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420 
poled in blank verfe, and much valued at the time for the 
elegance of the language, and the judieioufnefs of the 
precepts. It is a remarkable circumftance, that, in a letter 
written in 1566 to Bolognetti, Muzio mentions that he 
had entertained a defign of eompoling an epic poem on the 
fubjeft of the recovery of Jerufalem by the knights under 
Godfrey of Bouillon, but that he had dropped his intention. 
And in reply to an anfwer of Bologr.etti’s, probably an¬ 
nouncing Taffo’s projedted poem on the fame- topic, he 
fays, “ that young Taffo had engaged in this undertaking, 
I was totally ignorant. He has fpirit and a good ftyle. 
If the other parts correfpond, he will do himfeif honour.” 
Of his prole-writings, belides letters, hiftories, moral trea¬ 
dles, &c. he wrote feveral tradts^againft the innovators in 
religion, efpecially thofe of the Italian nation, who at 
that time were numerous. He firft attacked Vergerio, 
who had been his travelling companion, and is faid to 
have been denounced by him to the Inquifition, in con- 
lequenceof what he had dilcovered of his opinions. He 
then contended with Ochino, and Betti; and afterwards 
carried the war beyond the mountains againft Bullinger, 
Viret, and others. In his polemical writings, fays Tira- 
bofchi, “ he is not fo much a profound theologian, as a 
(tout and wary combatant, who well knows how to ufe 
the arms with which the good caufe fupplies him, .lays 
open the frauds and deceptions of his antagoniils, purfues 
and preffes on them with vigour, and enforces his argu¬ 
ments with art and eloquence.” His books, in the opi¬ 
nion of that writer, had no ftnall efficacy in preventing 
the ignorant vulgar from being feduced by the new opi¬ 
nions. As a counterbalance to the proteftant writers of 
ecclefiaftical hiftory, called the Magdeburg Centuriators, 
Muzio, in 1570, publilhed a Catholic Hiftory of the Two 
Firft Centuries, which made up in polemic zeal for what 
it wanted in found erudition. He carried the work no 
lower, probably difcovering that he had not the neceflary 
qualifications for fuch a talk. Gen. Biog. 
MUZI'RIS, in ancient geography, a feaport-town of 
India, on the weftern or Malabar coaft, forty days’ fail 
from Ocelis (Gella) in the Red Sea, juft within the Strait 
of Babelmandel. This was the firft port of merchandife 
by which the ancients carried on their commerce between 
Berenice down the Red Sea with India. From Berenice 
to Ocelis it was reckoned thirty days’ navigation, and 
from thence to Muziris forty days’ fail; and, as they left 
Berenice about Midfummer, they might arrive in India in 
the latter end of Auguft, when the violence of thefouth- 
weft monfoon was abated, and the coafting-navigation 
fafe and eafy. Muziris is laid by Pliny to have been an 
incommodious place of merchandife, becaufe the fliallow- 
nef» of the port, or river’s mouth, made it neceflary to 
dilcharge or take in the cargo in fmall boats, at a diftance 
from the emporium; and belides, there was danger from 
the pirates at Nitria. It is not eafy to afeertain the pre- 
cife feite of the ancient Muziris; but major Rennell, 
from an attention to the feveral circumftances mentioned 
by Pliny and Ptolemy, concludes that it was the place 
now denominated Mecrzaw, or Meerjee; he obferves that 
they bear fome affinity in the found ; and their fituation 
is limilar, both being feated on a river, and at fome dif¬ 
tance from the fea. See Meerjee, vol. xv. 
MU'ZOS, the name of a people in New Granada, who 
inhabit a province 6f the fame name, celebrated for rich 
mines of the molt precious emeralds in the world. They 
are neighbours and enemies of the Mofcos, or Muefcas. 
Their country is mountainous, hot, and moift; and from 
the lummits may be difeerned the polar ftars, both of the 
north and fouth ; while, towards the end of Auguft and 
the middle of March, the fun throws no lhade at noon¬ 
day. This favage tribe is diftinguilhed by many Angu¬ 
larities. They have among them a fabulous tradition, 
that in ancient times there was on the other fide of the 
o reat river Magdalena, a kind of lhadow of a man called 
Ari, who, having amufed himfeif with making in wood 
faces of many men and women, threw them into the river j 
M Y A ‘ 
and, when theycameoutalive,hemarriedthem,and taught 
them to cultivate the earth ; after which they difperleil 
and became the parents of all the Indians, who are infe¬ 
rior to the Europeans, becaufe their heads were made of 
wood. They had no deities, nor did they adore the fun 
and moon, as other people of Bogota did; thofe fplendid 
bodies having been created, according to their creed, after 
the wooden men, and merely to give them light. When 
girls arrived at the age of fixteen, they were married by 
their parents, without any previous notice. Thehulband 
then went to carefs his wife, when fhe received him with 
blows of a cudgel; but in a fhort time became appeafed. 
In cafe of adultery, the hufband broke all the veflels of 
wood or clay that were in the houfe, and retired to the 
mountains, till the wife fttould have replaced them. The 
dead were dried before a flow fire, and not interred till the 
end of a year ; the widow being obliged to cultivate the 
ground for her fuftenance, till her relations took her home 
after the interment. Ejlalla, cited by Pinkerton in his 
Geog. vol. ii. 
MUZ'ZLE, f. [mnfe'au, Fr. Hence our word was at firft 
written mofel, and then moozle. “ With mofel faftybound.” 
Chaucer .] The mouth of any thing ; the mouth of a man 
in contempt.—But ever and anon turning her muzzle to¬ 
ward me, (lie threw fuch a profpedt upon me, as might 
well have given a furfeit to any weak lover’s ftomach. 
Sidney. —Huygens has proved, that a bullet, continuing in 
the velocity with which it leaves the muzzle of the can¬ 
non, would require twenty-five years to pals from us to, 
the fun. Cheyne. —If the poker be out of the way, or 
broken, ftir the fire with the tongs; if the tongs be not 
at hand, ufe the muzzle of the bellows. Swift's Dire£lions 
to Servants. —A fattening for the mouth, which hinders to 
bite.—With golden muzzles all their mouths were bound. 
Dryden. 
The fifth Harry from curbed licence plucks 
The muzzle of reftraint; and the wild dog 
Shall flefh his tooth on ev’ry innocent. Shahefpeare. 
To MUZ'ZLE, v. n. To bring the mouth near.—The 
bear muzzles, and linells to him, puts his nofe to his 
mouth and to his ears, and at laft leaves him. X’ EJirange. 
To MUZ'ZLE, v. a. To bind the mouth : 
All through the town with flow and folemn air, 
Led by the noftril, walks the muzzled bear. Gay. 
To fondle with the mouth clofe. A low ivord .—The nurfe 
was then muzzling and coaxing of the child. EEjlrange. 
—To reft rain from hurt: 
My dagger muzzled 
Left it fiiould bite its mailer, and fo prove, 
As ornaments oft do, too dangerous. Shakejp. Whit. Tale. 
MUZ'ZY, adj. [a corruption of muj'y or mufing ; or 
from the Fr. mufard.] Abfent; forgetful; dreaming; 
bewildered by thought; bewildered by liquor. A low 
cxprejjion. 
M Y, pronoun poffefjive. [See Mine, vol. xv.] Belonging 
to me. 'My is ufed before a confonant, and mine anciently 
and properly before a vowel. My is now commonly ufed 
indifferently before both. My is ufed when the fubftan- 
tive follows, and mine when it goes before: as, This is 
my book; this book is mine. —I conclude my reply with 
the words of a Chriftian poet. Bp. Brumhall. 
If my foul had free election 
To difpoie of her afteftion. Waller. 
MY'A, f. the Pearl-Oyster; in helminthology, a 
genus of teftaceous worms. Generic charafters—Animal 
an afeidia : (hell bivalve, generally gaping at one end ; 
hinge with broad thick ftrong teeth, leldom more than 
one, and not inferted into the oppolite valve. Thefe ani¬ 
mals perforate into the land and clay at the bottom of the 
fea, burying themfelves and their (hells, wholly or in 
part, in the mud, like the mufcle, with which they were 
ranked till Linmeus parted them ; hence the fifliing for 
them 
