MOROCCO (4,000), an empire in the NW. corner of Africa, three times the size of Great Britain, its coast-line stretching from Algeria to Cape Nun, and its inland confines being vaguely determined by the French hinterlands.  Two-thirds of the country is desert; much of the remainder is poor pasture land; the Atlas Mountains stretch from SW. to NE., but there are some expanses of level fertile country; on the seaboard the climate is delightful, with abundance of rain in the season; among the mountains extremes prevail; south of the Atlas it is hot and almost rainless; the mineral wealth is probably great; gold, silver, copper, and iron are known to be plentiful, but bad government hinders development; the exports are maize, pulse, oil, wool, fruit, and cattle; cloth, tea, coffee, and hardware are imported; the chief industries are the making of leather, “Fez” caps, carpets, and the breeding of horses; government is extremely despotic and corrupt, and the Sultan’s authority over many of the tribes is merely nominal; there is no education; the religion is Mohammedanism, and slavery prevails; there are no roads, and the country is imperfectly known; telegraph, telephone, and postal service are in European hands; the country was taken from the Romans by the Arabs in the 7th century, and has ever since been in their hands, but Berbers, Spaniards, Moors, Jews, and negroes also go to make up the population.  The chief towns are Fez (25), in the N., a sacred Moslem city, squalid and dirty, but with good European trade, and a depot for the caravans from the interior; and Morocco (60), in the S., near the Tensift River, 240 m.  SW. of Fez, well situated for local and transit trade, but a dilapidated city.

MOROCCO, a fine-grained leather of the skin of a goat or sheep, first prepared in Morocco.

MORPHEUS (i. e. the Moulder), the god of dreams, the son of Night and Sleep.

MORRIS-DANCE, a rustic merrymaking common in England after 1350, and still extant; is of disputed origin; the chief characters, Maid Marian, Robin Hood, the hobby-horse, and the fool, execute fantastic movements and Jingle bells fastened to their feet and dress.

MORRIS, SIR LEWIS, a poet, born in Carmarthen, Wales; the author of “Songs of Two Worlds,” “The Epic of Hades,” “A Vision of Saints,” &c.; often confounded with the succeeding, with whom he has next to nothing in common; b. 1833.

MORRIS, WILLIAM, poet, art-worker, and Socialist, born in Walthamstow, near London, son and heir of a wealthy merchant; studied at Oxford, where he became the lifelong bosom friend of Burne-Jones; of an artistic temperament, he devoted his working hours to decorative art, in particular designing wall-papers; produced in 1858 “The Defence of Guenevere and other Poems,” in 1867 “The Life and Death of Jason,” and from 1868 to 1870 his masterpiece, “THE EARTHLY PARADISE” (q. v.); among other works he translated the “AEneid” and the “Odyssey,” and gave a splendid rendering of some of the Norse legends (1834-1896).