NIVEL.LES 



Nivelles (Flemish, Nyvel). 

 Town of Belgium, in the prov. of 

 Brabant. It lies 18 m. by rly. S. of 

 Bnissels, on the Thines, is a rly. 

 junction, and has metal works, 

 paper manufactures, tobacco and 

 furniture industries. The Roman- 

 esque church of S. Gertrude was 

 founded in the llth century. Pop. 

 12,500. 



Nivernais. Province of France, 

 represented since 1792 by the dept. 

 of Nievre (q.v.) and part of Yonne. 

 It lay contiguous with Berry, 

 Orleanais, Burgundy, and Bour- 

 bonnais, and became a county in the 

 late 9th century, Otto William of 

 Burgundy being its first hereditary 

 count. Held by the rulers of 

 Flanders, 1280-1384, it passed to 

 Burgundy and then to Cleves. A 

 duchy from 1538, it was held by 

 the Gonzague family from 1562 

 until bought by Mazarin, 1659, 

 and given by him to his nephew, 

 Jules Philippe Mancini. Its capital 

 was Nevers. The Nivernais canal 

 (109 m.) joins the rivers Loire and 

 Yonne, passing from Decize to 

 Auxerre, and was constructed 

 1784-1842. 



Nivose. Fourth month of the 

 year as rearranged during the 

 French Revolution. It began on 

 Dec. 21 or 22, and the word means 

 the month of snow, 



Nixie, Nix, OB NICK. Water 

 sprite in the folklore of the peoples, 

 of N. Europe. The name occurs in 

 various forms in German, Danish, 

 Swedish, Icelandic, and English 

 legend. It wa? often regarded as 

 malignant, and its appearance pre- 

 saged shipwreck and drowning. In 

 its Anglo-Saxon form, nicor, it 

 is mentioned in Beowulf, where 

 several are slain by the hero. In 

 the form Nick it has survived as 

 one of the names used for the 

 devil, Old Nick. 



Nixon, SIR JOHN ECCLES (1857- 

 1921). British soldier. Born 

 Aug. 16, 1857, and educated at 

 Welling ton 

 College, he en- 

 tered the 

 K.O.S.B., but 

 transferred to 

 the Indian 

 Staff Corps. 

 He was in the 

 Afghan War. 

 1879-80, was a 

 staff officer 

 with the Chit- 

 ral Relief force 

 and the Tochi field force, com- 

 manded a mounted brigade in the 

 S. African War, 1901-2, and, having 

 returned to India, was given a 

 brigade. In 1906 he was promoted 

 to be inspector-general of cavalry, 

 and in 1908-12 commanded a 

 division. Knighted in 1911, he 



Sir J. E. Nixon, 

 British soldier 



Vandyk 



5754 



was appointed to the southern 

 army in 1912, made a full general, 

 1914, and in April, 1915, took 

 charge of the operations in Meso- 

 potamia. Responsible for ordering 

 the first advance to Kut, " with 

 insufficient transport and equip- 

 ment," he was censured by the 

 commission that inquired into that 

 campaign. He died Dec. 15, 1921. 

 See Kut ; Mesopotamia, Conquest 

 of : Townshend, C. V. F. 



Nixon, LEWIS (b. 1861). Ameri- 

 can naval architect. Born at, Lecs- 

 burg, Virginia, April 7, 1861, he 

 . .studied at the 

 djWjj^ 1 U.S. naval 

 I academy and 



9- -; * I the R ' N - Co1 - 

 | lege, Green- 



wich, 1882-85. 

 H e designed 

 the battleships 

 Oregon, Indi- 

 ana, and Mas- 

 s a c h u s e t ts, 

 1890, and be- 

 came superin- 

 tending constructor of Cramp's 

 shipyard, Philadelphia. In 1895 

 he set up as a shipbuilder at 

 Elizabeth, N. J. Member of various 

 naval boards 

 and commis- 

 sions, he was 

 in 1914 com- 

 missioner for 

 public works 

 at Richmond. 

 In 1901-2 he 

 succeeded 

 Croker as head 

 of Tammanv 

 .Hall (q.v.). 



Lewis Nixon, 



American naval 



architect 



NOAILLES 



were preserved during the Deluge 

 The invention of wine is at- 

 tributed to him (Gen. 6-9). See 

 Ark ; Deluge. 



Noah, THE BOOK OF. One of the 

 non-canonical O.T. Apocrypha or 

 Pseudepigrapha (i.e. works written 

 under an assumed name). It has 

 not been preserved as an independ- 

 ent work, but fragments of it are in- 

 corporated in the Ethiopic Book of 

 Enoch, and it is referred to in the 

 Book of Jubilees (x, 13; xxi, 10). 

 The work, which gives an account 

 of the laws made by Noah for his 

 children, would seem to have been 

 written between 200 and 161 B.C. 



Noailles. Name of a noble 

 French family. Originating at the 

 chateau of this name near Brive, 

 Correze, the family gave its name to 

 the town of Noailles, Oise, formerly 

 called Longvillers. Antoine de 

 Noailles (1504-62,) was chamberlain 

 to Francis I, admiral of Guienne, 

 and ambassador to England, 1533- 

 36, and his brother Fran9ois (1519- 

 85), was bishop of Aix and ambas- 

 sador to Venice, 1557, and to 

 Constantinople, 1572. Anne Jules, 

 duke of Noailles (1650-1708), a 

 distinguished soldier, repressed 



Nizam (Arab., administration). 

 Title of the sovereign of Hydera- 

 bad. The first holder was Asaf Jah 

 (d. 1748), who was styled Nizam- 

 ul-Mulk, i.e. the administrator of 

 the kingdom. See Hyderabad. 



Njordh OR NJORDHR. In Norse 

 mythology, the god of the sea, and 

 of seafaring and wealth. One of 

 the race of the 

 Vanir. he is hus- 

 band of Skadhi 

 and father of 

 Freyr and Freyja. 

 In the war with 

 the Aesir he be- 

 comes a hostage. 

 The German 

 Hertha (q.v . ) is 

 his female coun- 

 terpart. 



Noah. 0. T. 

 patriarch. Son of 

 Lamech and 

 father of Shem, 

 H a m, a n d J a- 

 pheth, by divine 

 command he made 

 an ark in which 

 he and his family 



Noailles. Members of the French family. Left to right : 



Anne Jules. 1650-1708; Louis Antoine, 1851-1729; Adrien 



Maurice, 1678-1766 



heretics in Languedoc, 1681, and 

 was made marshal in 1693. Louis 

 Antoine (1651-1729) was arch- 

 bishop of Paris, 1695, and cardinal, 

 1700, and an opponent of the 

 Quietists. 



Adrien Maurice, 3rd duke (1678- 

 1766), was an able general, finance 

 president in 1715 and marshal of 



Hill 



3 I I I 



Noah. Raphael's conception of Noah superintending the 



building of the Ark. From a ceiling painting in the 



Vatican, Rome 



