NECROMANCY 



4109 



NEEDLE 



He lived chiefly at Geneva until 1788, when 

 he was recalled by Louis XVI to the offices of 

 director-general of finance and minister of state. 

 II - part in the convening of the States-Gen- 

 eral increased his popularity, and his dismissal 

 by the king in July, 1789, was the direct cause 

 of the storming of the Bastille. This brought 

 about his reinstatement, but he held office only 

 until September, 1790, resigning because of the 

 rejection of some of his financial schemes. Al- 

 though an excellent business man, Necker had 

 few of the qualities of a great statesman. Ma- 

 dame de Stae'l was his daughter (see STAEL- 

 HOLSTON, ANNE LOUISE GERMAJNE). 



NECROMANCY, nek' ro man si, or the BLACK 

 ART. is the exercise of an unhallowed power ac- 

 quired by contact with the spirits of evil, which 

 confers a control of supernatural forces. It was 

 contrasted with white magic, which represents 

 more legitimate or beneficent use of like 

 powers. Such beliefs go back to the oldest 

 types of practices among primitive peoples, but 

 were decidedly modified and attained their cur- 

 rent meaning in connection with the popular 

 interpretation of Christian dogma. See MAGIC; 

 SUPERSTITION ; WITCHCRAFT. jj. 



NECROPOLIS, nekrop'olis, a word mean- 

 ing city oj the dead and thus a pleasing term 

 for any large cemetery; but by literary usage 

 it has become restricted in application to large 

 cemeteries near centers of ancient civilization, 

 from which the. archaeologist gathers informa- 

 tion concerning life and times of vanished peo- 

 ple. The new world furnishes such a necropo- 

 lis at Ancon, Peru, dating back to the days of 

 Inca rule, from which most interesting details 

 of native culture have been gathered. At Hall- 

 statt, Austria, is a necropolis of the bronze 

 age, thus long before the dawn of authentic his- 

 tory. The most of what is known of the Etrus- 

 cans is derived from a study of their ancient 

 cemeteries, of which those of Veii, Tarquinii 

 and Clusium may be mentioned, all dating 

 from centuries which preceded the rise of the 

 Roman state. 



But Egypt is preeminently the land of 



>polises. The site of every center of royal 



authority in ancient Egypt, Memphis, Thebes, 



Sais, etc., marks the location of a necropolis. 



All pyramids and temples, not simply those of 



Gireh alone, were surrounded by extensive 



s. Discoveries of far-reaching import 



g constantly made in the sanx- Th. \- 



the only source of information for 



* preceding the first dynasty at Memphis, 



probably 7,000 years ago. 



NECTAR, nek' tar, in Greek mythology, the 

 celestial drink of the gods, in which they 

 pledged one another from cups brought by 

 Hebe and Ganymede. It resembled red wine, 

 and with ambrosia, the food of the gods, con- 

 ferred youth, beauty and immortality. 



NECTARINE, nek' tar in, or ncktareen', a 

 fruit belonging to the rose family which has 

 probably been developed, with the peach and 

 almond, from a wild almond tree of Southwest- 

 ern Asia. The nectarine is occasionally found 

 on peach trees, merely as the result of bud 

 variation. The tree grown from the seed of 

 such fruit, almost without exception, "comes 

 true;" that is, it bears nectarines. The smooth, 

 glossy surface of the nectarine is its main differ- 

 ence from the peach. Although exported to 

 some extent from California, its commercial 

 value is not so great as that of the peach. The 

 nectarine tree thrives in all regions in which 

 the peach flourishes. See PEACH. 



NEEDLE, ne'd'l. The next time you pick 

 up a sewing needle, remember that this little 

 piece of steel, with a fine point at one end and 

 an eye at the other, has passed through the 

 hands of seventy workmen and undergone 

 twenty-two processes in its manufacture. The 

 coils of wire are cut into pieces long enough 

 for two needles. These pieces are then heated 

 to a dull red and rolled on a flat steel plate to 

 straighten them. The wires are then pointed at 

 each end on a grindstone, being held in place 

 by a device which causes them to revolve while 

 in contact with the stone so that the points 

 are fine and even. Only one end is pointed at 

 a time. The next step consists in stamping the 

 \vin\s in the middle by a machine that forms 

 the flat place for the eyes, which are punched 

 by another machine. These pieces of wire have 

 now become double needles, held together by 

 a thin film. A wire is now run through the 

 eyes and the needles are cut apart and the head 

 or eye end is rounded and smoothed. The rr- 

 maining processes consist in tempering, polish- 

 ing, sorting and packing the finished product 

 for the ma: 



Sewing needles arc usually put tip in papers 

 of twenty-five each, and a doien of these papers 

 form a package. The sizes are indicated by 

 numbers, and papers for general use contain 

 several sites. Knphnd is the el 

 tin ure of sewing i I \ are 



also mad m other Kuropcnn co< nince 



to England in th. U 



The value of sewing needles imported ;:.: th. 

 United States in normal yean ia about $500,000. 



