with fork of thorns confine
On either hemisphere, touching the wave
Beneath the towers of Seville. Yesternight
The moon was round.

Dant[^e], _Hell_, xx. (1300).

_Moon_ (_Minions of the_), thieves or highwaymen. (See MOON'S MEN.)

=Moon and Mahomet.= Mahomet made the moon perform seven circuits round
Caaba or the holy shrine of Mecca, then enter the right sleeve of his
mantle and go out at the left. At its exit, it split into two pieces,
which re-united in the centre of the firmament. This miracle was
performed for the conversion of Hahab, the Wise.

=Moon-Calf=, an inanimate, shapeless human mass, said by Pliny to be
engendered of woman only.--_Nat. Hist._, x. 64.

=Moon's Men=, thieves or highwaymen, who ply their vocation by night.

The fortune of us that are but moon's men doth ebb and flow like
the sea.--Shakespeare, 1 _Henry IV._ act i. sc. 2 (1597).

=Moonshine= (_Saunders_), a smuggler.--Sir W. Scott, _Bride of Lammermoor_
(time, William III.).

=Moore= (_Mr. John_), of the Pestle and Mortar, Abchurch Lane,
immortalized by his "worm-powder," and called the "Worm Doctor."

=Moors.= The Moors of Aragon are called Tangarins; those of Gran[=a]da
are Mudajares; and those of Fez are called Elches. They are the best
soldiers of the Spanish dominions. In the Middle Ages, all Mohammedans
were called _Moors_; and hence Camoens, in the _Lusiad_, viii., called
the Indians so.

=Mopes= (_Mr._), the hermit, who lived on Tom Tiddler's Ground. He was
dirty, vain, and nasty, "like all hermits," but had landed property, and
was said to be rich and learned. He dressed in a blanket and skewer,
and, by steeping himself in soot and grease, soon acquired immense fame.
Rumor said he murdered his beautiful young wife, and abandoned the
world. Be this as it may, he certainly lived a nasty life. Mr. Traveller
tried to bring him back into society, but a tinker said to him "Take my
word for it, when iron is thoroughly rotten, you can never botch it, do
what you may."--C. Dickens, _A Christmas Number_ (1861).

=Mopsus=, a shepherd, who, with Menalcas, celebrates the funeral eulogy of
Daphnis.--Virgil, _Eclogue_, v.

=Mora=, the betrothed of Oscar, who mysteriously disappears on his bridal
eve, and is mourned for as dead. His younger brother, Allan, hoping to
secure the lands and fortune of Mora, proposes marriage, and is
accepted. At the wedding banquet, a stranger demands "a pledge