its Utmost Source (St Paul, 1896); J. M. Hanson, The Conquest of
the Missouri (New York, 1909); L. M. Jones, “The Improvement
of the Missouri River and its Usefulness as a Traffic Route,” in
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
(Jan. 1908), and the Annual Reports of the Chief of Engineers,
U.S. Army.
MISTAKE (i.e. take amiss), a misconception or error in thought or action. In law, the word is often used in the sense of ignorance or error, as when it is said that mistake of law affords no excuse for crime. In the law of contract, mistake is of special importance, and may occur either in a matter of law or in a matter of fact. In general, a mistake of law cannot be alleged in avoidance of the consequences of contracts or acts, although there are exceptions in which relief may be given. Mistake of fact, however, may be ground for avoidance, provided the mistake was not due to negligence. (See further Contract.)
MISTLETOE[1] (Viscum album), a species of Viscum, of the botanical family Loranthaceae. The whole genus is parasitical, and contains about twenty species, widely distributed in the warmer parts of the old world; but only the mistletoe proper is a native of Europe. It forms an evergreen bush, about 4 ft. in length, thickly crowded with forking branches and opposite leaves, which are about 2 in. long, obovate-lanceolate in shape and yellowish-green; the dioecious flowers, which are small and nearly of the same colour but yellower, appear in February and March; the white berry when ripe is filled with a viscous semi-transparent pulp (whence bird-lime is derived). The mistletoe is parasitic both on deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs. In England it is most abundant on the apple-tree, but rarely found on the oak. Poplars, willows, lime, mountain-ash, maples, are favourite habitats, and it is also found on many other trees, including cedar of Lebanon and larch. The fruit is eaten by most frugivorous birds, and through their agency, particularly that of the species which is accordingly known as missel-thrush or mistle-thrush, the plant is propagated. The Latin proverb has it that “Turdus malum sibi cacat”; but the sowing is really effected by the bird wiping its beak, to which the seeds adhere, against the bark of the tree on which it has alighted. The viscid pulp soon hardens, affording a protection to the seed; in germination the sucker-root penetrates the bark, and a connexion is established with the vascular tissue of the first plant. The growth of the plant is slow, and its durability proportionately great, its death being determined generally by that of the tree on which it has established itself. The mistletoe so extensively used in England at Christmas is largely derived from the apple orchards of Normandy; a quantity is also sent from the apple orchards of Herefordshire.
Pliny (H. N., xvi. 92–95; xxiv. 6) has a good deal to tell about the viscum, a deadly parasite, though slower in its action than ivy. He distinguishes three “genera.” “On the fir and larch grows what is called stelis in Euboea and hyphear in Arcadia.” Viscum, called dryos hyphear, is most plentiful on the esculent oak, but occurs also on the robur, Prunus sylvestris and terebinth. Hyphear is useful for fattening cattle if they are hardy enough to withstand the purgative effect it produces at first; viscum is medicinally of value as an emollient, and in cases of tumour, ulcers and the like. Pliny is also our authority for the reverence in which the mistletoe when found growing on the robur was held by the Druids. Prepared as a draught, it was used as a cure for sterility and a remedy for poisons. The mistletoe figures also in Scandinavian legend as having furnished the material of the arrow with which Balder (the sun-god) was slain by the blind god Höder. Most probably this story had its origin in a particular theory as to the meaning of the word mistletoe.
MISTRAL, FRÉDÉRIC (1830–), Provençal poet, was born at Maillane (Bouches-du-Rhône) on the 8th of September 1830. In the autobiographical sketch prefixed to the Isclo d’or (1876) he tells us, with great simplicity and charm, all that is worth knowing of his early life. His father was a prosperous farmer, and his mother a simple and religious woman of the people, who first taught him to love all the songs and legends of the country. In these early days on the farm he received those first impressions which were destined to constitute one of the chief beauties of Mirèio. In his ninth year Mistral was sent to a small school at Avignon, where he was very wretched at first, regretting the free outdoor life of the country. Gradually, however, his studies attracted him, above all the poetry of Homer and Virgil; and he translated the latter’s first eclogue, showing his efforts to a young schoolfellow, A. Mathieu, who was destined to play a part in the foundation of the Félibrige. When Roumanille (see Provençal Literature) became an usher at Mistral’s school, the two, fired by the same love of poetry and of their native Provence, soon became close friends. “Voilà l'aube que mon âme attendait pour s’éveiller à la lumière,” he exclaimed, on reading Roumanille’s first dialect poems; and he goes on to say: “Embrasés tous les deux du désir de relever le parler de nos mères, nous étudiames ensemble les vieux livres Provençaux, et nous nous proposâmes de restaurer la langue selon ses traditions et caractères nationaux.” On leaving school (1847) he returned to Maillane, where he sketched a pastoral poem in four cantos (Li Meissoun). With all his love for the country, he soon realized that life on a farm did not satisfy his ambition. So he went to study law at Aix, where he contributed his first published poems to Roumanille’s Li Prouvençalo (1852). He had become licencié en droit the year before, but now decided on a literary career. The Félibrige was founded in 1854, and five years later appeared Mirèio, the masterpiece not only of Mistral, but so far of the entire school. The tale itself was nothing—the old story of a rich girl and her poor lover, kept apart by the girl’s parents. Mireille, in despair, wanders along a wide tract of country to the church of the Trois-Maries, in the hope that these may aid her. But the effort was too great: she sinks exhausted, and dies in the presence of her stricken parents and her frenzied lover. Into this simple web Mistral has woven descriptions of Provençal life, scenery, character, customs and legends that raise the poem to the dignity of a rustic epic, unique in literature. Nothing is forced: every detail is filled into the framework of the whole with a cunning which the poet was never again to attain. There is no deep psychology in the characters, but then the people depicted are simple rustic folk, who wear their hearts on their sleeve. Calendau (1867), the story of a princess held in bondage by a ruthless brigand, and eventually rescued by a youthful hero, is a comparative failure, The description of scenery is again masterly; but the old lore, which had charmed all readers in Mirèio, here becomes forced, not inevitable. The characters are mere symbols—indeed the whole poem is obviously an allegory, the princess standing for Provence, the brigand for France, and the young lover for the Félibrige. Mistral lavished enormous labour on this work, which probably accounts for its lack of spontaneity, as also for the love he bears it. In 1876 (the same year in which he married Mlle Marie Rivière, of Dijon) was published the volume Lis Isclo d’Or—a collection of the shorter poems Mistral had composed from the year 1848 onwards. Here he is again at his very best. Old legends, sirventes (mostly, as in medieval times, poems with a tendency), and lyrics—all are admirable. Even the pièces d’occasion may be reckoned with the best of their kind. Two pieces, the Coupe and the Princesse, aroused violent controversy on their first appearance. They reproduce, in effect, the theme of Calendau, and Mistral was accused of trying to sow discord between the north and south of France. Needless to say he was altogether innocent of such a design. Nerto (1884) is a charming tale of Avignon in the olden days, in which a girl’s purity triumphs over her lover’s base designs and leads him to nobler thoughts. There is little individuality in the characters, which should rather be regarded as types; and we feel no terror or pity at the tragic close. But we are carried along by Mistral’s art and by the brilliancy of his episodes; and he achieved the object he had in view: a pretty tale imbued with the proper touch of local colour and with the true spirit of romance. The play La Rèino Jano (1890) is a complete failure, if judged from the dramatic
- ↑ Gr. ἰξία or ἰξός, hence Lat. viscum, Ital. vischio or visco, and Fr. gui. The English word is the O.E. misteltan, Icelandic mistelteinn, in which tan or teinn means a twig, and mistel may be associated either with mist in the sense of fog, gloom, because of the prominence of mistletoe in the dark season of the year, or with the same root in the sense of dung (from the character of the berries or the supposed mode of propagation).
