OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mosby, John Singleton

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​MOSBY, JOHN SINGLETON (1833–), American soldier, was born in Edgemont, Powhatan county, Virginia, on the 6th of December 1833. He graduated at the university of Virginia in 1852, was admitted to the bar in 1855, and practised law in Bristol, Washington county, Virginia, until the beginning of the Civil War, when he joined the cause of the South. He enlisted as a private in the Washington Mounted Rifles, which became a part of General J. E. B. Stuart’s 1st Virginia Cavalry, and of which he was adjutant for a time. In June 1862, after having gone over the ground alone on scouting duty, he accompanied Stuart in his ride round McClellan’s entire army. Early in 1863 he secured Stuart’s permission to undertake a quasi-independent command. In Fairfax county and then in Fauquier and Loudoun counties (known as Mosby’s Confederacy), within the Federal lines, he raised, mounted, armed and equipped a force of irregulars. On the night of the 8th of March 1863, with about 30 men, he penetrated the Federal lines at Fairfax Court-House and took 33 prisoners, including Brigadier-General Edwin H. Stoughton, commanding the 2nd Vermont brigade; and he became famous for other such exploits. In the North he was regarded as a guerilla who disregarded the rules of war, and in the autumn of 1864, Sheridan, acting under orders from Grant, shot and hanged seven of Mosby’s men without trial; in November Mosby retaliated by hanging seven of Custer’s cavalrymen. Eventually, on the 21st of April 1865, twelve days after the surrender of General Lee, he disbanded his men and surrendered; and through the influence of General Grant, who later became his personal friend, he was paroled. He returned to his legal practice, joined the Republican party, canvassed Virginia in 1872 for General Grant, in 1878–1885 was United States consul at Hong-Kong, and after practising law in San Francisco, was assistant attorney in the Federal Department of Justice from 1904 to 1910. He wrote Mosby’s Reminiscences and Stuart’s Cavalry Campaigns (Boston, 1887), and—a defence of Stuart and of Lee—Stuart’s Cavalry in the Gettysburg Campaign (New York, 1908).
See J. Marshall Crawford, Mosby and his Men (New York, 1867); A. Monteiro, War Reminiscences by the Surgeon of Mosby’s Command (Richmond, Virginia, 1890); James J. Williamson, Mosby’s Rangers (New York, 1909); John W. Munson, Reminiscences of a Mosby Guerrilla (New York, 1906); John H. Alexander, Mosby’s Men (New York, 1907); and Partisan Life with Mosby (New York, 1867), by John Scott, who drafted the Partisan Ranger Law, under which Mosby’s command operated.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mosel

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​MOSEL (Fr. Moselle), a river of France and Germany, a left-bank tributary of the Rhine. It rises at an altitude of 2411 ft. on the west flank of the Vosges, close to the Franco-German frontier, and a little N. of the Ballon d’Alsace. It flows first N.W. through the French department of Vosges, bends towards N. through that of Meurthe-et-Moselle, forms the Franco-German frontier for a short distance below Pagny, and enters Lorraine. From Sierck to Wasserbillig it forms the frontier between the Rhine Province and Luxemburg, then, turning N.E., it follows a sinuous course and reaches the Rhine at Coblenz. The principal towns on the banks of the Mosel are, in France: Remiremont, Épinal, Toul and Pont-à-Mousson; in Germany: Metz, Diedenhofen, Trier (Trèves) and Coblenz. The Mosel receives the waters of the Moselotte, Meurthe, Seille and Saar (its principal tributary) on the right, and the Madon, Orne and Sauer on the left. Navigation for small vessels extends downwards from Fronard, a little below Nancy, the Mosel canal affording communication from a point above Metz to the frontier. In the lower part of the valley are the vineyards from which the well-known Mosel wines are produced. The valley of the Mosel, especially the part between Trier and Kochem, is noted both for picturesque scenery and for many sites of antiquarian interest. The length of the river is 314 m.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Moselle-Line

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​MOSELLE-LINE, the designation of a line of French barrier forts (forts d’arrêt) on the upper Moselle between the fortresses ​of Épinal and Belfort (see these articles, also Meuse Line and articles referred to therein). The purpose of this line, the separate forts of which command the relatively few lines of advance from upper Alsace through the Vosges, is to deflect a possible German invasion from Alsace either towards Belfort or towards the open gap between Épinal and Toul called the Trouée d’Épinal.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pwllheli

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​PWLLHELI (“ salt pit,” or “ pool ”), a municipal and contributory parliamentary borough (Carnarvon district), seaport and market-town of Carnarvonshire, North Wales, 20 m. S. of Carnarvon and 270 m. from London by rail. Pop. (1901), 3675. It is on the north side of Cardigan Bay, on the shore of Tremadoc Bay, with a sandy beach 4 m. in length and good bathing. It is the terminus of the Cambrian railway (the London & North-Western railway being 4 m. distant at Afonwen junction). Pwllheli commands a good view of Merionethshire and of the Snowdon range, with the entire sweep of Cardigan Bay, Carreg yr ymbill (gimlet stone) at the mouth of the harbour, Abersoch and St Tudwal's Islands. Many hundred acres of land have been reclaimed from the sea here and along the coast of the bay; there are costly embankments and good harbour age. The coast is locally noted for fisheries (especially of lobsters and oysters) and some ship-building is carried on. Pwllheli was incorporated by Edward the Black Prince. At Nevin (Nefyn), 6 m. distant, Edward I. held a tournament or revel, in 1284, on a magnificent scale, to commemorate his conquest of Wales.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Putty

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​PUTTY, originally tin oxide in a state of fine division used for polishing glass, granite, &c., now known as “ putty powder ” or “ polisher's putty ” (from O. Fr. potée, a potful, hence brass, tin, pewter, &c., calcined in a pot). More commonly the term is applied to a kind of cement composed of fine powdered chalk intimately mixed with linseed oil, either boiled or raw, to the consistency of a tough dough. It is principally used by glaziers for bedding and fixing sheets of glass in windows and other frames, and by joiners and painters for filling up nail-holes and other inequalities in the surface of woodwork. The oxidation of the oil gradually hardens the putty into a very dense adherent mass, but when it is required to dry quickly, boiled oil and sometimes litharge and other driers are used. The word is also used of a line lime cement employed by masons.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Puzzle

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​PUZZLE, a perplexing question, particularly a mechanical toy or other device involving some constructional problem, to be solved by the exercise of patience or ingenuity. Some of the oldest mechanical puzzles are those of the Chinese, one of the most familiar being that known as the tangram (chi ch'iao t'ue), which consists of a square of wood or other material cut into five triangles, of different sizes, a small square and a lozenge, which can be so placed as to form over 300 different figures. This puzzle is sometimes made of ivory carved with the delicate workmanship for which the Chinese craftsmen are renowned, and is enclosed in a carved box. Another well-known puzzle is known as the “ Chinese rings,” consisting of a series of rings running linked together on a bar, the problem being to take them off the bar and replace them. The commonest of all puzzles are coloured maps, pictures (“ jig-saw ”) or designs, dissected into numerous variously shaped pieces, to be fitted together to form the complete design. A great number of puzzles are based on mathematical principles, such as the “ fifteen puzzle,” the “ railway shunting puzzle,” and the like.
See W. W. Rouse Ball, Mathematical Recreations and Amusements 1892.
The etymology of the word “ puzzle ” is disputed. It has been usual to consider that the verb, which appears first at the end of the 16th century, is derived from the substantive, and that this is an aphetic form of “ apposal ” or “ opposal ” i.e. opposition, hence a question for solution, cf. Lydgate, Fall of Princes, quoted by Skeat (Etym. Dict. 1898). The New English Dictionary, however, takes it as clear from the chronological evidence and sense-development that the substantive is derived from the verb, which, in its earliest examples, means to put in embarrassing material circumstances, to bewilder, to perplex. This seems against making “ to puzzle ” a derivative of “ to pose,” i.e. “ oppose,” to examine by putting questions. Some connexion may be found with a much earlier word “ poselet,” confused, bewildered, which does not occur later than the end of the 14th century.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Puy

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​PUY, a geological term used locally in Auvergne for a volcanic hill. Most of the puys of central France are small cinder-cones, with or without associated lava, whilst others are domes of trachytic rock, like the domite of the Puy-de-Dôme. The puys may be scattered as isolated hills, or, as is more usual, clustered together, sometimes in lines. The chain of puys in central France probably became extinct in late prehistoric time. Other volcanic hills more or less like those of Auvergne are also known to geologists as puys; examples may be found in the Eifel and in the small cones on the Bay of Naples, whilst the relics of denuded puys are numerous in the Swabian Alps of Württemberg, as pointed out by W. Branco. Sir A. Geikie has shown that the puy type of eruption was common in the British area in Carboniferous and Permian times, as abundantly attested in central Scotland by remains of the old volcanoes, now generally reduced by denudation to the mere neck, or volcanic vent, filled with tuff and agglomerate, or plugged with lava.
See Sir A. Geikie, Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain (1897).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pyapon

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​PYAPON, a town and district of Lower Burma. The town is situated on a river of the same name, one of the numerous mouths of the Irrawaddy, about 12 m. from the sea. Pop. (1901), 5883. The district, which was only formed in 1903, lies within the delta of the Irrawaddy. It is a vast plain, intersected by tidal creeks and subject to inundation at high spring tides. The swampy jungle is being rapidly reclaimed for rice cultivation, which is the sole crop. Area, 2137 sq. In.; pop. (1901), 226,443, showing an increase of 63 % in the decade.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pyat, Felix

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​PYAT, FELIX (1810-1889), French Socialist, was born at Vierzon (Cher) on the 4th of October 1810, the son of a Legitimist lawyer. Called to the bar in Paris in 1831, he threw his whole energies into journalism. The violent personalities of a pamphlet entitled Marie Joseph Chénier et le prince des critiques (1844), in reply to Jules Janin, brought him a six months sojourn in La Pélagie, in the cell just quitted by Larnennais. He worked with other dramatists in a long series of plays, with an interval of six years on the National, until the revolution of 1848. George Sand, whom he had introduced in 1830 to the staff of the Figaro, now asked Ledru-Rollin to make him commissary-general of the Cher. After three months' tenure of this office he was returned by the department to the Constituent Assembly, where he Voted with the Mountain, and brought forward the celebrated motion for the abolition of the presidential office. About this time he fought a duel with Proudhon, who ​had called him the “aristocrat of the democracy.” He joined Ledru-Rollin in the attempt of the 13th of June 1849, after which he sought refuge in Switzerland, Belgium, and finally in England. For a glorification of regicide on the occasion of the Orsini attempt against Napoleon III. he was brought before an English court, but acquitted, and the general amnesty of 1869 permitted his return to France, but further outbursts against the authorities, followed by prosecution, compelled him to return to England. The revolution of the 4th of September brought him back to Paris, and it was he who in his paper Le Combat displayed a black-edged announcement of the pourparlers for the surrender of Metz. After the insurrection of the 31st of October he was imprisoned for a short time. In January 1871, Le Combat was suppressed, only to be followed by an equally virulent Vengeur. Elected to the National Assembly, he retired from Bordeaux with Henri Rochefort and others until such time as the “parricidal” vote for peace should be annulled. He returned to Paris to join the committee of public safety, and, in Hanotaux's words, was the âme ulcérée of the Commune, but was blamed for the loss of the fort of Issy. He was superseded there by Delescluze, but he continued to direct the violent acts of the Commune, the overthrow of the Vendôme column, the destruction of Thiers's residence and of the expiatory chapel built to the memory of Louis XVI. He escaped the vengeance of the Versailles government, crossed the frontier in safety, and, though he had been condemned to death in his absence in 1873, the general amnesty of July 1880 permitted his return to Paris. He was returned to the Chamber of Deputies for the department of Bouches-du-Rhône in March 1888 and took his seat on the extreme Left, but died at Saint-Gratien on the 3rd of August 1889.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Puylaurens, Antoine de Laage, Duc de

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​PUYLAURENS, ANTOINE DE LAAGE, Duc de (d. 1635), French courtier, was born of an old Languedoc family. Attached to the household of Gaston, duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIII., he gained a complete ascendancy over the weak prince by pandering to his pleasures, and became his adviser in the intrigues against Cardinal Richelieu. It was Puylaurens who arranged the escape of Gaston to Brussels in 1632 after the capture of Henri, duc de Montmorency, and then negotiated his return with Richelieu, on condition that he should be reconciled to the king. As a reward Richelieu gave him Aiguillon, erected into a duchy. But he plunged into new intrigues, and was imprisoned first in the Louvre in 1635, then in Vincennes, where he died the same year.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pyanepsia

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​PYANEPSIA, or Pyanopsia (from Gr. πύανός=κύανός, bean, and ἕψειν, to boil), an ancient festival in honour of Apollo, held at Athens on the 7th of the month Pyanepsion October. A hodge-podge of pulse was prepared into a stew and offered to Apollo (in his capacity as sun god and ripener of fruits) and the Horae, as the first-fruits of the autumn harvest. Another offering on this occasion was the eiresiōnē. This was a branch of olive or laurel, bound with purple or white wool, round which were hung various fruits of the season, pastries, and small jars of honey, oil and wine. It was intended as a thank-offering for blessings received, and at the same time as a prayer for similar blessings and protection against evil in future; hence, it was called a suppliant branch (ἱκέτηρία). The name is generally derived from εἶρος (wool) in reference to the woolen bands, but some connect it with εἴρειν (to speak), the eiresiōnē being regarded as the spokesman of the suppliants. It was carried in procession by a boy whose parents were both alive to the temple of Apollo, where it was suspended on the gate. The doors of private houses were similarly adorned. The branch was allowed to hang for a year, when it was replaced by a new one, since by that time it was supposed to have lost its virtue. During the procession a chant (also called eiresiōnē) was sung, the text of which has been preserved in Plutarch (Theseus, 22):—
    "Eiresiōnē carries figs and rich cakes;
    Honey and oil in a jar to anoint the limbs;
    And pure wine, that she may be drunken and go to sleep".
The semi-personification of eiresiōnē will be noticed; and, according to Mannhardt, the branch "embodies the tree-spirit conceived as the spirit of vegetation in general, whose vivifying and fructifying influence is thus brought to bear upon the corn in particular."
Aetiologists connected both offerings with the Cretan expedition of Theseus, who, when driven ashore at Delos, vowed a thank-offering to Apollo if he slew the Minotaur, which afterwards took the form of the eiresiōnē and Pyanopsia. To explain the origin of the hodge-podge, it was said that his comrades on landing in Attica gathered up the scraps of their provisions that remained and prepared a meal from them.
See W. Mannhardt, Weld- und Feidkulte (1905), ii. 214, for an exhaustive account of the eiresiōnē and its analogies; J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough (1900), i. 190; J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to Greek Religion (1908), ch. 3; L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States (1907), iv. 286.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Moxos

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MOXOS, Mojos, Mohos, a tribe of South American Indians living around the head-waters of the Maidera river, northern Bolivia, particularly on both sides on the Mamoré. They submitted to Inca domination, but in 1564 gallantly repulsed the Spaniards. A century later, however, the Jesuits were welcomed, and the Moxos became devout Catholics. They number some 30,000.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mtskhet

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​MTSKHET, a decayed town of Russian Transcaucasia, in the government of Tiflis, 13 m. by rail N.N.W. of the city of Tiflis, at the confluence of the Aragva with the Kura, at an altitude of 1515 ft. Pop. (1897), 1221. One of the oldest places in Georgia, it was the capital of that country until supplanted by Tiflis in the last year of the 5th century A.D. The most ancient seat of the Georgian kings was the castle of Arma-tsikhe, Armasis, or Harmozica, crowning a hill opposite to Mtskhet. The most memorable relic of the latter is the cathedral, said to have been originally founded in the 4th century, though the existing building dates from the 15th century and was restored in the 18th. In the graveyard attached to this convent graves have been opened which yielded objects of the Iron and Stone ages, and others of the era of the Roman emperor Augustus.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mozarab

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​MOZARAB [Spanish Mozárabe, a corruption of the Arabic Mustaʽrib, coll. Mustaʽriba], a general term for persons not Arab by race who have assimilated themselves to the Arabs. It was applied by the Moslems in Spain to the Christian communities existing among them, in Cordova, Seville, Toledo and other large cities, in the exercise of their own laws and religion. The ancient liturgy used by the Christians of Toledo is commonly known as Mozarabic.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mozambique

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​MOZAMBIQUE [São Sebastiao de Moçambique], a town of Portuguese East Africa, seat of a Roman Catholic bishopric in the province of Goa, in 15° 4′ S., 40° 44′ E. The town occupies the whole of a small coral island at the mouth of Mossoril Bay. The name Mozambique, used first to designate the island, was also given to the town and extended to the whole of the Portuguese possessions on the east coast of Africa. There are three forts, of which the principal, St Sebastian, at the northern extremity of the island was built in 1510 entirely of stone brought from Portugal. It is quadrangular, and has bastioned walls nearly 70 ft. high. In it are mounted some modern guns. The harbour is small, but deep enough to admit vessels drawing 25 feet.
The inhabitants, who number about 7000, consist chiefly of Mahommedan negroes of mixed descent speaking a dialect of the Makwa language. There are Parsee, Banyan, Goanese and Arab traders, and about 300 Europeans, besides half-caste Portuguese. The annual average value of the imports for the three years 1904–1906 was £97,035, of the exports £71,636 The import trade is chiefly with Great Britain and India, the articles in chief demand being cotton, coloured shawls and hardware. The exports are chiefly groundnuts, rubber of inferior quality, sesamum and other oil seeds, tortoise-shell and ebony. Germany has a large share of the exports.
Mozambique was discovered by Vasco da Gama in 1498. There was then a flourishing Arab town on the island, of which no trace exists. The history of the Portuguese town is closely identified with that of the province, for which see Portuguese East Africa. The commercial and political importance of Mozambique has been eclipsed by Lourenço Marques.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mozley, James Bowling

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​MOZLEY, JAMES BOWLING (1813–1878), English theologian, was born at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, on the 15th of September 1813, and was educated at Oriel College, Oxford. He was elected to a fellowship at Magdalen in 1840. He took an active part in the Oxford movement, but could no more follow Newman into the Roman communion “than fly.” He was joint editor of the Christian Remembrancer, but withdrew from the position because of his substantial agreement with the famous Gorham decision. He was one of the earliest supporters of the Guardian. In 1856 he became vicar of Shoreham, in 1869 canon of Worcester, and in 1871 regius professor of divinity at Oxford. He died at Shoreham on the 4th of January 1878.
He wrote A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of Predestination (1855); The Primitive Doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration (1856); A Review of the Baptismal Controversy (1862); Subscription to the Articles: a Letter (1863); Lectures on Miracles, being the Bampton Lectures for 1865; and Ruling Ideas in Early Ages and their relation to the Old Testament Faith (1877). Essays, Historical and Theological, appeared in 1878 (2 vols.), with biographical preface by his sister Anne, who also edited some of his Letters (1884).