Mossi \'mo-se\ People of Burkina Faso and other parts of western Africa, mainly Mali and Togo. They speak Moore, a Gur language of the Niger- Congo family. Mossi society, organized as in the former Mossi states (c. 1500-1895), is divided into royalty, nobles, commoners, and formerly slaves. The morho naba (“big lord”) occupies a court in Ouagadougou. In the colonial era the Mossi acted as trading intermediaries between the forest states and the cities of the Niger. Today most of the nearly six mil¬ lion Mossi are sedentary farmers.
Mossi states Complex of independent western African kingdoms (c. 1500-1895) around the headwaters of the Volta River, within present-day Burkina Faso and Ghana. Though tradition held that their ancestors came from the east, perhaps in the 13th century, the kingdoms’ origins are obscure. The Mossi people harassed the empires of Mali and Songhai and vied for control of the Niger River. From c. 1400 the states acted as trading intermediaries between the forest states and the cities of the Niger. They remained independent until the French invasions of the late 19th century.
most-favoured-nation treatment Guarantee of same trading opportunities (i.e., tariff concessions) already granted to the most favoured
nation (MFN). It is a method of establishing equal trading opportunities among states by making originally bilateral agreements multilateral. Attempts to guarantee equal trading opportunities were incorporated into commercial treaties as far back as the early 17th century. The Anglo- French treaty signed in 1860 became the model for many later trade agreements, establishing a set of interlocking tariff concessions (see tar¬ iff) later extended worldwide by most-favoured-nation treatment. MFN treatment has always applied primarily to the duties charged on imports, but specific provisions have extended the principle to other areas of eco¬ nomic contact, including property rights, patents, and copyrights. See also General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; reciprocity; World Trade Organi¬ zation.
Mostel \ma-'stel. Zero orig. Samuel Joel Mostel (b. Feb. 28, 1915, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Sept. 8, 1977, Philadelphia, Pa.) U.S. actor. He initially worked both on Broadway and in film, but after being blacklisted in Hollywood after 1955, he worked principally in theatre in New York City. He gave acclaimed performances in Ulysses in Nighttown (1958) and Rhinoceros (1961), and he had lead roles in the musicals A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) and Fiddler on the Roof (1964). His later films included Mel Brooks’s The Producers (1968) and The Front (1976), a film about the blacklisting era. Mostel was also a serious painter throughout his life.
Mosul \mo-'sul, 'mo-sol \ Arabic Al-Mawsil V.al-mau-'selV City (pop., 2003 est.: 1,800,000), northwestern Iraq. Located across the Tigris River from the ruins of ancient Nineveh, which it succeeded, Mosul prospered until 1258, when it was ravaged by the Mongols. It was a centre of the Ottoman Empire (c. 1534-1918). After World War I (1914-18) it was occu¬ pied by the British and in 1926 was ceded to Iraq. The country’s second largest city and a chief commercial centre in the northwest, it has manu¬ facturing (cement, textiles) and an oil refinery and nearby oil fields. It has many ancient buildings, some dating from the 13th century, including the Great Mosque and the Red Mosque.
Motagua \mo-'ta-gwa\ River River, eastern Guatemala. It is the coun¬ try’s longest river, flowing about 250 mi (400 km) east and northeast into the Gulf of Honduras near the Honduran border. Locally the river is called the Silbapec near its source and the Rio Grande farther downstream. It is a major transportation artery for bananas, coffee, and other crops raised in its eastern valleys.
motel Hotel designed for persons traveling by automobile, with conve¬ nient parking space provided (the name blends the words “motor hotel”). Originally usually consisting of a series of separate or attached roadside cabins, motels serve commercial and business travelers and persons attending conventions and business meetings as well as vacationers and tourists. By 1950 the automobile was the principal mode of travel in the U.S., and motels were built near large highways, just as hotels had been built near railroad stations.
motet Latin choral composition, generally in one movement. Its origins are in the 13th century, when words (French mots) began to be added to originally wordless polyphonic lines in settings of plainchant. It grew directly out of the clausula, a polyphonic decoration of a portion of organum, but it soon split off to become a separate composition, while retaining a meaningless fragment of chant text and melody in the tenor part. The upper texts often became a confusing mixture of sacred and secular—and even anticlerical—poems, indicating its intended perfor¬ mance in courtly as well as ecclesiastical settings. The motet was the most important musical genre of the 13th century and an essential vehicle for the development of polyphony. In the Renaissance, sacred motets, now employing a single text, were written by composers such as Josquin des Prez, Orlande de Lassus, and William Byrd, though it remains unclear how often they were performed in church settings. In the 17th—18th centuries, motets were written by Jean-Baptiste Lully, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Hein¬ rich Schutz, and Johann Sebastian Bach. After c. 1750 the genre declined, and its distinguishing characteristics became diffuse.
moth Any of several thousand lepidopteran species, found in all but polar habitats. Moths are chiefly nocturnal and have a stouter body, duller colouring, and proportionately smaller wings than butterflies. They have distinctive feathery antennae and, when at rest, fold their wings, wrap them around the body, or hold them extended at their sides. Wingspans range from less than 1 in. (2.5 cm) to about 1 ft (30 cm). The life cycle has four stages: egg, larva (caterpillar, or worm), pupa (chrysalis), and adult (imago). Both larvae and adults of most species are plant eaters, and
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Mother Goose ► motocross I 1301
many seriously damage forests, agricultural crops, and fabrics. See also BAGWORM MOTH; GYPSY MOTH; HAWK MOTH; LUNA MOTH; MILLER; SATURNIID MOTH; SILKWORM MOTH; TIGER MOTH; TUSSOCK MOTH.
Mother Goose Fictitious old woman, reputedly the source of the body of traditional children’s songs and verses known as nursery rhymes. Often pictured as a beak-nosed, sharp-chinned old woman riding on the back of a flying gander, she was first associated with nursery rhymes in Mother Goose’s Melody (1781), published by the successors of John Newbery. The name apparently derived from the title of Charles Perrault’s collection of fairy tales Ma Mere I’oye (1697; “My Mother Goose”). The persistent rumour that Mother Goose was an actual Boston woman is false.
Mother Jones See Mary Harris Jones
Mother Lode Country Former gold-rush belt, Sierra Nevada foothills, central California, U.S. It was about 150 mi (240 km) long but only a few miles wide. The gold rush was sparked by the 1848 discovery of placer gold on John Sutter’s property. The term mother lode evolved from the miners’ concept of one main quartz vein with subsidiary offshoot veins. Exhaustion of the main gold streaks and a government-enforced price structure for gold caused mining operations to cease there in the 1930s. The area is dotted with scores of ghost camps and old mining towns.