668 NEC 
8. Neckera tenuis: ftem doubly pinnate; leaves im¬ 
bricated, lerrated; thofe of the item roundiih-heart- 
fttaped, with two furrows at the bafe ; capfule ere£t ; lid 
incurved. Gathered at Narain-hetty in January. This 
belongs to the fame divifion as the laft, with which it 
agrees in colour; but its habit, and growth in broad 
denfe filky tufts, is like fome of the feathery fpeties of 
Hypnum. Betides the marks indicated in the fpecific 
character, the long dark capillary fruit-ftalks, and turgid 
capfules, are peculiar. 
The three laft lpecies are reprefented on the annexed 
Engraving. Fig. i. Neckera iphaerocarpa, natural fize ; 
b, part of a branch, magnified ; c, upper leaf, magnified ; 
d, apex of the lame, more highly magnified; e, lower 
leaf, magnified ; f, perichaetial leaf; g, apex, more highly 
magnified; h, capfule and interior perichaetial leaf; i, 
operculum; k, operculum feen internally with the an¬ 
nulus; l, part of the periftomium; m, feeds. Fig. z. 
Neckera flavefcens, natural lize; n, part of a branch, 
magnified; o, leaf; p, perichaetial leaf; q, capfule; r, 
operculum; s, capfule covered with a calyptra. Fig. 3. 
Neckera tenuis, natural fize; t, part of a ftem and branch, 
magnified; u, Item-leaf; x, leaf of the branch; y , peri- 
chaetial leaf; z, capfule ; a, operculum. 
NECKERAU', a village on an ifland in the Rhine, 
fortified by the French, and taken by the Auftrians in 
September 1799 e four miles fouth of Manheim. 
NECK'ERHAUSEN, a town of the grand duchy of 
Baden : five miles eaft of Manheim. 
NECK'HAM (Alexander), an Englifh abbot, and one 
of the moft learned men in the thirteenth century; was 
born at St. Alban’s in Hertfordftiire. He poflefied an 
early inclination for acquiring knowdedge, and that he 
might indulge it embraced the religious life among the 
canons regular of the order of St. Auguftine. He pro- 
fecuted his ftudies with great diligence and fuccefs, not 
only in his native country, but in France and Italy, and 
directed them to all the various branches of learning and 
fcience then known. Confidering the age in which he 
lived, he became an excellent divine, an able philofopher, 
an accomplilhed orator, and an elegant poet. Some fpe- 
cimens of his poetic tafte may be feen in Leland. In the 
year 1215, he was elected abbot of the monaftery at Ciren- 
cefter in Gloucefterlhire, where he appears to have died 
about three years afterwards. He was the author of Com¬ 
mentaries on Ecclefiaftes, the Song of Songs, the Pfalms, 
and the Creed of Athanafius; biblical criticifms; fer- 
jnons; religious and moral treatifes; a treatife on the 
Nature of Things ; poems, See. of which a long lift is 
given in Lelandi Comment, de Script. Britan. 
NECK'LACE, f. An ornamental firing of beads or 
precious ftones, worn by women on their necks.—Ladies, 
as well then as now', wore eftates in their ears. Both men 
and women wore torques, chains, or necklaces, of filver 
and gold fet with precious ftones. Arbuthnot on Coins. 
NECK'LACED, adj. Marked as with a necklace.— 
The hooded and the necklaced fnake. Sir W. Jones. 
NECRO'LIUM, f. A word ufed by fome of the alche¬ 
mical writers to exprefs a remedy almoft always capable 
of averting death, and continuing life to its utmoft 
period. 
NECROL'OGY, f. [necrologium, Lat. from the Gr. 
vsxqo;, dead, and Aoyo;, difeourfe or enumeration.] A book 
anciently kept in churches and monafteries, wherein were 
regiftered the benefaftors of the fame, the time of their 
deaths, and the days of their commemoration; as alfo 
the deaths of the priors, abbots, religious, canons, &c. 
This was otherwife called calendar, and obituary. 
NEC'ROMANCER, f. [nxpo; and puvin;, Gr. Some¬ 
times corruptly written by old authors ncgromancer; and 
thus Cotgrave calls it, in French alfo, “ nigromance, one 
who praftifes the black art;” miftakenly alluding to niger, 
black, as part of the etymology: but it is certainly frorq 
i’£x§c{, a dead perfon.] One who by charms can converfe 
with the ghofts of the dead; a conjurer; an enchanter.— 
NEC 
There lhall not be found among you a charmer, or a coni 
fulter with, familiar fpirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer, 
[in old tranflations, that ajlieth advice or counfel of the dead, 
or that Jeeketh to the dcad.\ Dent, xviii. 11.—i am employed 
like the general who was forced to kill his enemies twice 
over, whom a necromancer had raifed to life. Swift's 
Mifcell. 
NEC'ROMANCY, J'. [i/sapo;, dead, and divina¬ 
tion.] The art of revealing future events, by communi¬ 
cation with the dead.—The refurreftion of Samuel is 
nothing but delufion in the practice of necromancy and 
popular conception of ghofts. Broivn. — Enchantment; 
conjuration.—He did it partly by necromancy, wherein 
he was much Ikilled. Abbot's Defc. of the World . 
This palace ftandeth in the air. 
By necromancy placed there. Drayton. 
This fuperftitious and impious impofture appears to 
have had its origin at a very early period in Egypt, and to 
have been thence propagated in every nation with the 
manners of which hiftory has made us acquainted. The 
conquefts of Sefoftris might introduce it into India; the 
Ifraelites would naturally borrow it from the people 
among whom they lojourned four hundred years; and it 
would eafilyfind its w'ay into Phoenicia, from the vicinity 
of that country to the land of its nativity. From the 
Egyptians and Phoenicians it was adopted, with the other 
rites of paganifm, by the Greeks; and it was imported 
into Rome with Grecian, literature and Grecian manners. 
It was not however confined to the pagan nations of 
antiquity : it lpread itfelf through all the modern nations 
of Europe, and took fuch deep root as to be long retained 
even after thofe nations were converted to the Chriftian 
faith. 
Of its early antiquity we have complete evidence in 
the writings of Mofes, where it is feverely condemned 
as an abomination to the Lord, (Deut. xviii. 10.) and, 
though it appears to have been even then fpread into 
Phoenicia, we might yet conclude its birth-place to have 
been Egypt, becaufe, at their exody, the Ifraelites were 
corrupted only by Egyptian fuperftitions, and becaufe 
necromancy feems to be one of thofe whoredoms which 
the prophet Ezekiel reprefents his countrymen as having 
brought with them from Egypt, and continued to prailil’e 
till they were carried captives into Babylon. 
If from facred we proceed to confult profane authors, 
we fliall find them not only affirming Egypt to have 
been the birth-place of necromancy, but in fome degree 
accounting for the origin of fo impious a delufion. From 
Diodorus Siculus (lib. i. § 2.) w’e learn, that the Grecian 
fable of Charon the ferryman of hell, of Styx, Cocytus, 
the Eiyfian Fields, Tartarus, the judgment of Minos and 
RhadamantlHas,&c. with the whole feenery of the infernal 
regions, were imported from Egypt into Greece. (See 
the article Mythology.) The ancient Egyptians, and 
indeed all the people of the eaft, made ufe of caves for 
burying-places, which were well fuited to the folemn 
fadnefs of the furviving friends, and proper receptacles 
for thofe who were never more to behold the light. In 
Egypt, many of thofe fubterraneous cavities, being dug 
out of the natural rock, ftill remain, and command the 
admiration of travellers; and near to the pyramids in 
particular there are fome apartments of a wonderful fabric, 
which, though they extend in length 4400 feet, and are 
about 30 feet in depth, appear to have been, if not entirely 
dug, at leaft reduced to form by the chilfel or pickaxe of 
the artift. 
From the practice of burying in fuch caverns fprung 
the opinion that the infernal manfions were fituated fome- 
where near the centre of the earth, whk'h by the Egyp¬ 
tians was believed to be not very diftant from its furface. 
(Bryant’s Analyfis of Mythology.) In thefe dreary man¬ 
fions, it was very ealy for fuch adepts as the priefts of 
Egypt to fabricate Erebus, Tartarus, the Eiyfian Fields, 
and all thofe feenes which were difplayed before the ini¬ 
tiated. 
