On Hudson's banks, while men of Belgic spawn

Insult and eat thee by the name suppawn. -Barlow, Hasty-Pudding.

Our hasty-pudding we can eat

Without the Southern sweetness,
Though true it is that mush without

Molasses wants completeness. -Anonymous.

MUSK-RAT. (Fiber zibethicus.) An animal closely allied in form and habits to the beaver, inhabiting the banks of streams and ponds. It has a powerful musky odor in summer, which it loses in winter.

MUSQUASH. (Abenaki Ind., muskwessu.) The musk-rat among the traders in the Northern States is often called by this aboriginal name.

The mussacus is a beaste of the forme and nature of our water rats, but many of them smell exceedingly strongly of muske.-Smith, Hist. of Virginia, 1629, Booke II.

MUSQUASH ROOT. (Cicuta maculata.) An umbelliferous plant and deadly poison.

Muss. A corruption of mess, a state of confusion; a squabble; a row. This vulgarism is very common in New York.

"My head aches," said he; "they have put my mind and body both into a confounded muss."-Mrs. Child, Letters from New York, p. 129.

I saw the British flag a flyin' from the top of the mast, and my first notion was to haul it down, and up with the stars and stripes; but I concluded I had n't better say nothin' about it, for it might get the two nations into a muss, and then there would have to be a war. —Hiram Bigelow's Letter in Fam. Companion.

Mr. Soulé is trying to get up a muss with Spain, or with Louis Napoleon.-Maj. Downing in National Intelligencer.

Mose. Satisfaction, eh! Well, if he wants to make a muss, Play, A Glance at New York.

I'm on hand.

I got into a muss down at the store last night, and was whipped, and deserved it too. -Borthwick's California, p. 153.

When near their place of debarkation, they came across a gang of b'hoys, with whom they came in collision; and as that class of individuals are always inclined to have a bit of a muss," that result was very soon accomplished.-N. Y. Spirit of

the Times.

There is, also, an old English word muss, meaning a scramble; but it has apparently no connection with the above.

To Muss. 1. A corruption of to mess. To disarrange, disorder; to tumble, rumple. Ex. "I hate to ride in an omnibus, because it musses my clothes;" "I'm all mussed up." The word is much used in New York.

See that beautiful girl [the morning after a ball]; her hair mussed and mossy, except what lies in the bureau; and her whole contour wearing the appearance of an angel rammed through a bush fence into a world of wretchedness and woe. —Dow's Sermons, Vol. I. p. 151.

2. (Dutch, morsen.) To soil, besmear, befoul; as, "That child has mussed himself all over with molasses candy."

MUSSULMEN. There are American as well as English writers who thus form the plural of the Turkish Mussulman, erronously imagining the last syllable to be the English word man. The correct plural, of course,

is "Mussulmans."

A correspondent of the N. Y. Daily Times (Nov. 6, 1851) has carried out the absurdity by coining the term Mussulboy! He says:

The Turkish sultan has just sent me one of his sons, Master Abdel Hamid, a little Mussulboy of nine years, to be educated in Paris.

MUSSY. 1. Disarranged, disordered, tumbled; as, "Although your cap has just been ironed, it looks quite mussy."

2. (Dutch, morsig.) Smeary, dirty, nasty; as, "These plates have not been wiped clean; they look mussy."

MUSTAFINA. See Mulatto.

MUSTANG. (Span. mesteño.) The wild horse of the prairies, descended from the stock introduced into America by the first Spanish colonists. He is of various colors, a cream color and piebald being quite common. Mustangs are found in the greatest numbers on the rich prairies of South-western Texas, where I encountered numerous herds, and experienced the not unusual excitement of having a stampede caused by them. They are generally of bad disposition, and hard to subdue. Few are seen west of the Rio Grande.

The wild horse of the prairies, and the invariable companion of their inhabitants. Sparing in diet, a stranger to grain, easily satisfied whether on growing or dead grass, inured to all weathers, capable of great labor, the mustang pony seems as peculiarly adapted to the prairies as the camel is to the desert. -Thorpe's Backwoods, p.

12.

MUSTANGERS.

market.

Men who employ themselves in catching mustangs for

The business of entrapping mustangs has given rise to a class of men called mustangers, composed of runaway vagabonds and outlaws of all nations, the legitimate border-ruffians of Texas. -Olmsted's Texas, p. 443.

MUSTANG GRAPE. Indigenous to Texas, probably a variety of the Vitis rotundiflora of Michaux. The bunches are small, each grape being the size of an ounce lead ball. A wine is made from it similar to Port, or, according to some, Burgundy.

MUSTEE. See Mulatto.

To Mux is much used in New England for muss; as, "Don't mux my crinoline."

TO MUZZLE. To skulk. A Yorkshire word.

The child mopes; she muzzles about in the grass and chips. —Margaret.

N.

NABBER. In the city of New York, a thief.

NAKED POSSESSOR. The occupant of land for a long period without a title, being the manifest, evident, and undisguised possessor, is called in Texas the naked possessor.

Ten years of peaceable possession and cultivation, use, or enjoyment thereof, without any evidence of title, shall give to such naked possessor full property precursive of all other claims, in and to six hundred and forty acres of land, including his improvement. -Laws of Texas.

NANKEEN. (Chinese.) A species of light yellow or fawn-colored cloth, made from cotton of the same color (Gossypium religiosum), which color is permanent. This article was formerly imported in large quantities from China; but since the cultivation of the raw material in the United States, introduced by Mr. John Forsyth, formerly Secretary of State, Nankeens have been manufactured here, in every respect equal to and cheaper than the Chinese article.

NARRAGANSETT PACER. A breed of Rhode Island horses once very famous; but although we often hear of Narragansett pacers, there is now no particular breed so called. In a pamphlet entitled "America Dissected," by the Rev. Dr. Mac Sparran, published in Dublin in 1753, the writer, in speaking of Rhode Island, says: "The produce of this colony is fat cattle, wool, and fine horses, which are exported to all parts of English America. They are remarkable for their fleetness and swift pacing, and I have seen some of them pace a mile in little more than two minutes; a good deal less than three." According to that veritable historian, Diedrich Knickerbocker, Narragansett pacers were well known in the early days of New Amsterdam.

Not so easily did he [Peter Stuyvesant] escape from the crafty hands of a crafty man of Pyquag; who, with undaunted perseverance and repeated onsets, finally bargained him out of his goodly switch-tailed charger, leaving in place thereof a villainous, foundered Narragansett pacer. Knickerbocker's N. Y.

I had an everlastin' fast Narragansett pacer. I was considerable proud of him, I assure you; for he took the rag off the bush in great style. Sam Slick, Human Nature, p. 218.

NARY. A common corruption of "ne'er a."

So nary one, for "ne'er a

one."

It's no use argufyin' the matter,

I'm the ugliest man now on top of dirt.

Thar's nary nuther like me. Widow Bagly's Husband.

"Arter I got into Mobile, I was bothered and pestered by the people stoppin' in the street to look at me, all dirty and lightwood smoked as I was, from being on the boat."

"I think I'd a cleaned up a little," interposed tidy Lucy.

"Old 'oman, ain't you got nary cold tater to choke that gal with?"— Ibid.

Among the many "highfaluting" toasts, sentiments, and mottoes produced on the occasion of the successful laying of the Atlantic telegraph cable, was the following at North Conway:

The Atlantic Cable and the White Mountains, - both monuments of God's power, but nary one alike. — N. Y. Evening Post, Sept. 1, 1858.

NARY RED. A contraction for "ne'er a red (cent)," alluding to the color of the copper cent. -See Red Cent.

In the course of a few weeks the new coin [the nickel cent] will be plentiful enough at par; the Spanish coins will go out of the hands of the brokers, just as they already have disappeared from ordinary circulation; and, as regards the old cents, there will be "nary red” to be seen, except such as will be found in the cabinets of coin collectors. - Philad. Bulletin, May, 1857.

Our citizens last week adopted a new plan for protecting their banks from being run by the brokers. Learning that a broker had reached town from a neighboring city to run the bank for coin, they promptly placed on one side of the bank entrance a bucket of tar and a brush, and upon the opposite, a long, rough looking fence-rail, bearing this inscription, " Nary red to nary broker." As the broker approached the bank, he read the inscription, glanced at the tar-bucket, and retreated The bank went on as usual. — Springfield (Ohio) Nonpariel, 1858.

NATION. A corruption of damnation.

Immense, enormous; very, ex. tremely. Used in both ways in Old and in New England.

There were a nation set a' folks at kirk. Carr's Craven Gloss.

But no sense of a place, some think,

Is this here hill so high;

Cos there, full oft, 'tis nation cold,

But that don't argufy.- Essex Dialect, Noakes and Styles.

You colony chaps are a nation sight too well off, so you be.

And every time they shoot it off,

It takes a horn of powder,

And makes a noise like father's gun,

Only a nation louder. Song. Yankee Doodle.

Sam Slick.

NATIONAL. Relating or belonging to the nation at large, having in view the interests of the whole nation; as opposed to "sectional." Hence the terms "national sentiments," "national man," etc.

If the little men of the New England States have, in a furor of false excitement, been able to sway and guide the popular prejudices to their own material and political elevation, it is satisfactory to the man of national impulses, to reflect that the

passions and mad follies of the hour have not been sufficient to tempt our most gifted geniuses and noble men to forget the advantages and prospects which the Union confers upon and promises to the American people. - Newark Journal, 1858. NATIONAL DEMOCRATS. Democrats who profess to entertain no sectional preference.

I have been given to understand that there are two parties in the South, called "National" and " States-Rights Democrats. If a Southern "National Democrat" means one who is ready to welcome into our ranks with open arms, and cordially embrace and promote, according to his merits, every honest Free State man who reads the Constitution as we do, and will coöperate with us in its maintenance, then I belong to that party, call it as you may, and I should grieve to find a Southern man who does not. - Speech of Hon. J. H. Hammond, Oct. 27, 1858.

NATIVE. At the South, among uneducated people, instead of asking, "What is your native place," or "the place of your nativity," the question is, "Where is your native?"

NATIVE AMERICANS. In speaking of the Native American party, the New York Express says it originated as a consequence of "a meeting held in Carroll Hall in 1843, at which Bishop Hughes made a speech relative to the school system, and advocated a distinct organization, as a party, of the Irish voters of the metropolis, in order to accomplish the end they had in view. This was the first attempt ever made in this country to organize citizens of foreign birth, for the purpose of operating at the election of any candidate." This gave rise, the year following, to the formation of a political party to advocate the rights and privileges of persons born in the United States, in opposition to those of foreigners. The principal measure advocated by it was the extension of the term of residence required by law previous to naturalization from seven to twenty-one years. The extreme lengths to which this party went insured its speedy defeat.

Ten years later (in 1854), a party sprang up with similar principles, known first as the Know Nothing, and now as the American party.— See Know Nothings.

NATIVISIM. The doctrines of the "Native Americans," as a party. NATURALIZED CITIZENS. Those who go through the prescribed process

for naturalization; their minor children at that time in the country; or the widows and children of those who have taken the initiatory steps for naturalization, but have died before they were actually naturalized. Hilliard's Real Property, Vol. II. p. 190.

NAVAL OFFICER. One of the chief officers of the large U. S. customhouses. It is the duty of the Naval Officer to receive copies of all manifests and entries, and, together with the collector, estimate all duties on