NIAGARA 



NIBELUNGENLIED 



491 



away in the centre : the contour lines in the map 

 represent this in the case of the Canadian fall, 

 whose centre now presents the form of a V ; in the 

 American fall the same tendency is visihle, although 

 the process lias lieguri much more recently. For 

 (seven miles below the falls (to the point, that is, 

 where it has l>een supposed that the falls originally 

 stood) the river is shut in l>etween perpendicular 

 walls of rock, from 200 to 350 feet high. For some 

 distance below the falls there is still water, the 

 body of water which pours over the precipice sink- 

 in", and only coming to the surface again two 

 miles below, where the whirlpool rapids begin ; 

 a little lower is the whirlpool, where a sharp turn 

 Bends the waters hurling against the Canadian side, 

 and then sweeping round in a great eddy l<efore 

 they find a vent at a right angle with their former 

 course. Just below the cataract the river Is crossed 

 by a suspension bridge for carriages and foot-pas- 

 sengers, and a mile and a half farther down there 

 are two railway bridges one a cantilever bridge 

 about 100 yards apart. On both shores the lands 

 bordering on the river, for some distance above and 

 below the falls, are under the immediate control 

 of the respective governments. The 'New York 

 State Park at Niagara Falls' (1885) embraces 115 

 acres, and the ' Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park ' 

 (1888) about 154 acres. From both sides visitors, 

 cased in waterproofs, are conducted under the falls. 

 On October 4, 1890, the first sod was cut of a tunnel 

 for utilising the water-power of the falls, regarded 

 as one of the greatest engineering enterprises ever 

 undertaken. By means of immense turbines, tin? 

 water-power generates electricity, which is dis- 

 tributed to commercial enterprises in the immedi- 

 ate neighbourhood or transmitted to considerable 

 distances. By the middle of 1895 the first trans- 

 mission of electric |x>wer for commercial purposes 

 had l>een made, 4000 horse-power having been 

 transmitted to an aluminium manufactory a mile 

 distant. The city of Buffalo, twenty-six miles 

 away, is well within the sphere of the company's 

 operations ; in November 1896 the electric energy 

 01 the three great turbines at Niagara was made 

 available here, and henceforward the tramways as 

 well as the chief factories of the city are to be driven 

 by this power. It is expected that ere long the 

 whole distance between Buffalo and the Falls will 

 be ' built solid with smokeless factories.' It has 

 even been proposed to use the electric forces gene- 

 rated for the canal-boats on the canal hence to 

 the Hudson River at Albany, 350 miles distant. 



Niagara, a town of Ontario, popular as a 

 summer resort, is situated on Lake Ontario, at the 

 mouth of the river Niagara, 15 miles from the falls. 

 Niagara (then Newark) was burned down in 1813 

 by the Americans in retreat. Pop. 1441. Niagara 

 Falls, a village of New York, is the principal place 

 in the neighbourhood of the falls. The name 

 Niagara Falls has also been given to Clifton (q.v.). 



\i;illl-iii;illl. an African people dwelling along 

 the watershed that parts the feeders of the Bahr 

 al-Ghazal from those of the Welle-Makua and other 

 northern tributaries of the Congo. Of the negroid 

 Nuba stock, they have round faces, broad heads, 

 bodies long in proportion to the legs, and are in- 

 clined to corpulency. They have no cattle. Con- 

 siderable manual and artistic skill is shown in the 

 forging of iron, making of pottery and baskets, and 

 the carving of wood. They are passionately fond 

 of music, and play a kind of mandolin. It is to 

 these people that the legends of 'tailed men ' are 

 referable (see Baring-Gould, Ciirimis Mytkn, 1875). 

 See alMiSchwoinfurtli, J/earfo//4/riea (1878) ; and 

 Junker, Travel! in Africa, vol. ii. (1891 ). 



INilis, an important island belonging to Holland, 

 lis to the west of Sumatra, and has an area of 



about 2100 sq. m. The surface is mountainous, 

 the highest peak rising 1970 feet. In 1857, when 

 the Dutch took complete possession of the island, 

 the population was reckoned at 170,000. They 

 grow nee, cocoa-nuts, bananas, tobacco, sugar- 

 canes, &c., and annually almtit 110,000 Ib. of pepper. 

 The Niassers are of the Malay race, but fairer than 

 the Malays usually are. They are gentle, sober, 

 and peaceful, remarkably ingenious in handicraft. 

 See Roy. Scot. Geog. Mag. for 1888 and 1891 ; and 

 Modighano, Un Viaygio a A'ias (1890). 



Nibeluiigeiilied, also called DER NIBELUNGE 

 NOT, an old German epic poem, that takes rank 

 next after the Homeric poems amongst the great 

 epics of the world. The original substratum of 

 the work is undoubtedly the saga of Sigurd, re- 

 counted in the Elder Edda ; it is from that source 

 the epic derives its mythological elements, and in 

 all probability the tragic conception of an all- 

 comiMilling destiny which dominates the action of 

 the poem. To this original substratum must be 

 added two others one taken from the legendary 

 history that grew up out of the migrations of the 

 peoples, especially tlie struggle letwecn the Huns 

 and the Burgiindians ; the other embodying the 

 spirit, the sentiment, the life and circumstances of 

 the crowning age of chivalry, the middle of the 

 12th to the middle of the 13th century, during 

 which period the poem, as we now have it, was 

 unquestionably wntten. Who was its author, or 

 rather the man who cast it in its present form, is 

 altogether unknown ; the attribution of it to the 

 minnesinger of Kiirenl>erg in Upi>er Austria now 

 finds very little acceptance. The oldest elements 

 of the work must have lieen long current in tlw 

 form of popular songs or versified sagas ; but the 

 incidents 01 the story as recounted in the epic seem 

 to have been fused into a unity some time previous 

 to the 12th century. The existing version is due 

 to one who was steeped in the ideas of the courtly 

 poetry of the middle ages ; the writer took the 

 story that had in process of time grown together 

 into a connected epic narrative, and impressed 

 upon it his own methods of poetic vision, and his 

 own peculiar versification in short, his own style. 

 German commentators are of opinion that the 

 writer worked from originals composed in Latin. 

 After the Reformation all interest in the poem 

 quite died out, and was only revived in the end of 

 the 18th century. But it was not until twenty 

 years and more of the 19th century had passed 

 that German students liegan to ! aware of the 

 inestimable literary treasure they j>ossessed in the 

 Kibelungenlied. A keen discussion arose as to 

 its unity ; one school, headed by Lachmann, main- 

 tained that it was merely a collection of folk-songs, 

 loosely strung together, or rather intermingled one 

 with another ; an opposing school defended the 

 unity of the narrative and of the poem. The views 

 of the latter body of scholars are now generally 

 accepted. 



The narrative is briefly this. Sigfried, the son 

 of the king of the Netherlands, has become the 

 possessor of the storied treasure of the Nibe- 

 lungs, which carries with it the curse of dire evil 

 to its owner. Sigfried marries Kriemhild, sister of 

 Gunther, king of Worms, and then helps Gunther 

 to win to wife Brunhild of Iceland, by taking 

 Gunthcr's place without her knowledge and over- 

 coming her in three trials of bodily skill and 

 strength. After some years a bitter dispute breaks 

 out l>etween the heroines as to whether Gunther or 

 Sigfried is the greater. Brunhild's jealousy is so 

 great that she induces Hagen, one of Gunther's 

 vassals, to murder Sigfried. Kriemhild, though 

 she mourns long years for her husband, at length 

 marries Etzel (Attila), king of the Huns. After 

 Sigfried 's death she had become the possessor of the 



