Mule

Mahomet’s favourite white mule was Daldah. (See Fadda.)

To shoe one’s mule. To appropriate part of the money committed to one’s trust. This is a French locution—

“Ferrer la mule—i.e. lʹaction dʹun domestique qui trompe son maitre sur le prix réel des choses quʹil a achetées en son nom. Elle doit son origine an pretexte, facile à employer, de la depense faite pour ferrer la mule.”—Encyclopedie des Proverbes Français.

“He had the keeping and disposall of the moneys, and yet shod not his own mule.”—History of Francion (1655).

· ·

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.