Granite and freestone are quarried. Ben More deer forest and the excellent fishing and shooting attract many sportsmen. There are several ancient castles, the principal being those of Duart and Aros. Close to the former is a lighthouse erected in memory of William Black. the novelist (d. 1898). About midway between Mull and Lismore is the Lady Rock, visible at low water, on which, in 1523, Lachlan Maclean of Duart exposed his wife, a daughter of the second earl of Argyll, expecting that she would be drowned by the flowing tide. She was, however, saved by her clansfolk and her husband was afterwards slain by her brother. Joanna Baillie (1762–1851) made the incident the leading theme of her drama of The Family Legend. Tobermory (“the Well of Mary,” so called from a spring of local celebrity) is the only town (pop. 1175). It is placed on a pretty bay, the houses standing on tree-clad heights. It was founded in 1788 as a station for fishing-boats, and the herring fishery is still of some consequence. It has regular communication by steamer with Stornoway, Oban and Glasgow. Off the north-western shore of Mull, separated by a narrow strait, lies the isle of Ulva, 434 m. long and 212 m. broad, whose inhabitants are mostly engaged in fishing and kelp-gathering. Close to Ulva, and practically one with it at low tide, is the isle of Gometra, about 112 m. long and 2 m. broad, the people of which are chiefly occupied with fishing. Little Colonsay lies about 2 m. south of Ulva. Farther west is the small group of the Treshnish Isles.
MULL. (1) A soft plain muslin exported largely from England
to India, &c., and used also in some qualities for summer dresses
in the home trade. The name is an abbreviation of the Hindu
mulmul. (2) A word, derived from the same root as seen in
“meal” and “mill,” meaning that which is ground or reduced
in other ways to powder or small particles. Thus a snuff-box
is in Scotland called a “mull,” from the early machines in which
the tobacco was ground. Large snuff-mulls, which remained
stationary on a table, as opposed to the small portable boxes,
often took the form of a ram’s head ornamented in silver.
Possibly from the ground or grated spices with which ale or wine
is flavoured when heated, comes the expression “mulled,” as
applied to such a beverage. The colloquial expression “to
make a mull,” i.e. to muddle or make a failure of something,
also perhaps connected with “to mull,” to reduce to powder.
(3) The Scots word “mull,” meaning a promontory or headland,
as the Mull of Galloway, the Mull of Kintyre, represents the
Gaelic maol, cf. Icelandic mūli in the same sense; this may be
the same as mūli, snout, cf. Ger. Maul.
MULLAH (Arabic maula, a term which originally expresses
the legal bond connecting a former owner with his manumitted
slave, both patron and client being called maula, and thus
suggests the idea of patronage), in Mahommedan countries,
a learned man, a teacher, a doctor of the law, In India the
term is applied to the man who reads the Koran, and also to a
Mussulman schoolmaster. In countries like Afghanistan the
mullahs exert an influence over the populace which sometimes
rivals that of the amir himself, and they have been responsible
for many disturbances in Kabul. Among the democratic tribes
of the north-west frontier of India they almost take the place
of a secular chief. In the Indian frontier risings of 1897–98 the
“mad mullah” of Swat led the attack upon the Malakand,
while the Hadda mullah was largely responsible for the risings
amongst the Mohmands, Afridis and Orakzais. The leader of
the risings in Somaliland in 1899–1910 was similarly known
as the “mad mullah.”
MÜLLER, FERDINAND VON, Baron (1825–1896), German
botanist and explorer, was born at Rostock on the 30th of June
1825, and was educated, after the early death of his parents, in
Schleswig. He studied the flora of Schleswig and Holstein
from 1840 to 1847, when he emigrated to South Australia and
travelled through the colony from 1848 to 1852, discovering
and describing a large number of plants previously unknown.
In 1852 he was appointed government botanist for Victoria,
and examined its flora, and especially the Alpine vegetation
of Australia, which was previously unknown. Then, as phytographic
naturalist, he joined the expedition sent out under
Augustus Gregory by the duke of Newcastle, secretary of state
for the colonies. He explored the river Victoria and other
portions of North Australia, was one of the four who reached
Termination Lake in 1856, and accompanied Gregory’s expedition
overland to Moreton Bay. From 1857 to 1873 he was
director of the Botanical Gardens, Melbourne, and not only
introduced many plants into Victoria, but made the excellent
qualities of the blue gum tree (Eucalyptus globulus) known all
over the world, and succeeded in introducing it into the south
of Europe, North and South Africa, California, and the extra-tropical
portions of South America. For these services he
was decorated by many foreign countries, including France,
Spain, Denmark and Portugal; was created K.C.M.G. in 1879,
baron of the kingdom of Württemberg in 1871, and F.R.S.
in 1861. He published eleven volumes of Fragmenta phytographica
Australiae (1862–1881), two volumes of the Plants of
Victoria (1860–1865), and other books on the Eucalyptus, Myoporaceae,
Acacias, and Salsolaceae, all profusely illustrated. He
also co-operated in the production of G. Bentham’s Flora
Australiensis. He took a leading part in promoting Australian
exploration, especially the Burke and Wills expedition, which
was the first to cross the continent, and in the various attempts
to unravel the mystery which attended the fate of his fellow-countryman
Ludwig Leichhardt (1813–1848). He died at
Melbourne on the 9th of October 1896.
MÜLLER, FRIEDRICH (1749–1825), German poet, dramatist
and painter, usually known as Maler (i.e. painter) Müller, was
born at Kreuznach on the 13th of January 1749. He studied
painting at Zweibrücken, and in 1774–1775 settled in Mannheim,
where in 1777 he was appointed court painter. In 1778 he was
enabled by a public subscription to visit Italy, which remained
his home for the rest of his life. In 1780 he became a Roman
Catholic. He was unfavourably influenced by the study of
Italian models, and gradually gave up painting and devoted
himself to the study of the history of art; his services as
cicerone were especially in demand among German visitors to
Rome. Before he left Mannheim he had tried his hand at
literature, under the influence of the Sturm und Drang movement.
A lyric drama, Niobe (1778), attracted little attention;
but Fausts Leben dramatisiert (1778) appealed to the turbulent
spirit of the time, and Golo und Genoveva (begun in 1776, but
not published till 1811) was an excellent imitation of Goethe’s
Götz von Berlichingen. He struck out a more independent
path in his idylls, notably Die Schafschur (1775) and Das
Nusskernen (1811), in which, emancipating himself from the
artificiality of Gessner, he reproduced scenes—not without a
touch of satire—from the German peasant life of his day. He
died at Rome on the 23rd of April 1825.
Maler Müller’s Werke appeared in 3 vols. (1811–1825); in 1868 H. Hettner published two volumes of Dichtungen von Maler Müller, which contain most of his writings. Gedichte von Maler Friedrich Müller; eine Nachlese zu dessen Werken appeared in 1873, and his Fausts Leben was reprinted by B. Seuffert in 1881. See A. Sauer, “Stürmer und Dränger,” vol. iii. (Kurschner’s Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. 81, 1883); and B. Seuffert, Maler Müller (1877).
MÜLLER, GEORGE (1805–1898), English preacher and
philanthropist, was born near Halberstadt, Germany, on the
27th of September 1805, the son of an exciseman. He subsequently
became a naturalized British subject. Educated in
Germany, he resolved in 1826 to devote himself to missionary
work, and in 1828 went to London to prepare for an appointment
offered him by the Society for promoting Christianity among
the Jews. In 1830 however he gave up the idea of missionary
work, and became minister of a small congregation at Teignmouth,
Devonshire. He contended that the temporal as well
as the spiritual needs of life could be supplied by prayer, and on
this principle abolished pew rents and refused to take a fixed
salary. After two years at Teignmouth, Müller removed to
Bristol, where he spent the rest of his life. He devoted himself
particularly to the care of orphan children. He began by taking
a few under his charge, but in course of time their number
increased to 2000, settled in five large houses erected for the
