Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/16

 served against the Turks, and on retiring in 1760 he lived on his estates at Bodenwerder and used to amuse himself and his friends, and puzzle the quidnuncs and the dull-witted, by relating extraordinary instances of his prowess as soldier and sportsman. His stories became a byword among his circle, and Raspe, when hard up for a living in London, utilized the suggestion for his little brochure. But his narrative owed much also to such sources, known to Raspe, as Heinrich Bebel’s Facetiae bebelianae (1508), J. P. Lange’s Deliciae academicae (1665), a section of which is called Mendacia ridicula', Castiglione’s Cortegiano (1528), the Travels of the Finkenritter, attributed to Lorenz von Lauterbach in the 16th century, and other works of this sort. Raspe can only be held responsible for the nucleus of the book; the additions were made by booksellers’ hacks, from such sources as Lucian’s Vera historia, or the Voyages imaginaires (1787), while suggestions were taken from Baron de Tott’s Memoirs (Eng. trans. 1785), the contemporary aeronautical feats of Montgolfier and Blanchard, and any topical “sensations” of the moment, such as Bruce’s explorations in Africa. Munchausen is thus a medley, as we have it, a classical instance of the fantastical mendacious literary genre.

 MÜNCH-BELLINGHAUSEN, ELIGIUS FRANZ JOSEPH, (1806–1871), Austrian poet and dramatist (who wrote under the pseudonym “Friedrich Halm”), was born at Cracow on the 2nd of April 1806, the son of a district judge. Educated at first at a private school in Vienna, he afterwards attended lectures at the university, and in 1826, at the early age of twenty, married and entered the government service. In 1840 he became Regierungsrat, in 1845 Hofrat and custodian of the royal library, in 1861 life member of the Austrian Herrenhaus (upper chamber), and from 1869 to 1871 was intendant of the two court theatres in Vienna. He died at Hütteldorf near Vienna on the 22nd of May 1871. Münch-Bellinghausen’s dramas, among them notably Griseldis (1835; publ. 1837; 11th ed., 1896), Der Adept (1836; publ. 1838), Camoens (1838), Der Sohn der Wildnis (1842; 10th ed., 1896), and Der Fechter von Ravenna (1854; publ. 1857; 6th ed., 1894), are distinguished by elegance of language, melodious versification and clever construction, and were for a time exceedingly popular.

 MUNCIE, a city and the county-seat of Delaware county, Indiana, U.S.A., on the West Fork of the White river, about 57 m. N.E. of Indianapolis. Pop. (1880), 5210; (1890), 11,345; (1900) 20,942, of whom 1235 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 24,005. It is served by the Central Indiana, the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, the Fort Wayne, Cincinnati & Louisville, and the Lake Erie & Western railways, and by the Indiana Union Traction, the Dayton & Muncie Traction, and the Muncie & Portland Traction (electric inter-urban) railways. The city is built on level ground (altitude 950 ft.), and has an attractive residential section. It is one of the principal manufacturing centres in Indiana, owing largely to its situation in the natural gas belt. In 1900 and in 1905 it was the largest producer of glass and glassware in the United States, the value of its product in 1905 being $2,344,462. Muncie (named after the Munsee Indians, one of the three principal divisions of the Delawares) was settled about 1833 and was chartered as a city in 1865.  MUNDĀS. The Mundā (Muṇḍā) family is the least numerous of the linguistic families of India. It comprises several dialects spoken in the two Chota Nagpur plateaux, the adjoining districts of Madras and the Central Provinces, and in the Mahadeo hills. The number of speakers of the various dialects, according to the census of 1901, are as follow: Santālī, 1,795,113; Mundārī, 460,744; Bhumij, 111,304; Birhår, 526; Kōdā, 23,873; Hō,: 371,860; Tūrī, 3880; Asurī, 4894; Korwā, 16,442; Korkū, 87,675; Khariā, 82,506; Juāng, 10,853; Savara, 157,136; Gadabā, 37,230;. total, 3,164,036. Santālī, Mundārī, Bhumij, Birhår, Kōdā, Hō, Tūrī, Asurī and Korwā are only slightly differing forms of one and the same language, which can be called Kherwārī, a name borrowed from Santālī tradition. Kherwārī is the principal Mundā language, and quite 88% of all the speakers of Mundā tongues belong to it. The Korwā dialect, spoken in the western part of Chota Nagpur, connects Kherwārī with the remaining Mundā languages. Of these it is most closely related to the Kūrkū language of the Mahadeo hills in the Central Provinces. Kūrkū, in its turn, in important points agrees with Khariā and Juāng, and Khariā leads over to Savara and Gadabā. The two last-mentioned forms of speech, which are spoken in the north-east of the Madras Presidency, have been much influenced by Dravidian languages.

The Mundā dialects are not in sole possession of the territory where they are spoken. They are, as a rule, only found in the hills and jungles, while the plains and valleys are inhabited by people speaking some Aryan language. When brought into close contact with Aryan tongues the Mundā forms of speech are apt to give way, and in the course of time they have been partly superseded by Aryan dialects. There are accordingly some Aryanized tribes in northern India who have formerly belonged to the Mundā stock. Such are the Cheros of Behar and Chota Nagpur, the Kherwars, who are found in the same localities, in Mirzapur and elsewhere, the Savaras, who formerly extended as far north as Shahabad, and others. It seems possible to trace an old Mundā element in some Tibeto-Burman dialects spoken in the Himalayas from Bashahr eastwards.

By race the Mundās are Dravidians, and their language was likewise long considered as a member of the Dravidian family. Max Müller was the first to distinguish the two families. He also coined the name Mundā for the smaller of them, which has later on often been spoken of under other denominations, such as Kolarian and Kherwarian. The Dravidian race is generally considered as the aboriginal population of southern India. The Mundās, who do not appear to have extended much farther towards the south than at present, must have mixed with the Dravidians from very early times. The so-called Nahālī dialect of the Mahadeo hills seems to have been originally a Mundā form of speech which has come under Dravidian influence, and finally passed under the spell of Aryan tongues. The same is perhaps the case with the numerous dialects spoken by the Bhils. At all events, Mundā languages have apparently been spoken over a wide area in central and north India. They were then early superseded by Dravidian and Aryan dialects, and at the present day only scanty remnants are found in the hills and jungles of Bengal and the Central Provinces.

Though the Mundā family is not connected with any other languages in India proper, it does not form an isolated group. It belongs to a widely spread family, which extends from India in the west to Easter Island in the eastern Pacific in the east. In the first place, we find a connected language spoken by the Khasis of the Khasi hills in Assam. Then follow the Mōn-Khmēr languages of Farther India, the dialects spoken by the aboriginal inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula, the Nancowry of the Nicobars, and, finally, the numerous dialects of Austronesia, viz. Indonesic, Melanesic, Polynesic, and so on. Among the various members of this vast group the Mundā languages are most closely related to the Mōn-Khmēr family of Farther India. Kūrkū, Khariā, Juāng, Savara and Gadabā are more closely related to that family than is Kherwārī, the principal Mundā form of speech.

We do not know if the Mundās entered India from without.