the fourteenth letter in our 

 alphabet, is derived from the 

 hieroglyphic sign fur water (see 

 ALPHABET). When taken over 

 by the Phoenicians it was called 

 II'IIH, 'the tish.' The earliest 

 Greek fonn was JV, which after- 

 wards became N. Our script 

 form, H, is derived from the old 

 Roman cursive. The sound of is defined as 

 a nasal dental. It is produced when the organs 

 are in the position for pronouncing d, and the 

 breath is ^flowed to pass into the nose. Hence 

 n attracts rf, as in erjxmiul from expono, soinul 

 from xi, n at. or in thunder and hina from Old 

 English thunor and hint. Our two nasals m and 

 n also interchange according to the nature of 

 the following consonant. If it is a labial n 

 changes to m, as in hemp from Old English 

 liniirp, or comfort from confortare ; but if it is a 

 dental m changes to n, as in ant from Old English 

 (Kindt, or count from com/mtare. We also find an 

 intrusive n before gutturals and dentals, as in 



limjnle from Old English nihtegale, mesa,. 

 from metMager, passenger from passager, or lantern 

 from Uiterna. 



Naas, a garrison town of Kildare county, 

 Ireland, 20 miles SW. of Dublin by rail ; pop. 

 3808. Once the capital of Leinster, Naos obtained 

 charters from Henry V., Elizalieth, and James I., 

 Inn was disfranchised at the Union. 



Mahntirans, a people of northern Arabia, 

 general! v considered to nave been of pure Arab 

 Blood, tliongh some authorities, identifying them 

 with the Ishmoelite tribe of Nebaioth, regard them 

 as having Iteen closely akin to the Edomites. 

 They took (lossejision of the country once occupied 

 by the Edoinites; and in the lieginning of the M 

 century li.r. tliey were one of the most powerful 

 Unoniprt tin- Auili tril>es, warlike, with a force of 



10,00() fighting men, n adic, and l>u>y carriers of 



merchandise between the East and the West. In 

 312 B.C. Antigoniis, the general of Alexander, made 

 an attack, unsuccessful, upon their desert fast- 

 ness of Sela or 1'etra (i(.v.). By the 1st century 

 li.i 1 . they hud shaped their power into a kingdom ; 

 in the thin- of St Paul their king Arctas, who died 

 in 40 A. I>. after a reign of forty fight years, was 

 master of Damascus and Cu:le- Syria. I'hey were 

 in antagonism successively to the Syrian monarchs, 

 the Maccab.-ean rulers of .liidea, and the Uomans, 

 but eventually acknowledged the supremacy of 

 these la~t. Nevertheless Trajan, in Hir>, captured 

 their stronghold and put an end to their kingdom. 

 They poMtemed a certain measure of culture, derived 

 from the Syrians. The language of their e"ins and 

 in-eriptions is Aramaie. See Charles Doughty, 

 'tin nil f:/iii/r>i/i/ii'/ii''n rmiriltin ,/titm Ic .\nr<l 

 de I' Arabie (1884), and liooks cited at El>OH. . 



.\nhlia* a Sikh principality under the politienl 

 rontiol of the I'linjab, cisSutlcj, to the K. of 

 I'atiala ami S. of Loodiana ; area, 028 sq. m. 

 Pop. IMII.S'.M. 



\abllis. corrupted from the Greek Keapolit, 

 the ncicnt Shechem, a town of Palestine, stands 



on the highest part of the pass, between Mounts 

 Ebal ami Gerizim, that leads from the Mrditer 

 ranean to the Jordan. In the same valley or gap 

 are Jacob's Well, the Tree of the Sanctuary, and 

 .liiseph's grave. At first a Canaanite city, it "as 

 destroyed by Abimelech, a son of Gideon the 

 Judge. Here Kvlinboain was rroned king of 

 Israel. The place became the religious centre of 

 the Samnritans (q.v.). The Greek city gave birth 

 to Justin Martyr, and suffered much during the 

 Crusades. See Memoirs of Palestine Exploration 

 Fund, vol. iii. 



Nabob, an Anglo-Indian corruption of the word 

 ,Yi/-<(6 ('deputy ), was the title belo nging to 

 the administrators of provinces under the Mogul 

 empire. The title was continued under the British 

 rule, but it gradually came to IK- applied generally 

 to natives who were men of wealth and considera- 

 tion. In Europe it is applied more or less sarcas- 

 tically to those who, having made great fortunes 

 in the Indies or in foreign part- generally, return 

 to their native country, and live there in oriental 

 splendour. 



Biabonnssnr. See BABYLONIA. 



Narlltigal. GVSTAV, German traveller, was 

 liorn arid Kchruary 1834, at Kiehstcdt. between 



Magdeburg and Wittenberg, studied medicine, and 

 served as army surgeon until IM>I!. In that year 

 he went to North Africa, sutlering from a chest 

 disease. In IMiS, through t lie inlluenee of liohlfs, 

 he w.'is selected to cany presents from the king of 

 Prussia to the sultan of liornii. Starting from 

 Tripoli in 1SC.!, he tiavelled by way of Kenyan and 

 Tihesti to liornu, made excursions into the states 

 of Borgu and Itagirmi, and returned home by way 

 of Wadai, Pal I- in. Kordofan, and Cairo, where In- 

 arrived on 'AM November 1874. This long and 

 successful journey, in the course of which he visited, 

 the first of Europeans, the native -laics of TiKesti, 

 Borgu, and Wadai, put him in the forefront of 

 modern travellers. His vast collection of most 

 valuable information wax written down in the llnee 

 rob. of ,sW,/v( IIH,/ .sW (IsT'.isin. In l>s 

 Nachtigal was commissioned to annex for Ger- 

 many Togoland, Ca loons, ami Liideiit/laml 



: \ugra lVi|ucna) on the west coast of Africa. 

 MI- died ou the return journey oil Cape PalmaS, 

 I'.lth Ajiril 188T), and \\as buried on that rocky 

 promontory; but in 1SS7 |,is Inines were removed 

 to German soil in the Cameroon*. See Dorothea 

 Merlin's l-'.i-iiiiiii-iuiiii n mi .\n,-/iti : in/ (1887). 



N:HT'. See PKAKI. ( MIIMIKI: OF). 



>Jllr ( Arabic tinzir), that point in the heavens 

 which is diametrically opposite to the Xcnith (<].v.), 

 no that the /enith. nadir, and centre of the earth 

 tn in one straight line. The zenith and nadir fonn 



the poles of the Horizon (q.V.). 



\alir Shall of Persia, the Conc|iieroT. bo- 

 longed to a Turkish tribe, and was lupin in Khor- 

 attsan in U'.ss. He enn>ied the service of the 

 governor of Khorassan. and soon obtained high 

 promotion; but, having been degraded for some 

 ollence, he lietook himself to a lawless life, and 

 for several years was the daring leader of a band 



