Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/75

* MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKEN. 59 MOTILON. ami other animal garbage, and also preys upon other seabinls. See Petkel. MOTHER GOOSE. The supposed author of the laiiiiliar luiisury rliymcs known as Mother Goose's Melodies. A baseless claim that the name originated in Boston was made on behalf of Elizal)eth Goose, whose rliymes were printed by her sonin-law, Thomas Fleet, as l^ont/s for the Niirseri/; or, Mother f/oosc's Melodies (iJoston, 1719). The title appears to have come from France, where ueen (ioosefoot, or Bertlia an Grand Pied, the mother of Charlemagne, was re- garded as the s])ecial patron of ehildren, and her festival, January 2d, is celebrated. The most definite source is Charles Perrault's Contcs de ma mere I'Oi/e (KiOT), containing ten stories, seven of which are from the I'entumerone. It was translated by Robert Samher in 172fl. Mother Goose's Melodies were printed in Lonchm by .Jolin Xewbcry in 1760. Though the title is probably of French origin, the songs are Englisli, some belonging to the time of Shakespeare and earlier. MOTHER GOOSE TALES. See NrRSERY Lobe. MOTHER HUBBARD'S TALE, or Prosopo- POIA. A metrical composition by Edmund Spenser (1591), written in his youth. It is a satire on Court follies, under the guise of a story of a fox and an ape masquerading as a soldier and his servant. It purports to have been told to the poet by Mother Hubbard. MOTHER-OF-PEARL. The shells of the large marine bivalve mollusks Avicula [Melea- grinu) inargariiifera, Aiieula macropteru, and Avicula fuenia, which ahso produce the precious pearls. (See Pearl.) These shells are collected in the tropical seas, chiefly on the coast of Ceylon, Manila, Cuba, Panama, the Gulf of Cali- fornia, and the South Sea Islands. In 1865 extensive fisliing grounds were found on the north- west coast of Australia. The shells from Panama are small and thick and are known in commerce as bullock shells. Those from Manila and Au,stralia are finest in quality ; they are disk- shaped and (jften as much as a foot in diameter. There are two varieties, the white, or silver- lipped, and the black-lipped. The mother-of-pearl or nacre of commerce is really the inner portion or lining of the shell, which the oyster secretes in successive layers of filmy thinness and mar- velous smoothness of surface. Some fine mother- of-pearl is also produced in inland waters, chiefly' in the rivers of China, Germiiny, and Russia. Recently the shells of a kindred Missis- sippi River mollusk have been used in the manu- facture of pearl buttons. See Button; Pearl Oyster. MOTHER OF PRESIDENTS. A name fre- quently given to the State of Virginia, which has furnished more Presidents to the Union than any other State. The following seven were born there: George Washington. Thomas .Jefferson. Tames Madison. .Tames Monroe. William H. Har- ri-son, Zaohary Taylor, and .John Tyler. See St.vtes, Popular Names of. MOTHER OF STATES. A name given to Virginia as the oldest of the thirteen. ierlcan oolonies. and because its original territory was formed into a number of States — West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. Vol. xn.— 5. MOTHER SHIPTON'S PROPHECIES. A series of foretellings of events purporting to iiave originally been told by a woman named Agatha or Ursula Shipton, of Yorkshire, between 1486 and 1561. They appeared in chap-books or pamphlets, the earliest known of which was printed in 1641, and were continued until recent times. Charles Hindley wrote some propheciea purporting to have dated from 1448. It has been suttgested that Mother Shipton was Master William Lilly, an astrologer, 1602-1G81. MOTHERWELL, muTii'er-wel. A police burgh and manut'acturing town in Lanarkshire, Scotland, 12 miles southeast of Glasgow (Map: Scotland, E 4). Its growth and importance are due to its iron and steel works and its neighbor- ing collieries. It has fine municipal buildings, owns its water-works, and maintains a public park, etc. Population, in 1841. 726; in 1901, .30,423. MOTHERWELL, William (1797-18,35). A Scotch poet, born and educated in Glasgow. Hia first appearance in print was as editor of a volume of local poems (1819). His Minstrelsy Ancient and Modern (1827) won him the ac- quaintance of Scott. With Hogg. too. Mother- well was on friendlj' terms, and in 1835 the two prepared an edition of Burns's poems. Mother- well died of apoplexy in the same year, overcome by the strain of testifying before a Parliamentary committee on Orangeism. In his Poems, rra- tive and Li/rical (1832), he utilizes Scotch and Norse mythology and occasionally shows some lyric power, as in the well-known ".leanie Morri- son." which tradition says was planned when he was only fourteen. MOTH-FLY. Any one of the true flies of the family Psychodidoe — ver.y small, weak flies which look like little moths and are frequently found upon windows and upon the under surfaces of leaves. They have broad wings, rather thick antenuEE, and are densely clothed with hairs, even the surface of the wings being hairy. These are the only true flies, except true mosquitoes, which have hairs or scales on the wings. In the arrangement of the wing-veins these flies differ from all other Diptera. and probably repre- sent the most generalized type in this order of insects. They differ greatly in larval habits: some live in rapidly running water, others on fallen leaves in small pools, others are found in rotten potatoes, while some live in dry cowdung. The larvae have both tracheal gills and open spiracles, so that theoretically they can breathe both air and the oxygen of the water. The fam- ily has a wide distribution, but only about 20 species are known in the United States. MOTH-HUNTER. A bird, the nightjar (q.v.). M0TIL6n, mo't*-lon' (Sp., Cut-haired). A fierce tribe of Cariban stock (q.v.). inhabiting the mountains known as the Painted Andes, about Ocana, in Northeastern Colombia. They were conquered in the early Spanish period and colonized in the lowlands under supervision of missionaries, but on the outbreak of a smallpox epidemic they were compelled to cut their hair to cool the fever, ami were otherwise subjected to such sanitary regimen that they rebelled and fled to the mountains. They were fvigitives for half a vear. but returned on the subsidence of the