NOVICE NUISANCE. 



2'tS 



tre of the commerce of the Hansa (q. v.) and the 

 Normans with Western Asia and the Byzantine em- 

 pire. In the fifteenth century it contained a popula- 

 tion of 400,000 ; and its Aagnificence, wealth, and 

 power, gave rise to the proverb, " Who can stand, 

 against God and Nowgorod?" It still possesses 

 marks of its ancient grandeur, among which are its 

 sixty-two churches, with their gilt towers, and the 

 ancient fortifications. In the cathedral of St Catha- 

 rine are the celebrated Chersonese gates, with inscrip- 

 tions, &c., and the Swedish gates. Novgorod was 

 conquered by the grand-dukes of Russia towards the 

 close of the fifteenth century. 



NOVICE, and NOVITIATE. A novice is a can- 

 didate of either sex for a religious order ; and novi- 

 tiate is the time in which the novice makes trial of a 

 monastic life, before taking the final vows. The 

 Catholic church has always prescribed strict rules for 

 the trial of novices, and the council of Trent charges 

 the bishops to watch over the execution of these rules. 

 The novitiate is generally very severe. The novice 

 lias to learn the regulations of the order, and, gener- 

 ally, to perform likewise many menial offices about 

 the convent, and to give account of the most trifling 

 actions to the master of the novices. All orders are 

 not equal in their severity. The object of this harsh 

 treatment viz., that the monastic vows, if taken at 

 all, may be taken voluntarily is frequently frustrated 

 by families compelling some of their members to 

 embrace the monastic life, however reluctant they 

 may be. 



NOVY ; Sclavonic for new ; e. g. Novygrad (new 

 town). 



NOX ; a Roman deity. See Night. 



NOYAU ; a cordial. The word is French, and the 

 term is derived from the use of the kernels of apri- 

 cots, nectarines, and peaches, in flavouring it. The 

 use of them, in too large quantities, has sometimes 

 made the liquor poisonous, as prussic acid may be 

 extracted from them. The other ingredients in the 

 liquor are French brandy, prunes, celery, bitter 

 almonds, a little essence of orange-peel, and essence 

 of lemon-peel, and rose water. It is used like the 

 other liqueurs. See Liqueur. 



NUBIA ; an extensive country of Africa, border- 

 ing on the Red sea to the east, Nigritia to the west, 

 Abyssinia on the south, and Egypt on the north. It 

 lies between north latitude 13 and 24, and east 

 longitude 28 and 39, containing a superficial area 

 of about 360,000 square miles, and divided into a 

 great number of kingdoms, of which the principal are 

 Sennaar and Dongola. It is intersected by the Nile, 

 which here receives the Tacazze, and forms the cele- 

 brated peninsula of Meroe. (See Meroe.) In the 

 northern part of the country there are extensive de- 

 serts, in which roam nomadic tribes, who lie in wait 

 for the caravans. The valley of the Nile contains 

 the largest part of the population, and is fertile. The 

 climate in general is excessively hot, but in the east- 

 ern parts is more moderate. Among the animals "are 

 elephants, horses, camels, civet-cnts, giraffes, lions, 

 tigers, hyaenas, hippopotamuses, crocodiles, ostriches. 

 Senna leaves, ebony, sandal-wood, bamboo, gum, 

 corn, tobacco, sugar, rice, tef (a kind of millet used 

 for making bread), &c., are among the vegetable 

 productions. Gold is found in mines, and in the river- 

 sands. The principal article of traffic is slaves, which 

 are imported from the central parts of Africa to the 

 number of about 5000 annually, and exported chiefly 

 to Arabia and Egypt. Dates, gums, and ostrich 

 feathers, are also exported. The population is small 

 in proportion to the extent of the country : it is chiefly 

 composed of tribes of Arabian descent. The Nubi- 

 ans are perfectly black, and have the thick lips, but 

 not the flat nose, nor the prominent jaws, of the ne- 



gro race. They are well made, and have a pleasing 

 expression of countenance ; they are temperate, but 

 not very industrious. They are chiefly Mohamme- 

 dans. Only the northern part of the country and the 

 coast of Habesh, or New Arabia, is subject to the 

 Turks. The separate kingdoms are governed by 

 independent chiefs, called malek. (See Sennaar.) 

 Nubia is the northern part of the Ethiopia of the 

 ancients, who placed in it the Nobates, the Blem- 

 myes, the Troglodytes, and other tribes. Mohammed 

 Ali sent an expedition to Nubia under his son, Ismael, 

 in 1821, for the purpose of discovering gold mines, 

 destroying the remnants of the mamelukes, and pro- 

 curing a supply of negroes. This force penetrated 

 as far as ten degrees north, but was then forced to 

 retreat. Caillaud, who accompanied the expedition, 

 has written an account of the country See Burck- 

 hardt's Travels in Nubia ; Gau's Newly Discovered 

 Monuments of Abyssinia ; Riffaud's P'oyage, &c. (5 

 vols., with 300 plates, Paris, 1831). 



NUDITY, in the fine arts ; the naked state of the 

 human body, to study which is equally important for 

 the sculptor and the painter, because, though the 

 latter comparatively seldom represents the human 

 body entirely without covering, yet the appearance 

 of 'the covering is determined by the structure of the 

 frame. The reason why sculpture represents the 

 naked figure so much more than painting, is because 

 it can speak to the mind only through the form, 

 while painting has the advantage of colours, which, 

 conveying a lively idea of reality, compel the con- 

 cealment of much of the body, and, in fact, afford the 

 artist sufficient means of expression without such an 

 exposure. 



NUESTRA SENORA, and SENHORA (Spanish 

 and Portuguese for Our Lady); the beginning of 

 numerous geographical names ; for instance, Nuestra 

 Senora de los Remedios de Pueblo Nuevo. 



NUEVO (Spanish for new) 'appears in many geo- 

 graphical names. 



NUISANCE. Nuisances are either common, by 

 which the public in general are incommoded, or 

 private, and affecting particular individuals. Of the 

 former class are all obstructions of the public high- 

 ways, as by putting up a gate across the road ; plac- 

 ing a person in the streets of a thronged city to 

 distribute handbills of one's trade, whereby a crowd 

 is collected ; keeping a stage coach on the street an 

 unreasonable time for taking in and discharging 

 passengers or freight ; occupying a side of the street, 

 for loading and unloading wagons a great part of the 

 day, though it be at the warehouse of the person who 

 employs the wagons, and though there be sufficient 

 room for two wagons to pass each other on the other 

 side of the street ; or occupying the street for the 

 purpose of sawing timber, though it is done that the 

 timber may be taken into an adjoining yard. But 

 taking down a building, and putting up, instead of it, 

 a higher one, whereby the street is darkened, is not 

 a common nuisance. Obstructing a navigable river, 

 which is but another highway, is a common nuisance, 

 as by mooring a barge across it, erecting a bridge, or 

 sinking any obstruction in the channel. But where 

 a vessel was sunk in a river by accident, it was held, 

 in one case, that the owner did not, by neglecting to 

 raise and remove it, render himself liable to indict- 

 ment for a common nuisance, though the navigation 

 was in some degree obstructed. A neglect may be 

 the occasion of a nuisance of this description, as well 

 as a positive act, as where a person neglected to 

 clear the channel of a river on his own grounds, and 

 it was thereby made to flow back. But such a ne- 

 glect would not, in all cases be a nuisance, cither 

 common or private, since it cannot, in general, be 

 presumed to be the duty of all proprietors on the 



