Morbihan
a maritime department of France, formed out of ancient Brittany, bounded by the Atlantic on the S. and Finistère on the W.; area, 2,738 square miles; pop. about 600,- 600, 000. The largest island is Belle Isle. The departmer forms a plateau, partly cultivated, partly occupied by y tracts of heath and marsh. Morbihan is divided into the four arrondissements of Vannes, L'Orient, Ploërmel, and Pontivy. The chief town is Vannes, but the most populous is L'Orient. Many ancient customs still prevail; communal proprietorship survives there, and in some of the islands the priest, assisted by a council of notables, governs the people.
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Mordant
. See Dyeing
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Mordvins
a Finnic race, now however greatly intermingled with the Russians, who dwell along the middle course of the Volga, from the government of Nijni-Novgorod to that of Samara. They number about 790,000.
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More, Sir Thomas
Sir Thomas (1478-1535), an English statesman and writer. He was born in London and educated at Oxford. He was a brilliant lawyer and became a member of Parliament. He opposed a demand for a royal subsidy. He served England as a diplomat and was for a time chancellor. He was a staunch Catholic. He refused to recognize Henry VIII as head of the church, and was beheaded therefor for treason. As a writer he is known as the author of Utopia, a Latin treatise on an ideal state in a land of nowhere. It was translated in 1551. This is the first political romance. It belongs to the same class of works as Bacon's New Atlantis and Bellamy's Looking Backward. See Utopia
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Moreau
JEAN VICTOR (mo-rō'), a French general; born in Morlais, France, Aug. 11, 1761. He was educated for the law, but enlisted at 17, and thenceforth devoted himself to a military career. In 1796 he was commander of one of the two French armies that invaded Germany. The other army, under General Jourdan, was completely defeated by the Austrians, who then brought their whole force to bear on Mo. reau. In this emergency, Moreau extricated himself by the retreat through the Black Forest. Napoleon, in 1800, gave Moreau the command of the armies of the Danube and the Rhine; and in the winter of that year Moreau gained the great victory of Hohenlinden. He was afterward suspected of plotting against Napoleon's government, and was banished from France. He lived in the United States till 1813, when he returned to Europe and joined the armies of the allied sovereigns against the French. He was mortally wounded at the battle of Dresden, Aug. 27, 1813, and died in Laun, Bohemia, Sept. 20.
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Morecambe Bay
an inlet of the Irish Sea, separating separating the main portion of Lancashire, England, from the detached portion of Furness; length 18 miles; average breadth about 10 miles; it receives the Leven, the Kent, and the Lune.
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Morehead
JOHN ALFRED, American clergyman and educator; born in Pulaski co., Va., Feb. 4, 1867. Educated at Roanoke College and graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary, Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, 1892. Studied at Berlin and Leipsic, 1901-1902. (D. D., Roanoke College, 1902.) Ordained to the Lutheran ministry 1892; Burke's Garden pastorate, Va., 1892; First English Lutheran Church, Richmond, Va., 1894- 1898; president, and professor of systematic theology Southern Lutheran Theological Seminary, 1898-1908; president of Roanoke College, 1903; president of the United Synod of the South, 1910-1914.
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Morel
or MORELLE (of the form morel), Morchella esculenta, and edible fungus. It has a pale-brown pileus, deeply pitted all over, with raised anastomosing lines between the depressions. It grows in orchards, woods, and forests. has an agreeable agreeable smell and taste. Also (of the two forms): Solanum nigrum. Called also petty morel, the great morel being Atropa belladonna.
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Morelia
a town of Mexico, capital of the State of Michoacan, 125 miles W. N. W. of Mexico City, in a valley surrounded by high mountains; altitude 6,400 feet. It has a fine cathedral, and a magnificent aqueduct, dating from 1788, for the supply of water. It is in one of the chief sugargrowing districts in Mexico and was the birthplace of General Morelos, after whom the town was named. Pop. about 40,000.
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Morella
a town of Spain, 80 miles N. by E. of Valencia. It was the stronghold of Cabrera, the Carlist general, who scaled the castle on Jan. 25, 1839. It was retaken in July, 1840, by Espartero.
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Morello
a fine variety of cherry with fruit that becomes almost black if allowed to hang.
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Morelos
one of the States of Mexico (since 1869), immediately S. of the highest volcanic region of the Anahuac plateau; area, 2,773 square miles; pop. about 185,000. The country is very broken and covered with forests, and is drained by the Mexcala river.
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Moreton Bay
an inlet of the sea on the E. coast of Queensland, Australia; formed inside the islands of Moreton and Stradbroke, the former 20 miles and the latter 33 miles in length, and both about 5 miles in greatest breadth. The bay is 40 miles long by 17 broad; its S. half is dotted with islands and sandbanks. It receives the six considerable streams, Nerang, Pimpama, Logan, Brisbane, Pine, and Caboolture.
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Morgan City
a city of Louisiana, the port of entry of St. Mary parish, about 70 miles W. of New Orleans. It is on the Louisiana and Texas railroad and on the Intercoastal canal. The town has regular steamship connections with important Gulf ports and its sugar, lumber, and truck-gardening industries are important. There is also a considerable trade in fur, hides, and live-stock. The city has a city hall, court house, high school, Elks Home, and a handsome park. The city was the scene of important actions during the Civil War. Pop. (1910) 5.477; (1920) 5,429.
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Morgan le Fay
Sister of Arthur and wife of King Urien of Gore. Arthur gave into her keeping the scabbard of his sword Excalibur, but she gave it to Sir Accolon whom she loved and had a forged scabbard made. Arthur, however, recovered the real sheath, but was again deceived by her. She figures as a Queen of the Land of Faerie and as such appears in French and Italian romance. It was she who, on one occasion, threw Excalibur into a lake. She usually presents her favourites with a ring and retains them by her side as does Venus in Tannhaüser. Her myth is a parallel of that of Eos and Tithonus and is probably derived from a sun and dawn myth.
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