[1829.—"The Mantris of Mewar prefer estates to pecuniary stipend, which gives more consequence in every point of view."—Tod, Annals, Calcutta reprint, i. 150.]
MUNZIL, s. Ar. manzil, 'descending or alighting,' hence the halting place of a stage or march, a day's stage.
1685.—"We were not able to reach Obdeen-deen (ye usual Menzill) but lay at a sorry [Caravan Sarai]."—Hedges, Diary, July 30; [Hak. Soc. i. 203. In i. 214, manzeill].
MUSCÁT, n.p., properly Măskăt. A port and city of N.E. Arabia; for a long time the capital of 'Omān. (See [IMAUM].)
[1659.—"The Governor of the city was Chah-Navaze-kan ... descended from the ancient Princes of Machate...."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 73.]
1673.—"Muschat." See under [IMAUM].
MUSIC. There is no matter in which the sentiments of the people of India differ more from those of Englishmen than on that of music, and curiously enough the one kind of Western music which they appreciate, and seem to enjoy, is that of the bagpipe. This is testified by Captain Munro in the passage quoted below; but it was also shown during Lord Canning's visit to Lahore in 1860, in a manner which dwells in the memory of one of the present writers. The escort consisted of part of a Highland regiment. A venerable Sikh chief who heard the pipes exclaimed: 'That is indeed music! it is like that which we hear of in ancient story, which was so exquisite that the hearers became insensible (behosh).'
1780.—"The bagpipe appears also to be a favourite instrument among the natives. They have no taste indeed for any other kind of music, and they would much rather listen to this instrument a whole day than to an organ for ten minutes."—Munro's Narrative, 33.
MUSK, s. We get this word from the Lat. muschus, Greek μόσχος, and the latter must have been got, probably through Persian, from the Skt. mushka, the literal meaning of which is rendered in the old English phrase 'a cod of musk.' The oldest known European mention of the article is that which we give from St. Jerome; the oldest medical prescription is in a work of Aetius, of Amida (c. 540). In the quotation from Cosmas the word used is μόσχος, and kastūri is a Skt. name, still, according to Royle, applied to the musk-deer in the Himālaya. The transfer of the name to (or from) the article called by the Greeks καστόριον, which is an analogous product of the beaver, is curious. The Musk-deer (Moschus moschiferus, L.) is found throughout the Himālaya at elevations rarely (in summer) below 8000 feet, and extends east to the borders of Szechuen, and north to Siberia.
c. 390.—"Odoris autem suavitas, et diversa thymiamata, et amomum, et cyphi, oenanthe, muscus, et peregrini muris pellicula, quod dissolutis et amatoribus conveniat, nemo nisi dissolutus negat."—St. Jerome, in Lib. Secund. adv. Jovinianum, ed. Vallarsii, ii. col. 337.