NESTS 



NETS 



445 



of learning and missionary enterprise throughout 

 Persia. Babaeus, Bishop of Seleucia (498-503), 

 assumed the title of patriarch, and openly pro- 

 fessed Nestorianism, and under his successors the 

 sect grew rapidly and produced many learned theo- 

 logians and philosophers, and not a few very emi- 

 nent physicians. Under the rule of the califs the 

 Nestorians enjoyed toleration, and spread in Arabia, 

 Syria, and Palestine, and even to Samarcand, Herat, 

 and China. The Prester John ( q. v. ) of romance was 

 a Christian of this colour, and there is a tradition 

 that Mohammed learned what he knew of Chris- 

 tianity from Sergius, a Nestorian monk. In the 

 middle of the 13th century as many as twenty- 

 five metropolitans owned the jurisdiction of the 

 Nestorian patriarch, but after the persecutions of 

 Tamerlane they dwindled away. Meantime the 

 Roman Catholic Church had been active in mission- 

 ary labours amongst them, and already in the 14th 

 century the pope was nominally at least acknow- 

 ledged as the head shepherd of all Christendom. 

 In the 16th century a great schism took place, a 

 portion renouncing their distinctive doctrine, and 

 placing themselves under the jurisdiction of the 

 Roman pontiff, to whom, under the title of Chal- 

 dean Christians, they have since remained faithful. 

 Their patriarchs still bear the traditional name of 

 Joseph. The others to the present day maintain 

 their old creed and their ancient organisation. 

 Their chief seat is in the mountain-ranges of Kur- 

 distan. They are at present a poor and illiterate 

 race, and were carefully estimated in 1833 to 

 number 70,000 souls. Their patriarch since the 

 close of the 17th century has borne the name of 

 .Simeon. The bishops are bound to observe celi- 

 bacy, but marriage is permitted to the priests and 

 inferior clergy. Their liturgical liooks recognise 

 seven sacraments, but confession is infrequent, if 

 not altogether disused. Marriage is dissoluble 

 by the sentence of the patriarch ; communion is 

 administered in lx>th kinds; and although the 

 language of the liturgy plainly implies the belief 

 in transubstantiation, yet, according to Layard, 

 that doctrine is not popularly held among them. 

 The fasts are strict, and of very long duration, 

 amounting to very nearly one-half of the entire 

 year. They pray for the dead, but are said to 

 reject the notion of purgatory, and the only 

 sacred symbol which they use or reverence is the 

 cross. _ The Nestorians of Kurdistan, like the 

 Christians of the Lebanon, have suffered much 

 from time to time through the fanaticism of the 

 wild tribes among whom they reside. In a 

 massacre in 1843, and again in 1846, as many as 

 six thousand perished, and even still they owe 

 much of their security to the influence exercised 

 in their favour by the foreign representatives at 

 the Turkish and Persian courts. There has been 

 among them since 1834 an active American mission, 

 which has translated the Bible into their speech 

 a dialect of the old Aramaic. 



There is another body of Nestorians who have 

 pxi.-tcd in south India from the period of the early 

 migrations of the sect, known as Syrian Christians 

 or Christians of St Thomas (see THOMAS, CHRIS- 

 TIANS OF ST), ami works there noted. 



See GREEK CHCHCH, VoL V. p. 398; Maclean, The 

 Calholim* of the Kutt and Ait People ( 1892) ; Parry, Six 

 Month* ina Si/riati Montuteru (1895) ; Hefele's Cmnn-i/x , 

 Petermann'a article in Herzog'tOeal-Enci/clop.; Perkins's 

 Xetiilence of Eif/ht Yearn in Persia among the Nestorian 

 Chrutiani ( Andover, 1843 ) ; Badger's Ntttorian* and 

 tkeir Ritualt (1852); Anderson's Oriental Chnrchc* 

 (1872) ; Dean Stanley's Hutory of the Eastern Church; 

 and Professor Legne'g Natorian Monument of Hri-an Fu, 

 rel. Chritt. in China (1888). 



vary according to surroundings, the skill of the 

 builder, and the needs of the young is best illus- 

 trated by birds, which excel all other animals in the 

 art of cradling. It is not always possible to dis- 

 tinguish between a nest and a home, as the same 

 structure may serve both purposes, but it is interest- 

 ing to notice that the latter seems sometimes to 

 have been evolved out of the former, as in the case 

 of bees, where the complex hive has grown round 

 about a simple nest. Referring to special articles, 

 and above all to BIRD, we shall simply mention, in 

 illustration, the squirrel's large and lofty shelter, 

 and the minute cradle of the harvest-mice among 

 the reeds ; the aesthetic honeymoon-liower of the 

 bower-bird, and the beautiful hanging-nests of the 

 weavers ; the holes prepared by the alligator and 

 some other reptiles ; the beautiful grassy structure 

 woven and glued together by the stickleback, and 

 the seaweea nest of the black goby ; and finally, 

 the social nests of ante, bees, and wasps. See 

 ANT, BEE, EDIBLE BIRDS'-NEST, FISH, &c. ; J. G. 

 Wood's Wonderful Nests (1887) ; and F. Houssay, 

 Les Industries aes Animatix ( Paris, 1890). 



Netherlands, the north-west corner of the 

 great north European plain, a triangular region 

 between France, Germany, and the sea, lying 

 mainly in the basins of the Scheldt, the Meuse, 

 and the lower Rhine, is now divided into nearly 

 equal parts between the kingdoms of Holland anil 

 Belgium. The otticial designation of Netherlands is 

 retained by what we commonly call Holland (q.v. ), 

 and under that head the early history common to 

 the two is discussed ; while the history of the 

 ' Spanish Netherlands ' falls mainly under the head 

 of Flanders (q.v.) and Belgium (q.v.). The history 

 of the Dutch and Flemish language and literature 

 will be found under HOLLAND. 



Netherlands Company. See JAVA. 



Xct lion. See PYRENEES. 



Netley. a place on the east side of Southampton 

 \Vater, 3 miles SE. of Southampton, with a ruined 

 Cistercian abbey, founded in the time of Henry 

 III., and the Royal Victoria Hospital. The latter 

 superb building is for the reception of invalids from 

 the army on foreign service, and from among the 

 troops serving in the adjoining military districts. It 

 nominally has accommodation for 878 patients, but 

 for a few months during the trooping season room 

 has usually to be found lor over 1000. The medical 

 staff consists of a surgeon -general as principal medi- 

 cal officer, a registrar and secretary, and medical 

 officers of various ranks. The invaliding depot 

 attached consists of a colonel on the stall' ranking 

 as an assistant-adjutant-general, a paymaster, and 

 a quartermaster. The total cost of the construc- 

 tion of this hospital, whose foundation-stone was 

 laid by Queen Victoria on 19th May 1856, was 

 alnmt 350,000. Attached is the Medical School 

 for candidates for the army medical staff (see 

 .MILITARY SCHOOLS). Netley is also the head- 

 quarters of the female nurses of the army. A 

 direct line from Portsmouth, the port of disem- 

 barkation of invalids, has been opened, and they 

 can now be brought to this hospital in thirty 

 minutes. 



are prepared for egg-laying, brooding, 

 and nursing purposes. How widely they may 



A net is a kind of trap formed of string 

 worked into open meshes and used for capturing 

 fishes, birds, and other animals. The cord or 

 string is knotted at the intersections so as to keep 

 the meshes of their original size. As there is evi- 

 dence that nets were used in prehistoric times, and 

 since they are almost everywhere made by savage 

 tribes, it is probable that they were among the 

 earliest implements constructed by primitive man 

 for procuring animal food. 



Remains of nets belonging to the stone age have 

 been found at Robeahausen and Vine!/ in Switzer- 



