1813.—"At one period the Moplahs created great commotion in Travancore, and towards the end of the 17th century massacred the chief of Anjengo, and all the English gentlemen belonging to the settlement, when on a public visit to the Queen of Attinga."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 402; [2nd ed. i. 259].
1868.—"I may add in concluding my notice that the Kallans alone of all the castes of Madura call the Mahometans 'māpilleis' or bridegrooms (Moplahs)."—Nelson's Madura, Pt. ii. 55.
MORA, s. Hind. moṛhā. A stool (tabouret); a footstool. In common colloquial use.
[1795.—"The old man, whose attention had been chiefly attracted by a Ramnaghur morah, of which he was desirous to know the construction, ... departed."—Capt. Blunt, in Asiat. Res., vii. 92.
[1843.—"Whilst seated on a round stool, or mondah, in the thanna, ... I entered into conversation with the thannadar...."—Davidson, Travels in Upper India, i. 127.]
MORCHAL, s. A fan, or a fly-whisk, made of peacock's feathers. Hind. morch'hal.
1673.—"All the heat of the Day they idle it under some shady Tree, at night they come in troops, armed with a great Pole, a Mirchal or Peacock's Tail, and a Wallet."—Fryer, 95.
1690.—(The heat) "makes us Employ our Peons in Fanning of us with Murchals made of Peacock's Feathers, four or five Foot long, in the time of our Entertainments, and when we take our Repose."—Ovington, 335.
[1826.—"They (Gosseins) are clothed in a ragged mantle, and carry a long pole, and a mirchal, or peacock's tail."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 76.]
MORT-DE-CHIEN, s. A name for cholera, in use, more or less, up to the end of the 18th century, and the former prevalence of which has tended probably to the extraordinary and baseless notion that epidemic cholera never existed in India till the governorship of the Marquis of Hastings. The word in this form is really a corruption of the Portuguese mordexim, shaped by a fanciful French etymology. The Portuguese word again represents the Konkani and Mahratti moḍachī, moḍshī, or moḍwashī, 'cholera,' from a Mahr. verb moḍnen, 'to break up, to sink' (as under infirmities, in fact 'to collapse'). The Guzaratī appears to be moṛchi or moṛachi.