ion. 77.29. W. 
MOUNTAINEE'R, or Mou'ntainer, an inhabitant of 
the mountains.— A few monntainers may efcape, enough to 
continue human race ; and yet, being illiterate rufticks (as 
mounlainers always are), they can preferve no memoirs of 
former times. Bentley's Serin. 
Amiternian troops, of mighty fame, 
And mountaineers that from Severus came. Dry den's JEn. 
A favage; a free hooter; a ruftic.—Through all Turkie, 
efpecially in places defert, there are many monntainers, 
or outlaws, like the wild Ir-ilh, who live upon fpoil. 
Blunt's Voyage into the Levant. 
No favage, fierce bandit, or mountaineer, 
Will dare to foil her virgin purity. Milton's Comus. 
MOU'NTAINET, f. A hillock ; a fmall mount. Ele¬ 
gant, hut not in vfe. —Her breads fweetly rofe up like two 
fair mounlainets in the pleafant vale of Tempe. Sidney. 
MOU'NTAINOUS, udj. Hilly; full of mountains,— 
M O U 
The afeent of the land from the fea to the foot of the 
.mountains, and the height of the mountains from the 
bottom to the top, are to be computed, when you meafure 
the height of a mountain, or of a mountainous land, in 
refpebt to the fea. Burnet's Theory of the Earth. —Large 
as mountains; huge ; bulky : 
On earth, in air, amidft: the feas and Ikies, 
Mountainous heaps of wonders rife ; 
Whofe towering ftrength will ne’er fubmit 
To reafon’s batteries, or the mines of wit. Prior. 
Inhabiting mountains.—In deftrudlions by deluge and 
earthquake, the remnant which hap to be referved are 
ignorant and mountainous people, that can give no account 
of the time pall. Bacon's EJfays. 
MOIJ'NT AINOUSNESS,./! State of beingfull of moun¬ 
tains.—Armenia is fo called from the mountainoujhefs of 
it. Brerewood. 
MOU'NTANT, adj. [moniant, Fr.] Riling on high : 
Hold up, you fluts, 
Your aprons mountant; you’re not oathable, 
Although, I know, you’ll fwear. Shakefpeare's Timon : 
MOU'NTEBANK, f. [ monta in banco, Ital.] A doflor 
that mounts a bench in the market, and boafts his infalli¬ 
ble remedies and cures.—It looks like a mountebank to 
boall infallible cures. Baker. 
I bought an unftion of'a mountebank, 
So mortal, that but dip a knife in it, 
Where it draws blood, no cataplafm fo rare 
Can fave the thing from death. Shakefpeare's Hamlet. 
She, like a mountebank, did wound 
And llab herfelf with doubts profound, 
Only to Ihew with how fmall pain 
The fores of faith are cur’d again. Hndibras. 
But FEfchylus, lays Horace in fome page, 
Was the hr(l mountebank that trod the Itage. Dryden. 
Any boaltful and falfe pretender.—There are mountebanks 
and fmatterers in Hate. L'Ejlrange. —Nothing fo impofii- 
ble in nature but mountebanks will undertake. Arbuthnol's 
Hift. of J. Bull. 
It is uncertain at what period this vagrant dealer in 
phyfic made his appearance in England: it is clear, how¬ 
ever, that he figured away with much fuccefs in this 
country during the two lall centuries. He called to his 
afiiftance fome of the performances pradtifed by the jug¬ 
glers ; and the bourdour, or merry-andrew, feems to have 
been his infeparable companion ; hence it is laid in an old 
ballad, entitled Sundry Trades and Callings, 
A mountebank without his fool 
Is in a forrowful cafe. 
The mountebanks ufually preface the vending of their 
medicines with pompous orations, in which they pay as 
lit-tle regard to truth, as to propriety. Shakcfpeare fpeaks 
of thefe wandering empirics in very difrefpedlful terms: 
As nimble jugglers, that deceive the eye, 
Dillinguiihed cheaters, prating mountebanks, 
And many fuch-like libertines of fin. 
In the reign of James the Second, Hans Buling, a Dutch¬ 
man, was well known in London as a mountebank. He 
was, fays Granger, an odd figure of a man, and extremely 
fantaftical in his drefs ; he was attended by a monkey, 
which he had trained to adt the part of a jack-pudding, 
a part which he had formerly adted himfelf, and which 
was mo're natural to him than that of a profeifor of phyfic. 
The ignorance and the impudence of the mountebanks 
are ridiculed in the Spectator, and efpecially in that paper 
which concludes with an anecdote of one who exhibited 
at Hammerfmith : lie told his audience, that he had been 
“ born and bred tlieie ; and, having a Ipecial regard for 
the place of his nativity, he was 'determined to make a' 
prelent 
