NIMETULAHITES, a kind of Turkish monks, fo called from their founder NIMETULAHI, famous for his doctrines and the aufterity of his life. NIMGOUTA, a town of Chinese Tartary, in Kirin: 640 miles ENE of Pekin.

We, lying ftill,

Are full of reft, defence and nimbleness. Shak. -Ovid ranged over all Parnaffus with great nimble nefs and agility; but as he did not climb the upper part of the hill, he was roving about the bottom. Addifen's Guardian.

* NIMBLESS. 2. f. Nimblenefs. Spenfer.

NIMBLE-WITTED adj.[nimble and wit.] Quick; eager to speak.-Sir Nicholas Bacon, when a certain nimble-witted counsellor at the bar, who was forward to speak, did interrupt him often, faid unto him, There is a great difference betwixt you and me; a pain to me to speak, and a pain to you to hold your peace. Bacon.

* NIMBLY. adv. [from nimble.] Quickly; fpeedily; actively.

He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,
To the lafcivious playing of a lute.
The air

Shak,

Nimbly and fweetly recommends itself. Shak. Moft legs can nimbly run. Davies. -The liquor we poured from the cryftals, and fet it in a digefting furnace to evaporate more nimbly. Boyle.

NIMBURG, a town of Bohemia, in Boleflaw, near the Elbe. It was taken by the Saxons in 1634, by affault. It lies 26 miles ENE. of Prague, and 70 SE. of Drefden.

NÍMBUS, in antiquity, a circle obferved on certain medals, around the heads of fome em perors; anfwering to the circles of light drawn round the images of faints.

NIMECK, a town of Germany, in Saxony, 20 miles NE. of Wittemburg.

NIMEGUEN, a large, handfome, and ftrong town of Holland, in the department of the Rhine and late province of Dutch Guelderland, with a citadel, an ancient palace and several forts. It is noted for the peace concluded there in 1679. It has a magnificent town-house, and is feated on the Vahal or Wahal, between the Rhine and the Maefe. It is the utmost eastern boundary of the Netherlands. It contains two Dutch churches, a French Calvinift and Lutheran church, 5 Popih, and feveral hofpita's. It was once a Hanfe town and an imperial city. It has a canal to Arnheim, and confiderable trade to Germany, and the other provinces, in fine beer, cattle, and butter, which is extremely good. It was taken by the French under Pichegru, with 1100 prifoners, after a fiege of 8 days, and defeating the British out pofts, on the 7th Nov. 1794. It was greatly damaged by the inundations in Feb. 1799. Lon.. 5. 50. E. Lat. 51. 55. N.

(1.) NIMES, NEMS, or MIHOMIC, a town of Bohemia; in Boleflaw, 38 miles N. of Prague, and 44 SE. of Drefden.

(2.) NIMES, or NISMES. See NISMES.

* NIMIETY. n. f. [nimietas, school Lat.] The ftate of being too much.

NIMIQUAS, a nation of S. Africa, divided into 2 tribes, called by Vaillant the Greater and L-fs Nimiquas.

J. NIMIQUAS, THE GREATER, inhabit a country, ex ding from the mountains of Camis to the fea on the W. i. e. from Lon. 15° 25′ to 18° 25′ E. of London, and between 25° and 28° Eat. S. It is barren; yet the people are tall, funder, and handfome, generally about 5 feet 10 inches. The men, however, are dull and stupid, but the women are lively and amorous. The young girls will barter their favours for a fingle pipe of tobacco; but the married women are modeft and referved. Kolben fays, that when they bear twins they kill one of them; but Vaillant contradicts this and other falfe reports. The men, however, are great cowards, and ufe poifoned arrows in battle; a ftrong evidence of cowardice. They al fo breed up var oxen, which prove very formidable to their enemies. They have alfo very large bucklers, as high as thofe who bear them, and which completely conceal them. Yet with all thefe means of defence, the very name of the Houzouanas will make them tremble. (See HouzovANAS.) Their mufic is the fame with hat of the other HOTTENTOTS; but their dancing is “fo devoid of grace and hilarify, that were it not for the extreme gaiety of the women, it might be called the dance of the dead." They are fond, however, of games of chance and calculation, which require patience and reflection.

2. NIMIQUAS, THE LESS, inhabit a country nearly in the fame longitude with the above, but lying in Lat. between 28° 12' and 29° 36′ S. The number of inhabitants does not exceed 6000, and this is annually diminishing, by the frequent attacks of the BOSHIES-MEN, and the aridity of the foil and climate, which is fo great that fometimes a whole year paffes without rain. This aridity and confequent fterility often oblige the Nimiquas to change their refidence. They are not fo tall as their neighbours on the E. (N° 1.) They be lieve in witchcraft; and Vaillant mentions an interview he had with an old witch, named Kakoes, who had a great afcendancy, not only over the Nimiquas, but even over the favage Bofhies-men, who would never plunder the territory where the reâided; but have often, when threatened by her, fingle and alone, in their own retreats, with ven geance, been prevailed on to restore their ftolen property. She procured 6 fheep for Vaillant and his company. The female Nimiquas received his Hottentots with great kindness. They wear bracelets, necklaces and ear-rings of copper, fome of them neatly finished; alfo glafs and copper beads ftrung on their garments.

NIMMEGUEN. See NIMEGUEN.

* NIMMER. n. f. [from nim.] A thief; a pilferer. NIMMINSCH, or NIMPTSCHEN, a town of Saxony, in Leipfic, 2 miles NNE. of Grimma.

4 fenators and 12 reprefentatives to the legislature, and one member to congrefs. The climate is very falubrious, and the foil fertile.

(2.) NINETY-SIX, the capital of the above diftrict, called alfo Cambridge. See CAMBRIDGE, N° 4. In May 1781, it was clofely befieged by Gen. Greene, and bravely defended by the Britif, under Col. Cruger, who at laft obliged the republicans to retreat. (See AMERICA, 32.) It is 49 miles N. of Augufta in Georgia.

NINEVEH, in ancient geography, the capital of Affyria, founded by ASHUR, the fon of Shem. (Gen. x. 11.) It was one of the most ancient, fa mous, potent, and large cities of the world. It is difficult exactly to fix the time of its foundation; but it could not be long after the building of Babel. It was fituated upon the banks of the Tigris; and in the time of the prophet Jonas, who was fent thither under Jeroboam II. king of Ifrael, and, as Calmet thinks, under the reign of Pul, father of Sardanapalus, king of Affyria, Nineveh was a very great city, its circuit being three days journey (Jonah iii. 3.) Diodorus Siculus, avho has given us the dimenfions of it, fays it was 480 ftadia in circumference, or 47 miles; and that it was furrounded with lofty walls and towers; the former being 200 feet in height, and fo very broad, that three chariots might drive on them a-breast; and the latter zco feet in height, and 1500 in number. Strabo allows it to have been much greater than Babylon. Diodorus Siculus was, however, certainly mistaken, or rather his tran-' fèribers, in placing Nineveh on the Euphrates; fince all biftorians and geographers who speak of it, tell us that it ftood on the Tigris. At the time of Jonah's miffion, it was fo populous, that it was reckoned to contain more than 120,000 perfons who could not diftinguish their right band from their left (Jonah iv. 11.), which is generally explained of young children; fo that it is computed that the inhabitants of Nineveh were then above 600,000 perfons, Nineveh was taken by Arbaces and Belefis, A. M. 3257, in the reign of Sardanapalus, in the time of Ahaz king of Judah, and about the time of the foundation of Rome. It was taken a 2d time by Aftyages and Nabopolaffar, from Chynalydan king of Affyria, in 3378. After this time, Nineveh no more recovered its former fplendour. It was fo entirely ruined in the time of Lucianus Samofatenfis, who lived under the emperor Adrian, that no footsteps of it could be found, nor fo much as the place where it flood, However, it was rebuilt under the Perfians, and defroyed again by the Saracens about the 7th century. Profane hiftorians tell us, that Nimus firft founded Nineveh; but the feripture affures ns that it was Afhur. (Gen. x. 11.) The facred authors make frequent mention of this city; and Nahum and Zephaniah foretold its ruin in a very particular and pathetic manner. It was feveral gines befieged. The first attempt was made by PURAORTES, the 2d king of the Medes; but it failed, and he perished in it, in his 22d year. (See MEDIA.) His fon Cyaxares I. though he alfo failed u two attempts, was more fuccefsful in a third, aud, by the affiftance of Nebuchadnezzar, took and demolished it. Modern travellers fay, that the ruins of ancient Nineveh may fill be feen on

the E. banks of the Tigris, oppofite to Mouful. (See MoUSUL.) This affertion, however, is far from probable; for every trace of it feems to have fo totally difappeared, even fo early as A. D. 617, that the vacant space afforded a fpacious field for the celebrated battle between the emperor Heraclius and the Perlians. There are few things in ancient hiftory which have mere puzzled the learned world, than to determine the pot where this city tood. Mr Ives fays, that fome imagine it ftood near Jonah's tomb: others, however, place it fome hours journey up the Tigris. Thefe different opinions, however, feem perfe&ly reconcileable; for ancient Nineveh comprehended the whole ground which lies between these two ruined places. Mr Ives adds, that "what confirms this conjecture is, that much of this ground is now hilly, owing to the rubbish of the ancient buildings. There is one mount of 200 or 300 yards fquare, which ftands fome yards NE. of Jonah's tomb, whereon it appears a fortification once ftood."

NING, two towns of China, of the 2d rank: 1. in Cheng-fi, 500 miles SW. of Peking: 2. in Yun-nan, 1182 males SSW. of Feking.

NINCO, a kingdom of Africa, on the Gold Coaft, with its capital; 45 m. WSW. of the Volta.

NING-Pp, an excellent port, on the E. coaft of China, oppofite to japan; called by the Europeans Liampa. The filks manufactured at Ning-po are much efteemed in foreign countries, especially in Japan, where the Chinese exchange them for copper, gold, and filver. This city has 4 others under its jurifdiétion, befidcs a great number of fortreffes.

(1.) NING YUEN, a town of China, in Chen-fi. (2.) NING-YUEN, a river of Chinese Tartary, which runs into the Gulf of Leao-tong, below Ning-Yuen.

NINIAN, or NINIA, commonly called St Ninian, a holy man among the ancient Britons. He refided at or near a place called by Ptolemy Luecopibia, and by Rede Candida Rofa; but the Englifh and Scots called it Whitborne. He is faid to have been the first who converted the Scots and Picts to the Chriftian faith, during the reign of Theodofius II. Bede fays, he built a church dedicated to St Martin, in a style unknown to the Britons of that time; and adds, that during his time the Saxons held this province (Galiovidia, now Galloway); and that as, in confequence of the labours of this faint, the converts to Chriftianity increased, an epifcopal fee was cftablished there. Dr Henry fays, "he was a Briton of noble birth and excellent genius. After he had received as good an education at home as his own country could afford, he travelled for improvement, and spent several years at Rome, then the chief feat of learning, as well as of empire. From thence he returned into Britain, and spent his life in preaching the gospel in the most uncultivateu parts of it, with equal zeal and fuccefs." Buchanan says, that in the reign of K. Dongard, about A. D. 452, the Scots clergy being infected with Pelagianifm, St Ninian was fent into Scotland by Palladius to oppofe it, and became highly distinguished by his learning and zeal. Buch lib, y. Stat. Acc. xviii. 385.

(1.) NINIANS,

(1.) NINIAN'S, ST, a parith of Scotland, in Stirlingfh re, anciently called Eggles, 10 miles long at an average, and 6 broad; though from its E. to its W. extremity it meatures above 15 miles. The farface and foil are of 3 different kinds; carfe, dry, and moor lands. The general appearance is beautiful; the hills and valleys being ornamented by numberless inclcfures, thriving plantations, varicus villages, and gentlemens feats, along the banks of the meandering Forth. Befides that river, which bounds it on the N. the parifh is watered by the Endrick, the Bannock, and the Carron, and Loch Coulter, a lake 2 miles in circumfe. rence. Several years ago, a water spout fell on the lands of Touch, drowned feveral people, and carried off a bridge, 2 houses, and part of the minilter's glebe; and two fhocks of an earthquake were felt in one night, about 1762. There are 3 coal-works, which raife about 600 tons a week. Limestone alfo abounds, of the best quality, conraining but one boil of fand in 96 of lime. There were 6 diftilleries in 1792. Barley, oats, wheat, beans, and potatoes, are the chief crops. There are 4 tanneries, and a cotton manufacture. The population, in 1792, was 7079; increafe 588 fince 1755. Numberiefs battles were anciently fought in this parish; out the 3 moft memorable were, 1. that on teath Sept. 1297, which was completed at Torwood, wherein Sir W. Wallace defeated the English under Creffingham and Surry; 2. that of Bannockburn, wherein they were completely routed by Robert Bruce; (See BANNOCK BURN; and, 3. that of Sauchie-burn, one mile diftant, fought on the 11th June 1488, which ended m the fight and murder of K. James III. at Beaton's Mill, which is fill ftanding. (See SCOTLAND.) In the muirland, near the fource of the Carron, are the ruins of a caftle, once the refidence of the patriotic Sir John Graham, who fell in the battle of Falkirk. See GRAHAM, N° 5.

(2.) NINIAN'S, Sr, a small town in the above parish, about 2 miles SE. of Stirling. Its church had been occupied by the rebels, in 1745, as a powder-magazine; who, on their return, blew it up in such hafte, as to deftroy some of their own, people, and about 15 fpectators. The fteeple, however, flood entire, and still stands, at a confiderable diftance from the new church. The po. pulation is about 3500. The chief manufactures are leather, nails, cottons, and tartans. *NINNY.n.f. [nino, a child, Spanish.] A fool; a fimpleton.

What a pied ninny's this? Shak. Tempeft. The dean was fo fhabby, and look'd like a ninny,

That the captain fuppos'd he was curate. Swift. NINNYHAMMER. 7. f. [from ninny.] A fimpleton-Have you no more manners than to rail at Hocus, that has faved that clod-pated, numfkulla, ninny-hammer of yours from ruin, and all his family. Arbuthnot's John Bull.

NINON DE L'ENCLOS. See L'ENCLOS. NINOVE, a town of France, in the dep. of the Dyle, and ci-devant prov. of Auftrian Flanders, feated on the Dender; with a handfome church and an abbey. It was anciently governed by its own lords, and was fortified with a caftle, walls, and 5 gates, in 1194, now demolished. It fuf.

fered much in former wars, having been often facked and pillaged. It lies 13 miles W. of Bruffels, and 18 SE. of Ghent. Lon. 4. 5. E. Lat. 50. 52. N.

(1.) * NINTH. adj. [negothu, Sax.] That which precedes the tenth; the firit after the eighth; the ordinal of nine.-Upon a ftrict obfervation of many, I have not found any that fee the ninth day. Brown's Vulgar Errours.

(2.) NINTH, in mufic. See INTERVAL, § III. and MUSIC, Defin. § 14.

NINUS, the firft or fecond king of Affyria, the fon of Belus, or Afhur. He enlarged Nineveh and Babylon; conquered Zoroafter king of the Bactrians; married Semiramis of Afcalon; subdued almoft all Afia; and died, after a glorious reign of 52 years, about 1150 B. C. See ASSYRIA, § 2; and SEMIRAMIS.

NINYAS, the fon of NINUS and SEMIRAMIS, and fucceffor of the latter in the kingdom of Affyria, whom he is said to have put to death for her incestuous attachment to him. Little is recorded of his reign, but that he entrusted the care of his government to his favourites, and began that inglorious courfe of luxury and effeminacy, which, being pursued by his fucceffors with increafing folly and extravagance, ended in the ruin of the empire under SARDANAPALUS. See AsSYRIA, § 2.

NIO, an island of the Archipelago, anciently. called Ino, Ios, and Dios, between Naxia on the N. Armago on the E. Santerino on the S. and Sikino on the W. about 35 miles in circumference. It is remarkable for the tomb of Homer, who died here in his paffage from Samos to Athens: and it is no lefs remarkable for the uncommon hofpitality of its inhabitants, who continue to exemplify in modern times the genuine hofpitality and kindness to strangers practised by the ancient patriarchs, without accepting of the fmalieft recompenfe. Thefe virtues are equally practifed by all the natives, Greeks as well as Turks. The ifland is well cultivated, and not fo steep as the other islands; and the wheat is excellent, but oil and wood are scarce. It is fubject to the Turks. Lon. 25. 53. E. Lat. 36. 35. N.

NIOBE, in fabulous hiftory, the daughter of Tantalus, and wife of Amphion king of Thebes, by whom he had 7 fons and 7 daughters. Having become fo proud of her fertility and high birth as to prefer herself before Latona, and to fight the facrifices offered up by the Theban matrons to that goddefs, Apollo and Diana, the children of Latona, refented this contempt. The former flew the maie children, and the latter the female; upon which Niobe was ftruck dumb with grief, and remained without fenfation. Cicero is of opinion, that on this account the poets feigned her to be turned into ftone. The flory of Niobe is beautifully related in Ovid's Metamorphofes, Lib. vi. Fab. v. Among the relics of ancient statuary is preferved a beautiful ftatue of Nicbe. With her right hand she clafps one of her little daughters, who throws herself into her bofom; which attitude equally expreffes the ardent affection of the mother, aud that natural confidence which children have in the protection of a parent. The whole is executed in fuch a wonderful manner,

that

that this, with the other ftatues of her children, is reckoned by Pliny among the most beautiful works of antiquity; but he doubts to which of the Grecian artifts he ought to afcribe the honour of them, whether to Scopas or Praxiteles. We have no certain information at what period this celebrated work was transported from Greece to Rome, nor where it was firft erected. Flaminius Vacca fays, that all these ftatues were found in his time, near the gate of St John, and that they were afterwards placed by the Grand Duke Ferdinand in the gardens of the Villa de Medici, near Rome.

NION, a town of Switzerland, capital of a late extenfive bailiwic, in the canton of Berne, near the lake of Geneva; 11 miles N. of Geneva. Lon. 23. 52. E. of Ferro. Lat. 46., 24. N.

NIONS. See NYONS. NIORT, a confiderable trading town of France, capital of the dep. of the Two Sevres, and late prov. of Poitou. Their chief manufactures are confections, druggets, ferges, and coarse woollen cloths. It is 28 miles NE. of Rochelle. Lon. o. 33. W. Lat. 46. 20. N.

*NIP. n. f. [from the verb.] 1. A pinch with nails or teeth. I am fharply taunted, yea, fometimes with pinches, nips, and bobs. Afcham. 2. A fmall cut.-

What, this a fleeve? 'tis like a demicannon; What, up and down, carv'd like an apple tart? Here's fnip, and nip, and cut, and slish and slash, Like to a cenfer in a barber's fhop. Shak. 3. A blaft.

So hafty fruits and too ambitious flow'rs, In fpite of frofts, fpring from th' unwilling earth, But find a nip untimely as their birth. Stepney. 4. A taunt; a farcafm. To NIP. v. a. [nijpen, Dutch.] 1. To pinch off with the nails; to bite with the teeth.-In oranges and lemons, the nipping of their rind giveth out their fmell more. Bacon's Natural History. 2. To cut off by any flight means.-The fmail fhoots that extract the fap of the moft leading branches, muft be nipt off. Mortimer. 3. To blaft; to deftroy before full growth.

The third day comes a froft, a killing froft; And when he thinks, good easy man, full furely His greatnefs is a-ripening, nips his root; And then he falls as I do.

Shak. Thou would'ft extend me to fome good, Before I were by froft's extremity nipt in the bud. Herb. The firft-born bloom of spring Nipt with the lagging rear of winter's froft. Milt. -Had he not been nipped in the bud, he might have made a formidable figure in his own works among pofterity. Addifon.-From fuch encouragement it is eafy to guefs to what perfection I might have brought this work, had it not been nipt in the bud. Arbuthnot. 4. To pinch as froft.

It is a nipping and an eager air. Shak. Hamlet. When icicles hang by the wall, And Dick the fhepherd blows his nail, When blood is nipt, and ways be foul, Then nightly fings the ftaring owl.

5. To vex; to bite.

Shak.

And sharp remorfe his heart did pick and nip. Spenfer.

6. To fatirife; to ridicule; to taunt farcaftically. But the right gentle mind would bite his lip To hear the javel so good men to nip. Hub. Tale Quick wits commonly be in defire new-fangled; buty in every matter; foothing such as be prefent, nipping any that is absent. Ascham.

NIPA, in botany, a genus of the monandria order, belonging to the monœcia class of plants. NIPASHE, a lake of N. America. Lon. 101. o. W. Lat. 62. 10. N.

(1.) NIPEGON, a large river of N. America, which runs into Lake SUPERIOR, from the N.

(2.) NIPEGON, a lake near the above river, into which a small river fails, from the top of a mountain, over a rock 600 feet high, in a narrow channel, which makes the cataract appear like a white garter fufpended in the air. A tribe of the CHIPPEWA Indians inhabit the banks of this lake.

(r.) NIPHON, or HIPHON, the largest of the Japan iflands, being 660 miles long, 400 broad, and 1500 in circumference, containing 55 provinces. (See JAPAN, N° I, 1.) Its chief cities are JEDDO, Meaco, OSACCA, Gurunga, and Saccai. Lon. 148° 10′ to 158° 45′ E. Lat. 33° 45′ to 40° N.

(2.) NIPHON, the name given to the whole empire of Japan, by the natives, from the above ifland. See JAPAN, N° I, 1.

NIPHUS, Auguftin, an Italian philofopher, born in Calabria, in the 16th century. Pope Leo X. created him Count Palatine. He died about 1550. He wrote commentaries on Aristotle, and tracts De Amore et De Pulchro.

NIPISSING, a lake of N. America, in Upper Canada, NE. of Lake HURON, with which it is connected by French River. Lon. 80. 30. W. Lat. 46. 12. N.

NIPISSINGS, a nation of N. American Indians, who inhabit the banks of the above lake, and near the head waters of the river Ottawa. They have 300 warriors.

(1.) * NIPPER. n.S. [from nip.] A satirist. Out of ufe.--Ready back biters, fore nippers, and spiteful reporters privily of good men. Afcham.

(2.) NIPPERS. n. f. [from nip.] Small pincers. (3.) NIPPERS, in the manege, are four teeth in the fore part of a horfe's mouth, two in the upper, and two in the lower jaw. A horse puts them forth between the 2d and 3d year.

* NIPPINGLY. adv. [from nip.] With bitter farcafm.

NIPPISSING. See NIPISSING,

(1.) * NIPPLE. n.f. [nypele, Saxon.] 1. The teat; the dug; that which the fucking young take into their mouths.

The babe that milks me.

I would, while it was fmtting in my face,
Have pluckt my nipple from his boneless gums.
Shakefp.

In creatures that nourish their young with milk, are adapted the nipples of the breaft to the mouth and organs of fuction. Ray on the Creation. 2. It is used by Chapman of a man.—

As his foe went then fuffic'd away, Thoas Ætolius threw a dart, that did his pile convey

Above his nipple, through his lungs. Chopman. 3. The orifice at which any animal liquor is feparated.-In most other birds there is only one gland,