MUD-WALLS. The ancient fortifications consisted chiefly of mud or clay, thrown up in any convenient form for defence against sudden inroads.
MUET, Fr. See Mute.
To MUFFLE. To wrap any thing up so as to deaden the sound, which might otherwise issue from the contact of two hard substances. When the French effected their passage over the march Albaredo, on their route to the plain of Marengo, they were so much exposed to the Austrians, that, in order to get their artillery and ammunition over, without being betrayed by the noise of the carriage wheels, and the clattering of the horses’ shoes, both were muffled with bands of hay and straw, and dung was spread over the ground. In this manner they crossed that stupendous rock. Thirty men were put to the drag ropes of each piece, and as many were employed to draw up the caissons.
Muffled. Drums are muffled at military funerals or burials, and at military executions, particularly when a soldier is shot for some capital crime.
MUGS. An Indian nation, living on the borders of Bengal and Arracan.
MUHLAGIS, Fr. Turkish cavalry which is mounted by expert horsemen, who generally attend the beglierbeys. They are not numerous.
MULATTOS, (Mulâtre, Fr.) In the Indies, denotes one begotten by a negro man on an Indian woman, or by an Indian man on a negro woman. Those begotten of a Spanish woman and Indian man are called metis, and those begotten of a savage by a metis, are called jambis. They also differ very much in color, and in their hair.
Generally speaking, especially in Europe, and in the West Indies, a Mulatto is one begotten by a white man on a negro woman, or by a negro man on a white woman. The word is Spanish, mulata, and formed of mula, a mule, being begotten as it were of two different species.
Mulattoes abound in the West Indies; so much so, that on the dangerous symptoms of insurrection, which appeared among the blacks after the success of Toussaint in St. Domingo, a proposal was made to the British government by a rich planter, to raise a mulatto corps, as an intermediate check upon the blacks. After six months suspence, the memorial was rejected by the war-minister.
MULCT. A soldier is said to be mulct of his pay when put under fine or stoppages for necessaries, or to make good some dilapidations committed by him on the property of the people or government.