NODE 



4244 



NOMAD LIFE 



of nobility. Wherever history discloses a sub- 

 ject mass of people, like the villeins of early 

 Europe generally, or the serfs of modem Rus- 

 sia, such a people represent tribes reduced to 

 vassalage by conquest, and the conquering 

 tribes constitute a nobility. This was the case 

 in Rome, where the conquering patrician tribes 

 formed the nobility of the Roman Empire. It 

 was the same in Athens. In other parts of 

 ancient Europe, generally under different names, 

 was found a class of freemen and bondsmen. 



But another line of development must be 

 noted. The office of various tribal chieftains 

 civil and military in the first stage always 

 elective, tended to pass more and more by 

 inheritance, and hence privileged families were 

 formed which, taken collectively, formed a 

 privileged class, or nobility. The result was 

 that in Europe generally society existed in three 

 great divisions the nobility proper, the final 

 development of the numerous chiefs of an 

 earlier period ; the freemen, or the mass of con- 

 quering tribes, and the bondmen, the subject 

 tribes of early times. The nobility here spoken 

 of is what the historians mean when they talk 

 about the old nobility of Europe. 



In time the distinction between the freemen 

 and bondmen disappeared. One of the most 

 interesting researches in history is to trace this 

 development in the different countries; the old 

 nobility underwent profound changes. In Eng- 

 land it was radically changed by the Norman 

 conquest and rise of feudalism. There are now 

 but five classes of nobles in England (see 

 PEER). As a class, they enjoy the substantial 

 right of a seat in the House of Lords, but title 

 and dignity alike pass only to the oldest son, 

 which is a limitation not known to the primi- 

 tive conception of nobility in Rome. The ideas 

 on which nobility rests belong to a chapter in 

 the world's history now closing. Republics do 

 not countenance nobles, and the Constitution 

 of the United States forbids their creation. 



NODE, an astronomical term used to define 

 the points at which the moon, or any other 

 planet in its orbit, cuts the ecliptic. The moon 

 travels round the earth in what is nearly a 

 great circle. The moon and the earth also 

 travel round the sun in a still greater orbit, 

 nearly circular. These circles cross each other, 

 and the points at which they cross are called 

 nodes. When the moon passes from the south 

 to the north of the ecliptic, it travels through 

 the ascending node; when passing from the 

 north to the south of the ecliptic, it passes 

 through the descending node. 



NOGI, no'ge, KITEU, General, Count (1849- 

 1912), a Japanese soldier and general, the hero 

 of the siege of Port Arthur during the Russo- 

 Japanese War of 1904-1905. He was born in 

 Choshu, and was a member of the famous caste 

 of the Samurai, Japan's old nobles. In the 

 Satsuma rebellion he served with distinction, 

 and in return for services at the battles of Port 

 Arthur and Kinchow in the war with China was 

 rewarded with the title of peer. In 1896 he be- 

 came governor-general of Formosa, and at the 

 outbreak; of the Russo-Japanese War in June, 

 1904, was given command of the third army, 

 with orders to attack Port Arthur, one of the 

 most strongly-fortified forts in the world. The 

 siege lasted until January, 1905, and the final 

 ten days' fighting cost the Japanese about 

 10,000 men. After the surrender of the fortress 

 to the Japanese Nogi joined the forces of 

 Oyama and took an active part in the opera- 

 tions around Mukden (see MUKDEN; RUSSO- 

 JAPANESE WAR). 



After the war General Nogi, at the command 

 of the emperor, took the honorary presidency 

 of a school for young women holding titles of 

 nobility, and his chief endeavor for the rest of 

 his life was to revive in his countrymen the old 

 ideals of Spartan life. In accordance with old 

 traditions, both he and his wife committed 

 hara-kiri (which see) on September 13, 1912, 

 in Tokyo, during the funeral services of Mut- 

 suhito, their mikado. 



NO 'MAD LIFE. In the primitive stage of 

 all peoples there was a period in which they 

 had no cettled homes, but wandered about 

 from place to place in search of food. Such a 

 mode of life is called nomadism, a term de- 

 rived from a Latin word meaning roaming. 

 Some of the savage tribes of the forest regions 

 of equatorial Africa, South America and the 

 East Indies yet lead nomad lives. Nomadism 

 is also practiced to-day by certain peoples 

 whose livelihood depends upon the raising of 

 horses, sheep and cattle. In Arabia and Mon- 

 golia, in the desert regions of Central Asia and 

 in the Navaho reservations of Arizona and 

 New Mexico, regions unsuited to agriculture 

 because of climatic conditions, the people live 

 a nomad life. These areas produce grass in 

 sufficient quantity to support large numbers of 

 animals if they are driven from place to place. 

 This form of nomadism is designated as pas- 

 toral, and was practiced by the early Hebrews 

 of Bible times. Pastoral nomads are higher in 

 civilization than the savage tribes mentioned 

 above, but their mode of life is much simpler 



