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N I M 
In 1248; but being in want of money, he fold it, in 1270, 
with its territory, for 21,000 marks of fiver, to Otho III. 
comte of Guelders, vvhofe fuccelfors remained mailers till 
the States of Holland revolted againft the king of Spain, 
and eftabliflied their independence in 1609. 
In 1672, Nimeguen followed the fate of the other'cities 
of Guelderland, being taken by the French, in whole 
hands it remained two years, when they abandoned it. 
In the year 1702, the duke of Burgundy and marechal 
Boufflers, commanders of the French army, made an at¬ 
tempt to take it again ; but were defeated by a party of 
Dutch troops, under the command of the earl of Athlone. 
The churches of Nimeguen are in general handfome 
ftrudtures; the town-houfe is remarkable for its beauty 
and magnificence. In this city was held the celebrated 
congrefs of plenipotentiaries of almoll all the powers of 
Europe, who concluded a treaty of peace the 30th of July, 
1678 ; between Spain and France, on the 6th of Septem¬ 
ber; between France and the United Provinces, and be¬ 
tween the emperor and France, and between the emperor 
and Sweden, in January 1679. This city is fifty miles 
fouth-eaft of Amtlerdam. Lat. 51.53. N. Ion. 5. 47. E. 
NI'MES, Nem's, or Miho'mic, a town of Bohemia, in 
the circle of Boleflaw : forty-four miles fouth-eaft of Dref- 
den, and thirty-eight north of Prague. 
NI'MES. See Nismes. 
NIMET'ACUM, in ancient geography, a town in the 
Itinerary of Antonine, on the route from Caftellum to 
Colonia Agrippina, between Minaniacum and Camara- 
cum : eighteen miles from the former, and fourteen from 
the latter. 
NIMETU'LAHITES, f. A kind of religious among 
the Turks, fo called from Nimetulahi, their inftitutor. 
When a Turk would be admitted into the order, he is to 
(hut himfelf up clofe in a chamber forty days, reftridted to 
four ounces of food per day. The term expired, the Ni- 
metulahites take him by the hand, and lead him a Moorilh 
dance, accompanied with an infinity of ridiculous gefti- 
culations, till the violence of the exercife, with his former 
regimen, throws him down on the ground. This fall is 
conftrued an extacy, during which he is fuppofed to have 
a vifion. The Nimetulahites meet every Monday in the 
night-time, and fing hymns, repeat prayers, &c. 
NIMGOU'TA, a town of Chinefe Tartary, in the go¬ 
vernment of Kirin : 640 miles eaft-north-eaft of Pekin. 
Lat. 44. 23. N. Ion. 129. 21. E. 
NIMI'ETY, f. [iiimietas, fchool Lat.] The ftate of 
being too much.-—They become, though never fo good, 
by their nimiety, faftidious. Inftrud. for Oratory, 1682. 
NIM'IOUS, adj. [nimius, Lat.] Exceffive; being too 
much. Bailey. 
NIMIQUA'S, or Namaquas, a nation of Southern 
Africa. They border on the Hottentots properly fo called, 
and are confidered as a tribe of that people. They are 
defcribed by Mons. le Vaillant, as follows : 
“When I entered the Nimiqua country, mydefign was 
to inveftigate every thing that had been faid of it at the 
Cape. How many tales had I not heard of this nation ! 
what wonderful things concerning its manners, its arts, 
its treafures, &c. The reader knows already what to 
think of its pretended mines of gold and filver: and the 
tales of its arts and its laws are on a par with thofe of its 
mines. 
“ Kolben is the man who has ftamped authority on all 
thefe fables. Even I, having no idea refpedting thefe dif- 
tant and unknown people, gave fome credit to the dreams 
of this writer. In confequence, as I penetrated into the 
interior of Africa, and vifited the Hottentots, I every¬ 
where fought the traces of that flourifhing agriculture, 
“ which they underftand incomparably better than the 
Europeans of the Cape, who frequently apply to them 
for advice on the fubjedl.” I was defirous of feeing fome 
of-thofe folemn marriage-ceremonies, which a prieft per¬ 
forms, and which he legitimates by fprinkling the newly- 
JSf I M 
united couple with his urine. I wifhed to vifit the pub¬ 
lic prifons of thefe people ; and be prefent at the fittings 
of their tribunals, and the decrees of their fovereign 
council. Perhaps I had deftroyed monfters enough in 
Africa to afpire to the honour of being admitted into that 
order of knighthood, the progrefs and ceremonials of 
which the hiftorian has defcribed with no lefs pomp than 
minutenefs. Alas ! all thefe fplendid chimeras vanifhed 
before me. Religion, police, laws, military tallies, orders 
of battle, treaties of peace, experienced generals, pri- 
foners of war, vanquifhers and vanquifhed, were all ro¬ 
mances, exifting only in the brain of the author, and in 
the taverns where they had been told him by thofe who 
made him their fport. 
“ Thirty or forty years after the publication of his • 
voyage, theabbe de la Caille made fome (lay at the Cape ; 
and thus was enabled, on fome points at lead, to pafs 
judgment on the work. He fpoke of it as he ought, and 
as it deferves. Since la Caille, other travellers have given 
their opinions of Kolben ; and the learned now know how 
far they may rely on the accounts of that traveller. To 
liften to him, in all the Hottentot tribes, without excep¬ 
tion, mothers have the inhuman prejudice of refolving 
not to have twins, and the abominable cuftom of deftroy- 
ing one of the two. If the twins confift of two boys, 
or two girls, they kill the weaker of the two ; if a boy 
and girl, the girl, he fays, is the viftim; and he blufhes 
not to avow that he has witnefled thefe crimes. Now, I 
aver that this charge is the blacked calumny againft na¬ 
ture that ever defiled the pen of a writer deftitute of mo- 
defty. The fight of the two twins of one of the wives 
of the chief was fufficient to convince me of this. How¬ 
ever, as thefe children might have been an exception to 
the general law for fome particular reafon, I refolved to 
interrogate theirfather refpedting this pretended maflacre. 
Every morning before I went a-hunting he came to fee 
me, with his two wives, and regale himfelf with a pipe of 
tobacco and a fmall glafs of brandy. Though his language 
was different from that of the Hottentots on the weftern 
coaft, yet, in the two months I had fpent in the country, 
I had learned to underftand it a little, and make myfelf 
underftood. One day, as I was fitting on the grafs near 
my tent with him and his two wives, I turned the con- 
verfation to the fubjedl of the twins; and alked his wife 
whether, if (he (liould have twins again, (lie would not 
deftroy one of them ? This queftion appeared to offend 
her: (he kept filence, and fell into a deep mufing. But 
her hulband, turning towards me, and reminding me 
that I had feveral times alked him fimilar queftions, de¬ 
clared with warmth that fuch a facrifice was impofiible. 
Thus we fee how unjuft are the whites, who, believing 
Kolben, accufe the Nimiquas of a crime fo abominable as 
to be an outrage againft the common mother of all beings. 
I will here add, that the Nimiquas not only do not make 
away with one of their twins when they have them, but 
preferve and bring up all their children. This duly is fo 
natural, that I could not have made them comprehend an 
idea repugnant to it. 
“ Befides the grand and revolting charge of which I 
have juft fpoken, I had heard, relpefting the Greater 
Nimiquas, another abfurd fable, the falfehood of which I 
equally verified. This was not told me at the Cape, like 
the preceding one : I had it from Klaas Bailer, who, being 
born near Orange River, might have known fome things 
refpedling thefe people with certainty. According to him, 
the fathers, to (how what aftedlion they bear their chil¬ 
dren, feed their eldeft in a particular manner, as being of 
right the firft objedl of paternal care. For this purpofe, 
they put him in a coop, as it were: that is, they (hut him 
up in a trench made under their hut, where, being de¬ 
prived of motion, he lofes little by perfpiration, while 
they feed and cram him in a manner with milk and 
greafe. By degrees the child fattens, and gets as round 
as a barrel; and, when he is come to fuch a ftate as not 
to 
