NYAYA 



NYMPHS 



559 



1878 ; it works hand in hand with the missionaries 

 of the Established and the Free Church of Scot- 

 land, whose principal stations are at Blantyre, 

 some distance to the soutli of the lake, and Band- 

 awe, half-way up its western side. Both the com- 

 mercial company and the mission stations were 

 founded for the express purpose of counteracting 

 the slave-dealings of the Arab marauders, and they 

 have had much trouble owing to the hostility of 

 these people. Nyassaland ( or Nyasaland ) was the 

 nucleus of what was in 1891 constituted British 

 Central Africa Protectorate, under an Imperial 

 Commissioner, with an area of 500,000 sq. m., and 

 (1896) 237 European inhabitants. Lying on the 

 western and southern shores of Lake Nyassa, it 

 forms the eastern portion of British Central Africa, 

 which stretches towards the interior and the 

 Zambesi. The western portion is mainly admin- 

 istered, since 1894, by the Soutli Africa Company. 

 In the portion more immediately under the Com- 

 missioner are thriving plantations of coffee, cin- 

 chona, sugar, and tobacco. See ZAMBESIA, and 

 Sir H. H. Johnston's Central Africa ( 1897). 



Nyaya. See SANSKRIT LITERATURE. 



\yborg. See FUXE.V. 



Xyetajjinacea', a natural order partly herba- 

 ceous plants, Imtli annual and perennial, and partly 

 shrul* and trees. There are alxnit 100 known 

 species, natives of warm countries. Some have 

 IHM m iful flowers, as those of the genus Mirabilis, 

 known in gardens as Marcel of Peru. 



Nyctalopia, the defective vision of persons 

 who can see in a faint light hut not in bright day- 

 light : sometimes applied to the opposite defect, in- 

 ability to see save in a strong daylight. 



Xycteribia. very remarkable, wingless, spider- 

 like, Dipterous insects, parasitic on bats. 



Xykerk, <>r NIEVWKERK, a Dutch town in 

 Gelderland, 23 miles SE. of Amsterdam. Pop. 7599. 



.\ykojillU. a seaport of Sweden, situated on 

 a bay of the Baltic, G'2 miles SW. of Stockholm 

 (100 miles by rail), manufactures machinery and 

 cotton. The castle, now ruined, ranked in point of 

 strength next to those of Stockholm and Calmar. 

 King Waldemar was imprisoned here after his 

 dethronement in 1288, till his death in 1302. Eric 

 and Waldemar, brothers of King Birger, were left 

 in 1317 to perish of hunger in a dungeon, the keys 

 of which the king threw into the sea. In horror 

 of this deed the people seized the castle and 

 demolished it. In 1719 the town was taken and 

 dismantled by the Russians. Pop. (1891) 5949. 



Xyl-gliail (Portax trayocamelux), a species of 

 antelope, with somewhat ox-like head and body, 

 but with long slender limb*, and of great activity 

 and fleetness. It Li one of the largest of antelopes, 

 and is more than four feet high at the shoulder. 

 The horns of the male are about as long as the 

 ears, smooth, black, pointed, slightly curved for- 

 wards. The female hag no horns. The neck is 

 deep and compressed, not rounded as in most of 

 the antelopes. A slight mane runs along the neck 

 and part of the back, and the breast is adorned 

 with a long hanging tuft of hair. The back is 

 almost elevated into a hump lietween the shoulders. 

 The nyl-ghau inhabits the dense forests of India 

 and Persia, where it has long been regarded as one 



of the noblest kinds of game. The name is Persian, 

 and signifies ' blue ox. ' It is often taken, like other 

 large animals, by the enclosing of a large space 

 with nets, and by great numbers of people. It is a 



Nyl-ghau (Portax tragocamelui). 



spirited animal, and dangerous to a rash assailant. 

 It is capable of domestication, but it is said to 

 manifest an irritable and capricious temper. 



.Xyinplia'area'. a natural order of exogenous 

 plants, growing in lakes, ponds, ditches, and slow 

 rivers, where their fleshy root-stocks are prostrate 

 in the mud at the bottom ; and their large, long- 

 stalked, heart-shaped, or peltate leaves float on the 

 surface of the water. Their flowers also either 

 float or are raised on their stalks a little above 

 the water. The flowers are large, and often very 

 beautiful and fragrant. There are usually four 

 sepals, and numerous petals and stamens, often 

 passing gradually into one another. The ovary 

 18 many-celled, with radiating stigmas, and very 

 numerous ovules, and is more or less surrounded by 

 a large fleshy disc. The seeds have a farinaceous 

 albumen. More than fifty species are known, 

 mostly natives of warm and temperate regions. 

 The root-stocks of some of them are used as food, 

 and the seeds of many. See WATER-LILY, LOTUS, 

 VICTORIA, and EI-RYALE. Very nearly allied to 

 Nympliifaceie are Nelumbiacete. See NELUMBO. 



\Ylllplls. in Greek Mythology, female divini- 

 ties of inferior rank, inhabiting the sea, streams, 

 groves, meadows and pastures, grottoes, fountains, 

 hills, glens, and trees. Among them different 

 classes were distinguished, particularly the Ocean- 

 idea, daughter* of Oceanus (nymphs of the great 

 ocean which flows around the earth ), the Kereids, 

 daughters of Nereus (nymphs of the inner depths 

 of the sea, or of the Inner Sea the Mediterranean ), 

 Putameides (River nymphs), Naiads (nymphs of 

 fountains, lakes, brooks, wells), Oreads (Moun- 

 tain nymphs), Kap&ai (nymphs of glens), and 

 Dryads or Hamadryads ( Forest nymphs, who were 

 believed to die with the trees in which they dwelt). 

 They were the goddesses of the fertilising power 

 of moisture, possessed prophetic power, and took 

 interest in the nourishment and growth of infants, 

 the chase, and dancing. They are among the most 

 beautiful conceptions of the plastic fancy of the 

 ancient Greeks. See Krause, Die Musen, Grazien, 

 Horen und Nymphen (Halle, 1871). For Nymph 

 in natural history, see CHRYSALIS. 



