summit and sides of an irregular ridge, and command magnificent views over forest-clad hills and deep valleys, studded with villages and cultivated fields, with the snow-covered peaks of Kashmir in the background. The population in 1901 was 1844; but these figures omit the summer visitors, who probably number 10,000. The garrison generally consists of three mountain batteries. Since 1877 the summer offices of the provincial government have been transferred to Simla. The Murree brewery, one of the largest in India, is the chief industrial establishment. The Lawrence Military Asylum for the children of European soldiers is situated here.
MURSHIDABAD or Moorsheedabad, a town and district of British India, in the Presidency division of Bengal. The administrative headquarters of the district are at Berhampur. The town of Murshidabad is on the left bank of the Bhagirathi or old sacred channel of the Ganges. Pop. (1901), 15,168. The city of Murshidabad was the latest Mahommedan capital of Bengal. In 1704 the nawab Murshid Kulia Khan changed the seat of government from Dacca to Maksudabad, which he called after his own name. The great family of Jagat Seth maintained their position as state bankers at Murshidabad from generation to generation. Even after the conquest of Bengal by the British, Murshidabad remained for some time the seat of administration. Warren Hastings removed the supreme civil and criminal courts to Calcutta in 1772, but in 1775 the latter court was brought back to Murshidabad again. In 1790, under Lord Cornwallis, the entire revenue and judicial staffs were fixed at Calcutta. The town is still the residence of the nawab, who ranks as the first nobleman of the province with the style of nawab bahadur of Murshidabad, instead of nawab nazim of Bengal. His palace, dating from 1837, is a magnificent building in Italian style. The city is crowded with other palaces, mosques, tombs, and gardens, and retains such industries as carving in ivory, gold and silver embroidery, and silk-weaving. A college is maintained for the education of the nawab's family.
The District of Murshidabad has an area of 2143 sq. m. It is divided into two nearly equal portions by the Bhagirathi, the ancient channel of the Ganges. The tract to the west, known as the Rarh, consists of hard clay and nodular limestone. The general level is high, but interspersed with marshes and seamed by hill torrents. The Bagri or eastern half belongs to alluvial plains of eastern Bengal. There are few permanent swamps; but the whole country is low-lying, and liable to annual inundation. In the north-west are a few small detached hillocks, said to be of basaltic formation. Pop. (1901), 1,333,184, showing an increase of 6.6% in the decade. The principal industry is that of silk, formerly of much importance, and now revived with government assistance. A narrow-gauge railway crosses the district, from the East Indian line at Nalhati to Azimganj on the Bhagirathi, the home of many rich Jain merchants; and a branch of the Eastern Bengal railway has been opened.
MUS, the name of a Roman family of the plebeian Decian gens. (1) Publius Decius Mus won his first laurels in the Samnite War, when in 343 B.C., while serving as tribune of the soldiers, he rescued the Roman main army from an apparently hopeless position (Livy vii. 34). In 340, as consul with T. Manlius Torquatus as colleague, he commanded in the Latin War. The decisive battle was fought near Mt Vesuvius. The consuls, in consequence of a dream, had agreed that the general whose troops first gave way should devote himself to destruction, and so ensure victory. The left wing under Decius became disordered, whereupon, repeating after the chief pontiff the solemn formula of self-devotion he dashed into the ranks of the Latins, and met his death (Livy viii. 9). (2) His son, also called Publius, consul for the fourth time in 295, followed the example of his father at the battle of Sentinum, when the left wing which he commanded was shaken by the Gauls (Livy x. 28). The story of the elder Decius is regarded by Mommsen as an unhistorical “doublette” of what is related on better authority of the son.
MUSAEUS, the name of three Greek poets. (1) The first was a mythical seer and priest, the pupil or son of Orpheus, who was said to have been the founder of priestly poetry in Attica. According to Pausanias (i. 25) he was buried on the Museum hill, south-west of the Acropolis. He composed dedicatory and purificatory hymns and prose treatises, and oracular responses. These were collected and arranged in the time of Peisistratus by Onomacritus, who added interpolations. The mystic and oracular verses and customs of Attica, especially of Eleusis, are connected with his name (Herod. vii. 6; viii. 96; ix. 43). A Titanomachia and Theogonia are also attributed to him (G. Kinkel, Epicorum graecorum fragmenta, 1878). (2) The second was an Ephesian attached to the court of the kings of Pergamum, who wrote a Perseis, and poems on Eumenes and Attalus (Suïdas, s.v.). (3) The third (called Grammaticus in all the MSS.) is of uncertain date, but probably belongs to the beginning of the 6th century A.D., as his style and metre are evidently modelled after Nonnus. He must have lived before Agathias (530–582) and is possibly to be identified with the friend of Procopius whose poem (340 hexameter lines) on the story of Hero and Leander is by far the most beautiful of the age (editions by F. Passow, 1810; G. H. Schäfer, 1825; C. Dilthey, 1874). The little love-poem Alpheus and Arethusa (Anthol. pal. ix. 362) is also ascribed to Musaeus.
MUSA KHEL, a Pathan tribe on the Dera Ghazi Khan border of the Punjab province of India. They are of Kakar origin, numbering 4670 fighting men. They enter British territory by the Vihowa, Pass, and carry on an extensive trade, but are not dependent on India for the necessaries of life. They are a peaceful and united race, and have been friendly to the British, but at enmity with the Khetrans and the Baluch tribes to the south of their country. In 1879 the Musa Khels and other Pathan tribes to the number of 5000 made a demonstration against Vihowa, but the town was reinforced and they dispersed. In 1884 they were punished, together with the Kakars, by the Zhob Valley Expedition.
MUSÄUS, JOHANN KARL AUGUST (1735–1787), German author, was born on the 29th of March 1735 at Jena, studied theology at the university, and would have become the pastor of a parish but for the resistance of some peasants, who objected that he had been known to dance. In 1760 to 1762 he published in three volumes his first work, Grandison der Zweite, afterwards (in 1781–1782) rewritten and issued with a new title, Der deutsche Grandison. The object of this book was to satirize Samuel Richardson’s hero, who had many sentimental admirers in Germany. In 1763 Musäus was made master of the court pages at Weimar, and in 1769 he became professor at the Weimar gymnasium. His second book—Physiognomische Reisen—did not appear until 1778–1779. It was directed against Lavater, and attracted much favourable attention. In 1782 to 1786 he published his best work Volksmärchen der Deutschen. Even in this series of tales, the substance of which Musäus collected among the people, he could not refrain from satire. The stories, therefore, lack the simplicity of genuine folk-lore. In 1785 was issued Freund Heins Erscheinungen in Holbeins Manier by J. R. Schellenberg, with explanations in prose and verse by Musäus. A collection of stories entitled Straussfedern, of which a volume appeared in 1787, Musäus was prevented from completing by his death on the 28th of October 1787.
The Volksmärchen have been frequently reprinted (Düsseldorf, 1903, &c.). They were translated into French in 1844, and three of the stories are included in Carlyle’s German Romance (1827); Musäus’s Nachgelassene Scriften were edited by his relative, A. von Kotzebue (1791). See M. Müller, J. K. A. Musäus (1867), and an essay by A. Stern in Beiträge zur Literaturgeschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts (1893).
MUSCAT, Muskat or Maskat, a town on the south-east
coast of Arabia, capital of the province of Oman. Its value
as a naval base is derived from its position, which commands
the entrance to the Persian Gulf. The town of Gwadar, the
chief port of Makrān, belongs to Muscat, and by arrangement
with the sultan the British occupy that port with a telegraph
station of the Indo-Persian telegraph service. An Indian
political residency is established at Muscat. In geographical
