M — Manger to Many a Mickle makes a Muckle (Part 3 of 3)

Manucodiata (The). An old name for a bird of paradise. It is a corruption of the Malay manute-dewata, the bird of the gods.

“Less pure the footless fowl of heaven, that never
Rests upon earth, but on the wing for ever,
Hovering o'er flowers, their fragrant food inhale.
Drink the descending dew upon the way:
And sleep aloft while floating on the gale.”
Southey: Curse of Kehama, xxi. 6.

Manumit To set free; properly “to send from one's hand” (e manu mittere). One of the Roman ways of freeing a slave was to take him before the chief magistrate and say, “I wish this man to be free.” The lictor or master then turned the slave round in a circle, struck him with a rod across the cheek, and let him go.

Manure (2 syl.) means hand-work (French, main-oeuvre), tillage by manual labour. It now means the dressing applied to lands. Milton uses it in its original sense in Paradise Lost, iv. 628:-

“Yon flowery arbours, ... with branches overgrown
That mock our scant manuring.”

    In book xi. 26 he says, the repentant tears of Adam brought forth better fruits than all the trees of Paradise that his hands manured in the days of innocence.

Many (See Too Many .)

Many a Mickle makes a Muckle or Many a little makes a mickle. Little and often fills the purse. (See Little .)
   French: “Les petits ruisseaux font de grandes rivièes;” “Plusieurs peu font un beaucoup.”
   Greek:
"Ei gar keu smikrou epi smikw kataqeio, Kui Qama tout erdoiz, taca keu mega kai to geuolto." Hesiod: Works and Days, 359. etc.