Moustaches

MOVEMENT 2 6 7

inflicted devastation on the eastern Roman empire, invaded Gaul, and threatened Rome.

Various veterans had told him tales. Some talked of gray, bewhiskered hordes who were advancing with relentless curses and chewing tobacco with unspeakable valor; tremendous bodies of fierce soldiery who were sweeping along like the Huns.

STEPHEN CRANE The Red Badge of Courage, 1895

Moses • See RED SEA.

Muhammad According to legend, Muhammad (sometimes called Mahomet) summoned Mount Safa to come to him after being challenged to demonstrate his miraculous powers. When it failed to do so he attributed this to the mercy of Allah, for if it had come it would have crushed him and the bystanders. If the mountain would not come to him, said Muhammad, then he would go to the mountain. This phrase can be used in any context when a person or thing that you want is unwilling or unable to come to you, as a result of which you must make an effort to go yourself.

The child scrambled up to the top of the wall and called again and again; but finding this of no avail, apparently made up his mind, like Mahomet, to go to the mountain, since the mountain would not come to him.

ANNE BRONTE The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, 1848

Noah's dove In the biblical account of the flood, Noah sent out birds from the ark in the hope that they would bring back evidence of dry land: 'At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, and sent forth a raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground' (Gen. 8: 6-8). • See special entry •

FLOOD on p. 279.

He had research assistants, in fluctuating numbers, whom he despatched like Noah's doves and ravens into the libraries of the world, clutching numbered slips of paper, like cloakroom tickets or luncheon vouchers, each containing a query, a half-line of possible quotation, a proper name to be located.

A. s. BYATT Possession, 1990

Peripatetic The word 'Peripatetic' (literally 'walking around') came to be applied to Aristotle's school at the Lyceum on account of his habit of walking up and down while teaching his students.

A large group of buyers stood round the auctioneer, or followed him when, between his pauses, he wandered on from one lot of plantation-produce to another, like some philosopher of the Peripatetic school delivering his lectures in the shady groves of the Lyceum.

THOMAS HARDY The Woodlanders, 1887

Red Sea According to the Old Testament Book of Exodus, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, which God caused to part for them to go through. The pursuing Egyptians were drowned when the waters closed

on them. •See special entry • MOSES AND THE BOOK OF EXODUS on p. 264.

They hurry after the Plenipo. Moses going through the Red Sea, thinks Gideon of Elliott's progress through the crowd.

TIMOTHY MO An Insular Possession, 1986

2 6 8 MURDERERS

Murderers

Most of the figures below are associated with the murder of a spouse,

parent, or sibling. Other murderers are covered at the themes Criminals

and Outlaws. • See also Evil.

Bluebeard Bluebeard is a character in a tale by Charles Perrault's in the collection Histoires et contes du temps passé (1697). In the story, Bluebeard has a reputation for marrying women who subsequently disappear. He leaves his most recent wife, Fatima, in charge of their house while he is away, instructing her not to open a locked room in the house, although he leaves her the key. Overcome with curiosity, she opens the room, only to discover the bodies of his previous wives. Any murderous husband can be described as a Bluebeard.

'It'll be his wife,' said the woman, peering at the Doctor in awe and horror. 'Murdered his wife! You Bluebeard!'

HUCH LOFTING Dr Dolittle's Circus, 1924

This is one of the strangest cases this court may ever have heard. The case of a Bluebeard who kept his wife a virtual prisoner in their flat in Muswell Hill.

JOHN MORTIMER Rumpole of the Bailey, 1978

Lizzie Borden Lizzie Borden (i860-1927) was an American woman acquitted in 1893 of the charge of murdering her father and stepmother the previous year. Nevertheless, many believed that she had killed them, giving rise to a popular rhyme:

'Lizzie Borden took an axe

And gave her mother forty whacks; When she saw what she had done She gave her father forty-one!'

Cain In the Bible, Cain was the eldest son of Adam and Eve. He killed his younger brother Abel, thus becoming, in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, the first recorded murderer. As a punishment for this crime, Cain was cursed to wander the earth for the rest of his life (Gen. 4: 2-16). God put a mark on him to indicate that no-one should kill him and thus shorten the punishment. The phrase 'mark of Cain' has come to stand for the sign of a murderer. • See special entry D CAIN on p. 44.

Marks may not even have been his real name, she said; it should have been Mark, for the Mark of Cain, as he had a murderous look about him.

MARGARET ATWOOD Alias Grace, 1996

Clytemnestra In Greek mythology, Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. During her husband's absence at the Trojan War she had taken a lover, Aegisthus. On Agamemnon's triumphant return from the war she and Aegisthus laid a trap for him, murdering him in his bath.

Dr Crippen Hawley Harvey Crippen (1862-1910), known as Dr Crippen, was