NIC 
thefe iflands, particularly among the males, live to be more 
Their indolency is not equalled by any 
other people of the eaft. Of thofe who can read and write 
they have the highelt opinion ; the Europeans, poffeffing thefe 
e(palitrcetionsy can perform aéts more than human; and the 
concen ower of divination, of controuling the winds 
and oak and of direéting the appearance of the planets, is 
at our command. The dead are buried clofe by their huts, 
in their beft drefs and with plenty of food, and with much 
previous lamentation on the part of firsisors: The dif- 
the moon are ‘sae as of great feftivity 
Tn chronological computations, 
by moons, of which they number 14, 
At the fair feafon, or beginning of 
this voyage is trade ; and for cloth, filver coin, iron, tobacco, 
and fome other articles, which they obtain from Ev uropeans, 
he pro- 
{pears, ambergris, birds’ > nelt, tortoife fhells, & en or 
twelve huts form a village number of nner on 
any one of thefe iflands does not eres 7 or 800. Every 
village has its ‘* head-man,’? or captain, who is generally 
the oldeft. The only quadrupeds on thefe iflands are hogs 
and dogs, Among the feathered tribe pigeons are abundant 
from June to September, on account of a berry which is 
then ripe, and of which they are very fond; pheafants and 
turtle doves are alfo then found; but the eanltant inhabitants 
ds are a {pecies of the green parrot, or parroquet, 
with a black tail and collar, The limate might, with little 
trouble in me Nee - clearing the woods, be fa osikae nie 
falubrious. The of their mufic confifts of few notes ; 
their dance is dull z mae inanimate ; the bafis of their language 
which they 
nourifhment and that of their hogs, and is alfo an obje& of 
trade. The fhips that are bound to Pegu from either of the 
coafts of India touch at the Nicobar iflaads, and purchafe a 
f cocoa-nuts at the rate of four for a tobacco leaf, 
_ The t tropical 
wild nase n and qalleta 
This tree 
parts of Africa and alfo from that of Otaheite. 
Afiatic Ref. 
of the Pandanus of botanilts. 
NICOLAI CaTuo.icon. See CatHo 
Deir see or ey aie in ” Eecle ‘efafical Hif- 
tory, e moft ancient fects in hriftian church ; 
thus aececinted from Nicolas, a bea pare a deacon 
of the church of Jerufalem, together with St. Stephen. 
NIC 
e diftinguifhing tenet of the Nicolaitans, as sour leated 
a ecelefiatical pa adios is, that all married women fhoul 
ommon ; to take away all occafion of jealoufy. 
“6 ther authors tax Nico las with other impurities; but 
Clemens Thani es se alan them all to his difciples, 
who, he fays, abufed their mafter’s words. 
- the charge a againft the Nicolaitans (Rev. ii. 6, 
14, 15.) they are not reproached with erroneous opinions 
nee ie the Deity, but with the licentioufnefs of their 
pratice, and the ae of that law, which the 
apoftles had enacted, (Acts, xv. 29.) againft fornication, 
and the ufe of meats offered to idols. It is, however, cer- 
tain, that the writers of the fecond and the following cen- 
turies, Ireneus, Tertullian, Clemens, and others, affirm, 
that the Ser oarece adopted the fentiments of the Gnoltics, 
s, and 
matter, 
that sa 
nee and another, founded by a perfon named 
colaus, in the fecond century, upon the principles of the 
no ics. 
Cocceius, Hoffman, Vitringa, and Maius, take the name 
Nicolaitan to be coined, to fignify a m 
the feven deacons. 
condemned by Hippolytus and Epiphanius; whilft Ign 
tius, Clement, Eufebius, and Theodoret, though they con- 
demned the herefy of the Nicolaitans, fay that Nicolas w 
not fuch an one. ippolytus, in his book againft fetta. 
includes that of the Nicolaitans. 
NICOLAS, Argonauts of St ee ARGONAU 
NICOLAS, in Geograp yy a {mall a near the N. coatt 
of Cuba. N. lat. 23°15'. W. long. 79° 4 
NICOLAU, or Nixotowicer, a town de Sita in the 
principality of Ratibor; 27 miles E. of Ratibor 
US, DAMASCENUS, in Biograph >a Rw 
pher and hiftorian, was in great elteemin the f Au- 
guftus, by whom, as well as by ae Herod, e was ad- 
mitted to intimate Ue 
an Univerfal Hiftory, in many 
ca veered to by Jofephus, Suidas, and Athenzus. 
ages of hie’ are cited by Jofephus, who impeaches 
the author’ s veracity with refpect to the account of Herod, 
written during the life of that prince. Strabo quotes from 
him certain matters relative to Tndia. Henry de Valois 
publifhed at Paris, in 1634, in Greek and Latin, the col- 
aoe from different works of this author made by Con- 
ftantine ct io Maa eae and brought from the ifle of Cy- 
prus by Peirefc. 
NICOLAYKEN, or os Nicuoras, in Geography, a 
town of Pruffia, in tie province. of Nata ange : . miles 
S.S.E. of Konigfberg. N. lat. 53° 38! . lon Aa", 
OLE, Francis, in Biogr aphy, very ee 
ries ie mee ae who flourifhed in che eighteenth cen- 
orn at Paris in the year 1 early difco- 
ve ng attachment to a {tudies, an being 
bleffed with an-able inftru€tor, he made a moft fuccefsful 
progrefs, and became intimately converfnt with the higher 
branches of geometry. e was firft brought into notice 
by deteGing the fallacy of a pretended adie of the 
cirel 
