The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 327

NOVEMBER, the eleventh month of the year, so called by the Romans, in whose calendar it was the ninth.

NOVGOROD (21), a noted Russian city, and capital of a government of the same name, is situated on the Volkhof, 110 m. SE. of St. Petersburg; is divided into two parts by the bridged river, contains the cathedral of St. Sophia (11th century); with its foundation in 864 by Rurik, a Scandinavian prince, Russian history begins; was by the 12th century a free State, but in 1471 was put down by the Muscovite Czar Ivan III.; the government of Novgorod (1,290) lies E. of St. Petersburg, embraces the Valdai plateau and hills, is chiefly forest land, and includes some 3000 lakes.

NOX, the Latin for "night," and the name of the "G.o.ddess of night."

See NYX.

NOYADES, drownages superintended during the Reign of Terror at Nantes by the attorney Carrier, and effected by cramming some 90 priests in a flat-bottomed craft under hatches, and drowning them in mid-stream after scuttling the boat at a signal given, followed by another in which some 138 persons suffered like "sentence of deportation"; of these drownages there are said to have been no fewer first and last than 25.

NUBIA, a large and ill-defined region of North-East Africa, lies between Egypt (N.) and Abyssinia (S.), and stretches from the Red Sea (E.) to the desert (W.); is divided into Lower and Upper Nubia, Dongola being the dividing point; Nubia has in recent times rather fallen under the wider designation of Egyptian Soudan; except by the banks of the Nile the country is bare and arid desert; climate is hot and dry, but quite healthy.

NUMA POMPILIUS, the second king of Rome and the successor of Romulus, its founder, born at Cures, in the Sabine country, and devoted himself to the establishment of religion and laws among his subjects and the training of them in the arts of peace, in which, according to the legend, he was a.s.sisted by a nymph EGERIA (q. v.), who lived close by in a grotto, and to whom he had ever and anon recourse for consultation; he was long revered in the Roman memory as the organiser of the State and its civil and sacred inst.i.tutions, and his reign was long and peaceful.

NUMANTIA, an ancient Spanish town on a steep height on the Douro, celebrated for the heroic defence maintained by its inhabitants against the Romans, till from the thinning of its defenders by starvation and the sword it was taken and destroyed by Scipio Africa.n.u.s in 134 B.C.

NUMBERS, BOOK OF, the fourth book of the Pentateuch, and so called from the two numberings of the people, one at the beginning and the other at the close of the period it embraces; it embraces a period of 38 years, and continues the narrative from the departure of the camp of Israel out of the wilderness of Sinai to its arrival on the borders of Canaan, and relates an account of the preparations for the march, of the march itself, and of the preparations for the conquest.

NUMIDIA (i. e. land of Nomads), ancient country in North Africa, nearly co-extensive with Algiers, the inhabitants of which were of the Berber race, were brave but treacherous, and excelled in horsemans.h.i.+p; sided at first with the Carthaginians in the PUNIC WARS (q. v.), and finally with Rome, till the country itself was reduced by Caesar to a Roman province.

NUMISMATICS, the name given to the study and science of coins and medals.

NUMITOR, a legendary king of Alba Longa, in Italy, and the grandfather of Romulus and Remus.

NUNEATON (12), a thriving market-town of Warwicks.h.i.+re, on the river Anker and the Coventry Ca.n.a.l, 22 m. E. of Birmingham; has a Gothic church; cotton, woollen, and worsted spinning is the chief industry; was the scene of George Eliot's education.

NUR ED-DIN, MAHMOUD, sultan of Syria, born at Damascus; the extension of his empire over Syria led to the Second Crusade, preached by St. Bernard; compelled the Crusaders to raise the siege of Damascus, which he made his capital; called to interfere in the affairs of Egypt, he conquered it, and made it his own, a sovereignty which SALADIN (q. v.) disputed, and which Nur ed-Din was preparing to rea.s.sert when he died (1117-1178).

NuREMBERG (143), an interesting old Bavarian town on the Pegnitz, 95 m. N. of Munich, is full of quaint and picturesque mediaeval architecture in fine preservation; has valuable art collections, a fine library, and a museum; is noted for the production of watches, toys, wood, metal, bone carvings, beer, and chemicals, and exports large quant.i.ties of hops; was made a free imperial city in 1219, and retained independence up to 1806.

NUTATION, name given to a slight oscillatory movement noticeable in the celestial pole of the earth, due to the latter not being a perfect sphere.

NYANZA, ALBERT. See ALBERT NYANZA.

NYANZA, VICTORIA, a large lake of Central Africa, in the Nile basin, at the sources of the river, and S. of the preceding, equal in extent to the area of Scotland, at an elevation of 3890 ft.; discovered by Captain Speke in 1858, and sailed round by Stanley in 1875.

NYa.s.sA, LAKE, lake in East Africa, feeds the Zambesi; is 350 m. long by 40 broad, at an elevation of 1570 ft., and was discovered by Livingstone in 1859; the waters are sweet, and abound with fish; the regions bordering it on the S. and W. are called Nya.s.saland.

NYa.s.sALAND, a region in Central Africa under British protection, lying round the sh.o.r.es of Lake Nya.s.sa, the chief town of which is Blantyre; it is known also as the British Central Africa Protectorate, the administration being in the hands of a commissioner acting under the Foreign Office; the Europeans number some 300, and the natives 850,000, while the forces defending it consist of 200 Sikhs and 300 negroes; there are plantations of sugar, coffee, tobacco, &c., and almost the entire trade is with Britain.

NYaYA, the name of one of the six princ.i.p.al systems of Hindu philosophy, and devoted to the dialectics or metaphysics of philosophy.

NYMPHS, in the Greek mythology maiden divinities of inferior rank, inhabiting mountains, groves, seas, fountains, rivers, valleys, grottoes, &c., under the several names of OCEANIDES (q. v.), NEREIDS (q. v.), NAIADS (q. v.), OREADS (q. v.), DRYADS (q. v.), &c.; they are distinguished by their grace and fascinating charms.

NYNEE TAL, a place of resort in the summer season and a sanatorium in the North-West Provinces of India, 22 m. S. of Almora, 6521 ft. above sea-level.

NYX (i. e. Night), in the Greek mythology the G.o.ddess of night, the daughter of CHAOS (q. v.), and the sister of EREBOS (q. v.), one of the very first of created beings, the terror of G.o.ds, and by Erebos became the mother of aether, pure light, and Hemera, daylight, as well as other ent.i.ties of note.

O

OAKHAM (4), county town of Rutland, 17 m. E. of Leicester, in the centre of a fine wheat country; has an old church, a grammar-school founded in 1581, and a castle mostly in ruins; manufactures of boots and hosiery, and carries on malting.

OAKLAND (67), on the E. coast of the Bay of San Francisco, 4 m.

across from San Francisco city, is the capital of Alameda County, California, a beautiful city with tree-lined streets, surrounded by vineyards and orchards; it has a home of the adult blind of the State, manufactures of textile and iron goods, and fruit-canning industries, and is the terminus of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

OAKS, THE, one of the three great cla.s.sic races in England, run at Epsom; established by the 12th Earl of Derby in 1779 for fillies of 3 years old.

OAk.u.m, name given to fibres of old tarry ropes sundered by teasing, and employed in caulking the seams between planks in s.h.i.+ps; the teasing of oak.u.m is an occupation for prisoners in jails.

OASES, fertile spots in a desert due to the presence of springs or water near at hand underground; met with in the deserts of North Africa, Arabia, and Gobi.

OATES, t.i.tUS, fabricator of a Popish plot for the overthrow of the Protestant faith in England, the allegation of which brought to the block several innocent men; rewarded at first with a pension and safe lodgment in Westminster Hall, was afterwards convicted of perjury, flogged, and imprisoned for Life, but at the revolution was set at liberty and granted a pension of 300 (1650-1705).

OBADIAH, a Hebrew prophet who appears to have lived about 588 B.C., shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem, at which the Edomites had a.s.sisted, and whose prophecy was written to a.s.sure the exiles in Babylon that the judgment of G.o.d had gone forth against Edom, and that with the execution of it Israel would be restored.

OBAN (5), a modern town situated in the W. of Argylls.h.i.+re, on a land-locked bay opening off the Firth of Lorne, is the capital, sometimes called the "Queen," of the Western Highlands, and a fas.h.i.+onable tourist resort; it has excellent railway and steamboat communications, 30 hotels, and has near it two ruined castles, an ancient cave dwelling, and much beautiful scenery; Dunstaffnage Castle is 4 m. to the N. of it, where the early Scottish kings used to be crowned.