SO 
N I G 
NI'GHT-WAKINGj a/lj. Watching duringthe night: 
Yet, foul night-waking• cat, he doth but dally, 
\yhijf in his holdfaft foot the weak moufe panteth. 
ShahcJ'peare. 
NI'GHT-WALK, f. Walk in the night.—If in his 
night-walk he met with irregular Scholars, he took their 
names, and a promife to appear, unfent-for, next morn¬ 
ing. Walton's Ufa. of Sander Jim. 
NI'GHT-WALKER, f. One who roves in the night 
upon ill deligns.—Men that hunt fo, be privy Itealers, or 
night-walkers. A felt am. 
Conftables are authorifed by the common law to arreft 
night-walkers and fufpicious perfons, Sec. Watchmen 
may alfo arrefl; night-walkers, and hold them until the 
morning: and it is faid, that a private perfon may arrefl; 
any fufpicious night-walker, and detain him till he give 
a good account of himfelf. One may be bound to the 
good behaviour for being a night-walker; and common 
night-walkers, or haunters of bawdy-houfes, are to be in¬ 
dicted before juftices of peace, &c. But it is not held 
lawful for a conftable, Sec. to take up any woman as a 
night-walker on bare fufpicion only of being of ill fame, 
unlefs the be guilty of a breach of the peace, or fome un¬ 
lawful a£t. 13 Ed. I. c. 4. 5 Ed. III. c. 14. 
NI'GHT-WALKING, adj. Roving in the night.— 
They fhall not need hereafter, in old cloaks and falfe 
beards, to hand to the courtefy of a night-walking cud¬ 
gel ler for eaves-dropping. Milton. 
NI'GHT-WALKING,/. The aft of walking in deep; 
noEtambulation. See Somnambulism. — After hard 
meats, it [deep] increafeth fearful dreams, incubus, night- 
walking , crying out, and much unquietnefs. Burton's 
Anat. of Mel. 
NIGHT-WAN'DERER, f. One that wanders by night. 
Huloet .—Every body will be ready to take him up for a 
night-wanderer, and to chaftife him for being out of his 
way. More's Covj. Cahb. 
A wandering fire, 
(Which oft, they fay, fome evil fpirit attends,) 
Hovering, and blazing, with delutive light, 
Mideads the amaz’d night-wanderer from his way. Milton. 
NIGHT-WAN'DERING, adj. Roving in the night. 
— Eight-wandering weefels fliriek to lee him there. 
Skakpfpeare's Rape of Lncrece. 
NI'GHT-WARBLING, adj. Singing in the night: 
Now is the pleafant time, 
The cool, the filent, lave where lilence yields 
To the night-warbling bird. Milton's P. L. 
NI'GHT-WATCH, f. A period of the night as diftin- 
guifhed by change of the watch.—I remember thee upon 
my bed, and meditate on thee in the night-watches. Pjalm 
Ixiii. 6.—A watchman, a guardian of the night. 
NI'GHT-WATCHER, f. One who watches through 
the night upon fome ill defign. Huloet .—One who lies 
awake through illnefs or anxiety. 
NI'GHT-WATCHING, f. A prafitice of very remote 
antiquity, which belongs to theoldell regulations of police. 
So early as the time of Solomon we find mention made of 
it, and likewife in the Pfalms of David. (Song of Solomon, 
iii. 3. Pfal. cxxvii. 1.) Sentinels were ftationed in dif¬ 
ferent places in Athens and other cities of Greece, and 
they w'ere kept to their duty by the vifitations of the thef- 
viothetce. There were alfo triumviri nofiurni in the city of 
Rome, as appears from the commentaries of Heubach on 
the police of the Romans. It appears, however, that the 
defign of thefe inftitutions was rather the prevention of 
fires, than the guardingagainlt alarms or dangers by night; 
although attention was likewife paid to thefe in procels of 
time. The apprehenfion of fires was the pretext of Au- 
guftus, when he wilhed to ftrengthen the night-watch for 
iupprefling nocturnal commotions. 
It does not appear that calling out the hours became an 
eftablilhed praitice before the ere&ion of city-gates, and 
probably had its rife in Germany; yet it would have been 
NIG 
attended with advantages in ancient Rome, where there 
were no public clocks, nor any thing in private houfes to 
indicate the hours. The periods for foidiers to mount 
guard were determined by water-clocks; at the end of 
each hour they blew a horn, and by means of this fignal 
each individual might afeertain the hour of the night. 
It feems evident, however, that thefe regulations were 
only attended to in time of war. 
In the city of Paris, night-watching was eftablilhed as 
at Rome, in the very commencement of its monarchy; 
and De la Mare quotes the ordinances of Clofhaire II. 
upon this fubjeft, in the year 595. The citizens at firft 
kept watch in rotation ; but this practice was afterwards 
fet afide, and, by the payment of a certain fum of money, 
a permanent watch was eftablilhed. In the opinion of the 
learned and indefatigable Beckmann, the eftablilhment of 
Angle watchmen, to call out the hours through the Itreets, 
was peculiar to Germany, and only copied by furrounding 
nations in more modern times. John George, eledtor of 
Brandenburg, in 1588, appointed watchmen at Berlin ; 
and Mabillon deferibes it as a practice peculiar to that 
country. Horns are made ufe of by watchmen in fome 
places, and rattles in others; the former being molt pro¬ 
per for villages, and the latter for cities. 
The Chinefe, fo early as the ninth century, had watch¬ 
men polled on their towers, who announced the hours 
both by day and night, by ftriking forcibly on a fufpended 
board, which in that country is faid to be in ufe to the 
prefent period; and at Peterlburgh in Rulfia, the watch¬ 
men employ a fufpended plate of iron for a fimilar pur- 
pofe. In this manner alfo Chriftians are afl’embled toge¬ 
ther in the Levant, for the purpofe of attending divine 
fervice ; and monks were thus awakened in monafteries 
at the molt early periods, to attend to the proper hours 
of prayer. 
We find mention made of fteeple-w'atchmen in Ger¬ 
many in the fourteenth century. In the year 1563, a 
church-fteeple was eredted in Leifnig, and an apartment 
built in it for a permanent watchman, who was obliged 
to proclaim the'hours every time the clock ltruck. Per¬ 
manent watchmen were kept in many of the fteeples at 
Ulm in the fifteenth century. The fame thing was prac- 
tifed at Frankfort on the Mayne, at Oettingen, and many 
other places; and Montaigne was aftonilhed at finding a 
man on the fteeple of Conftance, who kept watch upon 
it continually, and who on no pretext whatever was per¬ 
mitted to come down. Beckmann's Hijl. of Inventions, iii. 
425. Zool. Mug. v. 245. 
NI'GHT-WITCH, f. A night-hag. Huloet. 
NI'GHTED, adj. Darkened; clouded; black : 
It was-great ignorance, Glolter’s eyes being out. 
To let him live : Edmund, I think, is gone; 
In pity of his mifery to difpatch 
His nighted life. Sha/ufpeace's K. Lear. 
Good Hamlet, call thy flighted colour oft", 
And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Shahefp. 
NI'GHTFALL, f. The clofe of day; the beginning of 
night. Swift lomewhere ufes this word. 
NI'GHTINGALE,/ [mhtegale, Sax. from night, and 
gaian, to fing. In Chaucer, this bird is faid to crie and 
gale.'] A fmall bird that fings in the night with remark¬ 
able melody ; philomel. See Motacilla lulcinia.—Al¬ 
though the wezon, throtle, and tongue, be the inftru- 
ments of voice, and by their agitations concur in thofe 
delightful modulations, yet cannot we alfign the caufe 
unto any particular formation; and I perceive the nightin¬ 
gale hath fome difadvantage in the tongue. Brown. 
The nightingale, if Ihe Ihould fing by day, 
When every goofe is cackling, would be thought 
No better a nntfician than the wren. Shakejpeare. 
A word of endearment: 
My nightingale ! 
We’ll beat them to their beds. Shahefp. Ant. andCleop. 
NI'GHTINGALE 
