KILOMETER NINUS. 



237 



mud, which is composed principally of argillaceous 

 earth and carbonate of lime, serves to fertilize the 

 overflowed lands, and is used for manure for such 

 places as are not sufficiently saturated by the river : 

 it is also formed into bricks, and various vessels for 

 domestic use, &c. The present pacha (see Moham- 

 med AH) has opened many of the old canals, which 

 had been closed for centuries, and dug new ones : 

 among the latter, the canal of Mahmood, connecting 

 the harbour of Alexandria with the Nile, near Fouah, 

 forty^eight miles long, ninety feet broad, and eighteen 

 deep7 is a magnificent work. Among the animals 

 v ith which the Nile abounds, the most remarkable are 

 the crocodile and the hippopotamus. In the ancient 

 Egyptian mythology, the Nile was revered as the 

 tutelary deity of the country. The Greeks make 

 him. the son of Pontus and Thalassa, or of Oceanus 

 and Tethys. Memphis is said to have been his 

 daughter. When the waters began to rise, the in- 

 habitants celebrated the festivals called Niloa, sacri- 

 ficed a black bull to him, strewed lotus flowers on 

 the water, &c. In the city of Nilopolis, a temple 

 was erected to him. His attributes are the crocodile, 

 the sphinx, the hippopotamus, and the dolphin. The 

 Nile has been personified in several statues, particu- 

 larly in a very noble one of black marble, now in the 

 Vatican. He is distinguished by his large cornu- 

 copia, by the sphinx couched under him, and by the 

 sixteen little children playing around him. By the 

 sixteen little children are understood the several 

 risings of the river every year, as far as to sixteen 

 cubits. The black marble is said to be in allusion to 

 the Nile's coming from Ethiopia. The water flows 

 down from under his robe, which conceals his urn, to 

 denote that the head of the river was impenetrable. 

 In some modern statues, the head of this figure is 

 quite hidden under his robe for the same reason. An 

 instrument, called a nilometer, was constructed by 

 the ancient Egyptians, consisting of a rod or pillar, 

 marked with the necessary divisions, for the purpose 

 of ascertaining the proportionate increases of the 

 flood of the Nile. It is said by several Arabian writers 

 to have been first set up by Joseph during his regency 

 in Egypt. The measure of it was sixteen cubits. 



NILOMETER. See Nile. 



NIMBUS, or GLORY; the halo, or collection of 

 rays surrounding, in ancient times, the heads of cer- 

 tain deities, kings, and emperors, and, since the 

 establishment of Christianity, the heads of Christ 

 and the saints. Some have attributed the origin of 

 the custom to the practice, in the Roman triumphs, of 

 placing a common round shield over the head of the 

 triumphant leader, and have supposed that the cover- 

 ings which protected the heads of the statues of the 

 gods from filth and dust, were called by the same 

 name, and that these rays were at first added for 

 ornament, whence sprung afterwards the real halo, 

 or glory. But it is probable, from the numerous 

 legends in which holy children are described with glo- 

 ries, that they owe their origin to an ancient Oriental 

 symbol. Nimbus is the Latin for cloud. See Clouds. 



NIMEGUEN (anciently Noviomagus) ; a strong 

 city in the Dutch province of Guelderland, delight- 

 fully situated on a steep hill, reaching down to the 

 Waal ; lat. 51 51' N. ; Ion. 32 46' E. ; population 

 13,325. Most of the streets are narrow and dark. 

 The principal of the nine churches is a handsome 

 building. On a height near the river are seen the 

 ruins of an old tower, said to have been built by 

 Charlemagne. The town house contains a rich col- 

 lection of Roman antiquities. The Belvedere, a high 

 tower, from which there is a most extensive view, is 

 near the beautiful public walk, the Kalvcrbosch. The 

 pale beer (Moll) of Nimeguen is famous. Nimeguen 

 is celebrated for two treaties of peace, concluded in 



1678, between Spain, France, and Holland, and, in 



1679, between Germany and Sweden. 



NIMES, or NISMES (Nemausus); a city of Franco, 

 capital of the department of the Card; lat. 43 SO 7 

 N. ; Ion. 4 21' E. ; 350 miles south-east of Paris ; 

 episcopal see, and the seat of several departmental 

 authorities. It is situated in a delightful plain, and 

 is surrounded with boulevards, which occupy the place 

 of the former fortifications. It contains some hand- 

 some public buildings, among which are the palais- 

 de-justice, an hospital, and cathedral. The public 

 walks are magnificent. The population is 39,068, of 

 which a great number are Calvinists. The inhabi- 

 tants are principally employed in manufactures, 

 chiefly of silk and cotton. It has considerable com- 

 merce in wine, oil, essences, drugs, dye-stuffs, &c. 

 Nimes, next to Rome, contains the greatest number 

 of monuments of Roman grandeur : among them are 

 the square house (maison carrte), an ancient temple, 

 built by Adrian, seventy-six feet long, thirty-eight 

 broad, and forty-two high, with thirty beautiful 

 Corinthian columns (it was repaired by Louis XIV., 

 and again in 1820) ; the amphitheatre, a noble cir- 

 cus of the Doric order, the walls of which, com- 

 posed of enormous masses of stone, united with ad- 

 mirable skill, and about 1200 feet in circumference, 

 are in good preservation ; the beautiful fountain of 

 Diana, with its baths and trees ; the temple of Di- 

 ana, in ruins ; and the ancient tower Magne, on a 

 hill outside of the city, the original destination of 

 which is unknown. Very fine mosaics have been 

 found here, and numerous fragments of ancient build- 

 ings, with Greek and Latin inscriptions. Nimes is 

 supposed to have been built by a Greek colony, and 

 was afterwards, for about 500 years, in the possession 

 of the Romans. In the sixteenth century it became 

 a stronghold of Calvinism (see Huguenots), and suf- 

 fered much during the civil wars. In 1815 (see 

 France), it was the scene of religious violence in 

 consequence of the reaction of that period. See 

 Millin's f-'oyage dans les Departements du Midi; Me- 

 nard's Histoire des Antiquites de Nimes (1822). 



NIMROD ; a valiant warrior, who, according to 

 the Mosaic account, lived before 2000 B. C., and is 

 generally supposed to have been the first conqueror 

 who substituted the monarchical yoke for the patriar- 

 chal independency of the nomadic tribes. Babylon 

 and the monarchy of Nimrod were founded by him, 

 and enlarged by the conquest of the towns (fortified 

 tribes) of Erech (afterwards Edessa), Acad (afterwards 

 Nisibis), and Calneh (afterwards Ctesiphon, in Meso- 

 potamia). Herder calls him the builder of the tower 

 of Babel, and considers the representation of him, as 

 a powerful hunter, merely a figurative designation of 

 the tyranny and artifice by which he subjected and 

 united the wild nomadic tribes. 



Nimrod, in Chaldaic and Arabic, signifies a rrlvl. 



NINE ; used by the English poets for the Muses 

 (q. v.), on account of their number. 



NINEVEH. See Ninus. 



NINON DE L'ENCLOS. See UEnclos. 



NINTH, in music ; an interval containing an oc- 

 tave and a tone ; also a name given to the chord, 

 consisting of a common chord, with the eighth ad- 

 vanced one note. 



NINUS was, according to an uncertain tradition, 

 an Assyrian king, the successor of Belus, and one of 

 the greatest conquerors in Asia. He extended the 

 Assyrian kingdom to the borders of India, to the 

 Nile and the Tanais, married Semiramis, the wife of 

 Medon, one of his generals, who had assisted him, by 

 stratagem, in the conquest of Bactra, the capital city 

 of the Bactrians, and built Nineveh, the capital of 

 his own kingdom, which, according to Niebuhr, is 

 situated on the east side of the Tigris, opposite Mo- 



