NILGIRI 



NIMES 



505 



course of the Semliki, and discovered Albert 

 Edward Nyanza and Mount Ruwenzori. 



See works of the explorers named, also others by 

 Manio, Von Kloden, Wilson and Felkin, Schuver, 

 Petherick, Junker, ic., with Walter Budge's The Nile: 

 Nottufor Travellers in Eyypt ( 1890). For the battle of 

 the Nile, see ABOUKIR. 



>'i)glri. See NEILGHERRY HILLS. 



Xilometer, an arrangement for measuring the 

 height of the Nile in Egypt. On the island of 

 Khoda, opposite to Cairo, is a square well, con- 

 nected with the river by a canal, and containing a 

 graduated marble pillar, divided into 24 cubits, 

 each measuring 21 '386 inches. A rise of 18 cubits 

 is traditionally regarded as the height of the 

 lowest inundation ; 19 cubits is considered toler- 

 able, 20 excellent, 21 adequate, and 22 complete, 

 but 24 is ruinous. The ordinary maximum of the 

 rise at Cairo is stated at from 24 to 26 feet. For 

 the inundations from 1849 to 1878, pee Nature, vol. 

 xxv. The nilometer of Khoda was constructed 

 during the reign of the calif AI-Mutawakkil, in the 

 year 847. Anciently there seem to have been 

 various nilometers of different kinds, all along the 

 river, as at Memphis ( probably the oldest), Ekkmin, 

 Elephantine, and elsewhere. 



Milssoil, CHRISTINE, operatic singer, was born 

 the daughter of a farmer at Wexio, in Sweden, 3d 

 August 1843, and singing at a fair in 1857 so im- 

 pressed a magistrate of Ljungby that he sent her 

 lor a musical education to Stockholm and Paris. 

 She made her debut at Paris in La Triirinln in 

 1864 ; and in London, whera she appeared in 1867, 

 soon took rank as one of the foremost soprano 

 singers. Marguerite is one of her best-known 

 jifirts. She has repeatedly visited the United 

 States. She married ( 1S7'2)'M. Kouzand (who died 

 in 1882), and in 1887 Count de Miranda. 



\liiiacll. a town of India, in the territory of 

 fJwalior, on the north-western border of Malwa, 

 370 miles S\V. of Delhi by rail, 1613 feet alwve 

 sea-level, with an agreeable and healthy climate. 

 There has been a British cantonment here since 

 1817. Pop. of town, 5161 ; of cantonment, 13,069. 



Mlllblis. in Art, especially in Sacred Art, is 

 the name given to the disc or halo which encircles 

 the head of the sacred personage who is represented. 

 It- n-o is almost universal in those religions of 

 which we possess any artistic remains the Indian, 

 the Egyptian, the Etruscan, the Greek, and the 

 Koman. Some, indeed, have sought directly to 

 derive it from the Greek meniskoi, or metal disc 

 placed over the heads' of statues to keep off the 

 droppings of birds. Nevertheless, the nimbus, 

 strictly so called, is comparatively recent in Chris- 

 tian art, not appearing Itefore the 6th century. Later 

 in Christian art it liecame almost a necessary 

 appendage of all representations of God or of the 

 saints. Its ordinary form is the circular or semi- 

 circular ; but the nimbus of the Eternal Father is 

 often in the form of a triangle, and that of the 

 Trinity an emanation of light, the rays of which 

 form the three arms of a cross. The nimbus of the 

 Virgin is sometimes a simple ring, and sometimes 

 a crown or diadem ; occasionally it is encircled by 

 an ornamental border, on which twelve stars are 

 sometimes represented. Her nimbus, as well as 

 that of the Divine Persons, is commonly of gold ; 

 but occasionally it i< in colours, os blue, red, 

 purple, or white. The nimbus of the saints is 

 ordinarily the semicircle or lunula. In later art 

 the nimbus became lighter and more aerial, melt- 

 ing, as it were, into the picture. In connection 

 with the nimbus may al-o ! mentioned the 

 Aureole, an illumination surrounding, not the head 

 only, but the entire figure. If the figure be 

 upright the aureole is commonly oval, when it is 



called the vesica piscis, and is supposed to contain 

 an allusion to the sacred Christian emblem, the 

 ichthys. With a seated figure it becomes circular, 

 and is occasionally divided by radiating bands, in 

 the form of a wheel ; sometimes it takes a quatre- 

 foil form. It is commonly of gold, but occa- 

 sionally also is in colours. The Glory is a com- 

 bination of the nimbus and the aureole, and is 

 chiefly seen in Byzantine pictures and those of the 

 early South German school. 



(Dutch Nijmegen), a town of 

 Holland, in the province of Guelderland, on the 

 left bank of the Waal, 73 miles by rail E. of 

 Riitti-nlarn. It is built on the slooe of the Hoen- 

 derberg ( ' Hill of the Huns '), on which the Romans 

 formed the permanent camp of AoMMMWMM ; and 

 some of its streets are steep and narrow, out others 

 are broad and handsome. On a neighbouring 

 height stood till 1796 a castle, said to have been 

 founded by Ca>sar and inhabited by Charlemagne ; 

 and towards the brow of this height there still 

 stands a little sixteen-sided Romanesque Wptixtery 

 of the 12th or 13th century. On another eminence 

 is the modern Belvidere, whose summit commands 

 a wide view. The fortifications have been de- 

 molished ; but Nimeguen retains its Renaissance 

 town-hall (1554), adorned with medallions of Ger- 

 man emperors, and the fine Gothic church of St 

 Stephen (dating from 1272). The manufactures 

 include tobacco, Eau de Cologne, metal-work, 

 beer, &c. Pop. (1875) 22,929; (1890) 32,326. 

 l;< ;_'.! i ned by the Spaniards (1585-91), Nimeguen 

 is celebrated in history for its great peace congress, 

 which on 12th August 1678 concluded a treaty 

 between France and Holland, on 13th December 

 between France and Spain, and on 5th February 

 1679 between Austria and France. 



XilllOS, the capital of the French department of 

 Card, lies in a fertile plain, engirt by the vine-clad 

 Cevennes, 31 miles by rail NE. of >lontpellier and 

 30 SW. of Avignon. The old town, with narrow 

 crooked streets, is separated by shady boulevards 

 from the well-built fauliouigs; and mediii'val and 

 modern edifices are a much mutilated cathedral, 

 the prison (formerly citadel, 1687), the palais de 

 justice, St Paul's (1850), St Baudile's (1875), &c., 

 with a most magnificent fountain, and a monument 

 ( 1874) to Antoninus Pius. But the glory of Ntmes 

 is its Roman remains of the ancient A'emaiisits. 

 These include the ' Maison Carree ' ( now a museum, 

 with Delaroche's masterpiece, ' Cromwell looking 

 on Charles I.'s corpse'), a splendid specimen of 

 Corinthian architecture; an amphitheatre (now 

 a bull-arena), 70 feet high, and seating 20,000 

 spectators ; the exquisite Nympha-um ; a mauso- 

 leum ('La Tour magne'), baths, and two gates, 

 whilst 14 miles NE. is the ' Pont du Gard,' most 

 perfect of Aqueducts (q.v.). Nlmes is a seat of 

 great commerce and manufactures, these compris- 

 ing silk and cotton goods, carpets, shawls, wine, 

 brandy, boots, &c. Pop. (1872) 60,020; (1891) 

 71,623, of whom one-third were Protestants. 

 Supposed to have been colonised from Massilia 

 (Marseilles), and the capital of the Volcsp Are- 

 comici, Nimes nourished under the Romans, and 

 was one of the great cities of Gaul. It was taken 

 by the Visigoths (465), the Franks (507), and the 

 Saracens (725), and subsequently became an 

 appanage of Aragon, but was finally restored to 

 Fiance by the treaty of Corbeil "(1259). The 

 inhabitants adopted Calvinism in the 16th century; 

 and it was a stronghold of the Camisards (q.v.). 

 In 1791 and 1815 it was the scene of bloody 

 religious and political reactions. Nicot, Guizot. 

 and Daudet were natives. See works by Menard 

 (7 vols. 1875), Perrot (llth ed. 1856), Durand 

 (1876), and Pieyre (3 vols. 1888). 



