NEGRO 



Negro, Rio. River of 8. 



Anu-n.-ii, the largest left kink 

 tributary i>f tin- Amazon. It riaea 

 inColoiiiln.i l>y many heailntreams, 

 the chief of \\lu. I,, tho Guainia, 

 forms part of tho boundary of 

 .l.i Flowing generally 



K.S.Iv, it unite-, \utli tli.- Amazon 

 in Brazil, below Manaos. In parts 

 fniin '.I in. to !.'> in. in width, it in 

 li.ir.lv P. Miili-s wide at its mouth. 

 It , "iit.uns many islands, and 

 through tho Cassiquiaro commu- 

 nicates with the Orinoco. Its 

 prin<-i]>al affluents are the Arihaha, 

 I'arima or Rio Branco, Uaupes, 

 inul I'ailauiry. Total length 

 about 1,400 in., most of which is 

 able. 



Negro, Rio. River of Argen- 

 tina, on the border of Patagonia. 

 Two Andino streams, the Neuqu6n 

 and Limay, join to form the main 

 stream, which flows thence 400 m. 

 to the Atlantic Ocean. Rapid and 

 obstructed by shoals and islands, it 

 is of little use for navigation. In 

 its middle course it is followed 

 by the rly. from Neuquen to 

 Bahia Blanca. Its total length is 

 650 m. 



Negropont. Variant name for 

 the Greek island of Euboea (q.v.). 



Negro Powder. Safety explo- 

 sive for use in coal mines. It con- 

 sists of 57 p.c. ammonium nitrate, 

 15 p.c. trinitrotoluene, 27 '5 p.c. 

 sodium chloride, and 0'5 p.c. 

 graphite, the maximum permissible 

 charge being 24 oz. See Explosives ; 

 Safety Explosives. 



Negros. Island of the Philip- 

 pines. One of the Visayan group, 

 lying between Cebii and Panay, it is 

 135 m. long, has a mean breadth of 

 27 m., and covers an area of 4,880 

 sq. m. It is traversed throughout 

 its length by a well-wooded moun- 

 tain ridge, which contains the 

 active volcano Canlaon or Mala- 

 spina, 8,193 ft. high. Sugar, copra, 

 hemp, tobacco, and rice are largely 

 cultivated, and teak and other 

 timbers are obtained. Although 

 the coast has few secure anchor- 

 ages, fishing is an active industry. 

 Bacdlod, on the N.W. coast, and 

 Dumaguete, on the S.E. coast, are 

 the principal towns. Pop. 462,000. 



Negus. Title of the emperor 

 of Abyssinia, the full form of which 

 is negus negusti (king of kings). 



Negus. Warm beverage made 

 of port wine and water, sweetened 

 with sugar and flavoured with 

 lemon, cloves, nutmeg, etc. The 

 water, in the proportion of one- 

 half to two-thirds, should first boil, 

 and sherry may be substituted for 

 port. A small addition of brandy 

 is recommended when the negus is 

 to be drunk cold. It is named after 

 its inventor, Col. Negus, master of 

 the buckhounds, 1727. 



5073 



Nehemiah. Reputed author of 

 an ( >.'!'. tiook, closely related to 

 the books of Ezra and Chronicle*. 

 It records the work in Jerusalem 

 of a Jewish cupbearer of Arta- 

 xerxes, who in 444 B.C. was 

 appointed Persian governor of 

 .1 ml. ih. Nehemiah made two 

 visits to Jerusalem, 445 and 

 432 B.C., during which he inspected 

 the rebuilding of the walls and in- 

 troduced various social and reli- 

 gious reforms. The Book of the 

 Law of Moses was read to the 

 people, and they were called upon 

 strictly to observe its regulations. 

 See Bible ; Ezra. 



Neilson, JAMES BEAUMONT 

 (1792-1865). British inventor. 

 Born June 22, 1792, and employed 

 at a colliery while a boy, he became 

 a foreman and manager of the first 

 Glasgow gasworks. He suggested 

 the use of clay retorts in gas manu- 

 facture, sulphate of iron for its 

 purification, and the swallow-tail 

 burner. As a result of studies 

 carried on in his spare time at the 

 Andersonian University, he intro- 

 duced the hot-blast in iron manu- 

 facture, for which he took out a 

 patent in 1828. The process was 

 revolutionary, three times as much 

 iron being obtained for the same 

 expenditure of fuel as by former 

 processes, and in partnership with 

 Charles Macintosh (q.v. ) Neilson 

 made it a commercial success. He 

 died Jan. 18, 1865. 



Neilson, JULIA (b. 1869). British 

 actress. Born in London, June 12, 

 1869, she was educated at Wies- 

 baden. After 

 win n i n g 

 many prizes 

 at the R.A.M., 

 she a ban- 

 doned music 

 for the stage, 

 and made her 

 debut as 

 Cynisca in 

 Pygmalion 

 and Galatea, 

 at The Lyceum, London, March 21, 

 1888. At The Haymarket, 1889-94, 

 she achieved success as Julie de 

 Noirville in A Man's Shadow ; 

 Pauline in Called Back; Olga in 

 The Red Lamp ; Drusilla Ives in 

 The Dancing Girl ; and Hypatia in 

 the play of that name. Her other 

 successes include Nell Gwyn in 

 Sweet Nell of Old Drury ; Lady 

 Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimper- 

 nel ; and several Shakespearean 

 parts, among them Rosalind in As 

 You Like It. She visited the U.S.A. 

 in 1895 and 1910. She married the 

 actor- manager Fred Terry (q.v.). ' 



Neils ton. Town of Renfrew- 

 shire, Scotland. It stands on the 

 Levern, 10 m. from Glasgow, and 

 is served by the Cal. Rly. The 



Julia Neilson, 

 British actress 



Elliott <t Fry 



NEJD 



chief industries are the spinning of 

 cotton and the printing and bleach- 

 ing of cotton goods. Pop. 1">,<>OO. 



Neisse. River of Germany, in 

 Upper Silesia. It rises on the 

 border of Czecho-Slovakia and 

 flows N. between the Giant Mta. 

 and tho Sudctes, then E. and N.E. 

 to join the Oder after a course of 

 120 m. Pron. Nicer. 



Neisse. Town of Germany, in 

 Upper Silesia. It is a rly. junction, 

 30 m. S. W. of Oppeln, and manufac- 

 tures lace, furniture, and machi- 

 nery. The parish church of S. 

 James, completed in 1430, the 

 Renaissance church of 88. Peter 

 and Paul, and the 15th century 

 town hall are notable. Neisse was 

 formerly the capital of the princi- 

 pality of Neisse within the ad- 

 ministration of the bishop of 

 Breslau. Pop. 26,000. 



Neith. Egyptian goddess. A 

 primitive hunting deity of the 

 Libyan population of the W. delta, 

 worshipped at Sais in predynastic 

 times, she was portrayed with 

 crossed arrows and other hunting 

 emblems, and identified with the 

 Greek Athena. She was afterwards 

 represented with green hands and 

 face as an earth -mother, and at 

 Esneh in Upper Egypt was linked 

 with Klmum. Her cult regained 

 prominence under the Saite kings 

 of the XXVIth dynasty. See Egypt. 



Neiva. Town of Colombia, S. 

 America, in the dept. of Huila. It 

 stands on the Magdalena river, at 

 the head of navigation for light 

 craft, 116 m. S.W. of Bogota. A 

 cattle-exporting centre, and for- 

 merly noted for its cinchona, it 

 trades in cocoa, and manufactures 

 silk and hats. Founded in 1550 

 by Jesuits, it was destroyed by 

 Indians in 1569, and rebuilt in 

 1612. Pop. 10,000. 



Nejd. Independent emirate or 

 principality of Central Arabia. 

 Situated on the E. side of the 

 Hejaz, and extending E. to include 

 El Hasa on the N.W. of the Persian 

 Gulf, it is the modern represen- 

 tative of the empire of the Waha- 

 bis (q.v.). Its people are pure 

 Arabs, and its capital is Riyadh, on 

 the pilgrim road from the Persian 

 Gulf to Mecca. The country is for 

 the most part an elevated desert 

 plateau, but there are a number of 

 fertile valleys and oases. Nejd is 

 famous for its fine horses. The 

 emir Abd el-Aziz es-Saud expelled 

 the Turks from Hasa in 1913, and 

 was recognized as Vali in the fol- 

 lowing year. His independence 

 dates from the downfall of Turkey 

 during the Great War. Off the 

 coast of Hasa lie the British 

 Bahrein Islands, largely peopled by 

 Arabs from Nejd. Pop. est., 

 250,000 See Arabia : N.V. 



