Miiller, Peter Erasmus, a Danish prelate, noted as a theological and antiquarian writer, was born at Copenhagen May 29, 1776. He studied at the univer- sity of that city, where in 1791 he passed his theologi- cal examination. He afterwards spent a year and a half at some of the German universities, and paid a visit of eight months to France and of three to England. After his return he attained to eminence as a scholar, wrote numerous works, was appointed professor of the- ology at the university in 1801, was raised to the rank of bishop in 1822, and in 1830 was appointed to the bishopric of Zealand, the highest ecclesiastical dignity in Denmark. He died Sept. 16, 1834. His theological works on the Christian Moral System (1808), on the Grounds for Belief in the Divinity of Christianity (1810), on the Creeds of the Christian Church (1817), all in Danish, are in high esteem, but his literary reputation is chiefly founded on his essays in the department of Danish and Norse antiquarian studies. Among these, his best are, On the Importance of the Icelandic Lan- guage:— On the Rise and Decline of Icelandic Histori- ography:— On the Authenticity of the Edda of Snorro: — Critical Examination of the Traditional History of Denmark and Norway : — Critical Examination of the last Seven Books of Saxo Grammaticus : — and, above all, his Sagabibliothek, or Library of the Sagas (Copenh. 1817-20, 3 vols.). Bishop Miiller was also the editor of a literary journal (Dansk Literatur Tidende) for many years. — English Cyclop, s. v. See Kraft og Nycrup, Alt- nindeligt Literaturlexicon, s. v.
Miiller, Philipp Jacob, a noted German-French (Alsace) theologian and philosopher, was born at Stras- burg in March, 1732. He studied at the high school of his native place and at the celebrated German uni- versities. In 1782 he became professor of philosophy at his alma mater and canon of St. Thomas, as well as president of the assembly of Strasburg pastors. He died in 1795. Miiller was well versed in the Greek and Hebrew antiquities, and was a student of the exact sci- ences. His travels had extended his knowledge of men and things, and he therefore became a person of influence. His writings, which were mainly in the department of metaphysics and morals, helped only to confirm the rep- utation secured. The most interesting of his writings are, De pluralitate mundorum (1750, 4to): — De commer- cio nnimi et corporis (1761, 4to) : — Psychologia Pytha- goi-ica (1773) : — De legibus naturce (1775).
Mullion or Monyall, the upright division be- tween the lights of windows, screens, etc., in Gothic ar- chitecture. MuUions are rarely met with in Norman architecture, but they become more frequent in the Early English style, and in the Decfirated and Perpen- dicular are very common. They have sometimes small sliafts attached to them, which carry the tracery of the upper part of the windows. In late domestic architect- ure they are usually plain. The cut shows muUions
MUMBO JUMBO
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MODIY
(a a) supporting tracery.— Chambers, Cyclop, s. v. ; Par- ker, Glossaiy of A rchittclui-e, p. 155, 157.
Mulliou.— Window from Carlisle Cathedral.
Mumbo Jumbo, a mysterious personage frightful to the whole rare of African matrons. According to the descriiition of Jlr. Wilson, " he is a strong, athletic man disguised in dry plantain leaves, and bearing a rod in his hand, which he uses on proper occasions with the most unsparing severity. When invoked by an injured hus- band, he appears about the outskirts of the village at dusk, and commences all sorts of pantomimes. After supper he ventures to the town-hall, where he com- mences his antics, and every grown person, male or fe- male, must be present, or subject themselves to the sus- picion of a guilty conscience. The performance is kept up until midniglit, when Mumbo, with the agility of the tiger, suddenly springs upon the offender, and chastises her most soundly, amid the shouts and laughter of the multitude, in which the other women join more heartily than anybody else, with the view, no doubt, of raising themselves above the suspicion of such infidelity." Sec Gardner, Faiths of the World, p. 499.
Mummy is a name derived from an Arabic word. mum, signifying wax, and is now applied not only to
those dead bodies of men and animals in the prepara- tion of which wax or some similar material was used, but to all those which are by any means preserved in a dry state from the process of putrefaction. The art of embalming, by which the greater part of the mummies now existing were prepared, was practiced by the As- syrians, Persians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, and to some extent also by the Hebrews, Greeks. Romans, and on this continent by the Mexicans and Peruvians. But with greatest skill it was practiced by the inhabitants of an- cient Egypt, of whom whole generations still remain preserved from decay in the vast hypoga?a or cata- combs in the neighborhood of Thebes and the other great cities of that country. It has been estimated that more than 400,000,000 human mummies were made in Egypt from the beginning of embalming until its dis- continuance in the 7th centurj-. The mummies which are filled with aromatics only are olive-colored; their skin is drj', flexible, and like tanned leather, and con- tracted ; their features are distinct, and appear to be like those that existed in life ; the resins which all their cav- ities contain arc dry, light, brittle, and aromatic; the teeth, hair, and eyebrows are generally perfect ; some of them are gilded all over the body, or on the most promi- nent parts. The mummies which are filled with bitumen are reddish ; their skins are hard and polished, as if they had been varnished ; they are dry, heavy, inodorous, and difficult to unroll ; their features are but slightly altered; the hard, black, resinous substance with which they are filled possesses little odor, and they are scarcely alter- alile by exposure to the air. Those which have been salted, as well as thus prepared, differ little in their gen- eral appearance from those just described, but they are usually less perfect, the features being altered, and their hair having commonh' fallen off. When they are un- covered and exposed to the air, a slight saline efilores- cence forms upon them, which consists of different salts of soda. Those mummies which have been only salt- ed aiul dried are even less perfect than the preceding. Their features are entirely destroyed ; all their hair has fallen off; and both the body and the bandages by which it is enveloped fall in pieces when brought to the air, or may very easily be broken up. In many of these adijiocere is formed ; but in general they are hard, dry,