Myth.

they are known to have been invented for a special didactic purpose, and so received. But the peculiarity of myths is, that they are not only conceived in the narrative form, but generally taken for real narrations by the people to whom they belong, so long as they do not pass a certain stage of intellectual culture. Even myths of which the allegorical significance is pretty plain, such as the well-known Greek myth of Promethus and Epimetheus, were received as facts of early tradition by the Greeks. Myths may be divided into several classes, of which the first and most important is the theological and moral. The oldest theology of all nations is in the form of myths; hence the great importance of mythological study, now universally recognized; for it is not occupied merely or mainly with strange fancies and marvelous fictions, invented for the sake of amusement, but contains the fundamental ideas belonging to the moral and religious nature of man as they have been embodied by the imaginative faculty of the most favored races. It is this dominance of the imagination, so characteristic of the early stages of society, which gives to myth its peculiar dramatic expression, and stamps the popular creed of all nations with the character of a poetry of nature, of man, and of God. From the very nature of the case, the myth-producing faculty exercises itself with exuberance only under the polytheistic form of religion; for there only does a sufficient number of celestial personages exist, whose attributes and actions may be exhibited in a narrative form; there is nothing, however, to prevent even a monotheistic people from exhibiting certain great ideas of their faith in a narrative form, so as by prosaic minds to be taken for literal historical facts. But besides strictly theological myths, there are physical myths, that is, fictions representing the most striking appearances and changes of external nature in the form of political history; in which view, the connection of legends about giants, chimeras, etc., with regions marked by peculiar volcanic phenomena, has been often remarked. It is difficult indeed, in polytheistic religion, to draw any strict line between physical and theological myths; as the divinity of all the operations of nature is the first postulate of polytheism, and every physical phenomenon becomes the manifestation of a god. Again, though it may appear a contradiction, there are historical myths, that is, marvelous legends about persons, who may with probability be supposed to have actually existed. So intermingled, indeed, is fact with fable in early times, that there must always be a kind of debatable land between plain theological myth and recognized historical fact. This land is occupied by what are called the heroic myths; that is, legends about heroes, concerning whom it may often be doubtful whether they are merely a sort of inferior, and more human-like gods, or only men of more than ordi nary powers whom the popular imagination has elevated into demi-gods.

The scientific study of mythology commenced with the ancient nations who produced it, specially with the acute and speculative Greeks. The great mass of the Greek people, indeed of whom we have a characteristic type in the traveler Pausanias-accepted their oldest legends, in the mass, as divine and human facts; but so early as the time of Euri. pides, or even before his day in the case of the Sicilians, Epicharmus and Empedocles, we find that philosophers and poets had begun to identify Jove with the upper sky, Apollo with the sun, Juno with the nether atmosphere, and so forth; that is, they interpreted their mythology as a theology and poetry of nature. This, indeed, may be regarded as the prevalent view among all the more reflective and philosophical heathens (who were not, like Xenophon, orthodox believers) up from the age of Pericles, 450 B.C., to the establishment of Christianity. But there was an altogether opposite view, which arose at a later period, under less genial circumstances, and exercised no small influence both on Greek and Roman writers. This view was first prominently put forth by Euhemerus, Messenian, in the time of the first Ptolemies, and consisted in the flat prosaic assertion, that the gods, equally with the heroes, were originally men, and all the tales about them only human facts sublimed and elevated by the imagination of pious devotees. This view seemed to derive strong support from the known stories about the birth and death of the gods, specially of Jove in Crete; and the growing skeptical tendencies of the scientific school at Alexandria, were of course favorable to the promulga tion of such views. The work of Euhemerus accordingly obtained a wide circulation; and having been translated into Latin, went to nourish that crass form of religious skepticism which was one of the most notable symptoms of the decline of Roman genius at the time of the emperors. Historians, like Diodorus, gladly adopted an interpretation of the popular mythology which promised to swell their stores of reliable material; the myths accordingly were coolly emptied of the poetic soul which inspired them, and the early traditions of the heroic ages were set forth as plain history, with a grave sobriety equally opposed to sound criticism, natural piety, and good taste.

The

In modern times, the Greek mythology has again formed the basis of much speculation on the character of myths and the general laws of mythical interpretation. first tendency of modern Christian scholars, following the track long before taken by the fathers, was to refer all Greek mythology to a corruption of Old Testament doctrine and history. Of this system of interpreting myths, we have examples in Vossius, in the learned and fanciful works of Bryant and Faber, and very recently, though with more pious and poetic feeling, in Gladstone. But the Germans, who have taken the lead here, as in other regions of combined research and speculation, have long ago given up this ground as untenable, and have introduced the rational method of interpreting every system of myths, in the first place, according to the peculiar laws traceable in its own

genius and growth. Ground was broken in this department by Heyne, whose views have been tested, corrected, and enlarged by a great number of learned, ingenious, and philosophical writers among his own countrymen, specially by Buttmann, Voss, Creuzer, Müller, Welcker, Gerhard, and Preller. The general tendency of the Germans is to start-as Wordsworth does in his Excursion, book iv.-from the position of a devout imaginative contemplation of nature, in which the myths originated, and to trace the working out of those ideas, in different places and at different times, with the most critical research, and the most vivid reconstruction. If in this work they have given birth to a large mass of ingenious nonsense and brilliant guess-work, there has not been wanting among them abundance of sober judgment and sound sense to counteract such extravagances. It may be noticed, however, as characteristic of their over specu lative intellect, that they have a tendency to bring the sway of theological and physical symbols down into a region of what appears to be plain historical fact; so that Achilles becomes a water-god, Peleus a mud-god, and the whole of the Iliad, according to Forchhammer, a poetical geology of Thessaly and the Troad! Going to the opposite extreme from Euhemerus, they have denied the existence even of deified heroes; all the heroes of Greek tradition, according to Uschold, are only degraded gods; and generally in German writers, a preference of transcendental to simple and obvious explanations of myths is noticeable. Creuzer, some of whose views had been anticipated by Blackwell, in Scotland, is especially remarkable for the high ground of religious and philosophical conception on which he has placed the interpretation of myths; and he was also the first who directed attention to the oriental element in Greek mythology-not, indeed, with sufficient discrimination in many cases, but to the great enrichment of mythological material, and the enlargement of philosophical survey. In the most recent times, by uniting the excursive method of Creuzer with the correction supplied by the more critical method of O. Müller and his successors, the science of comparative mythology has been launched into existence; and specially the comparison of the earliest Greek mythology with the sacred legends of the Hindus, has been ably advocated by Max Müller in the Oxford Essays (1856). In France, the views of Euhiemerus were propounded by Banier (1789). By the British scholars, mythology is a field that has been very scantily cultivated. Besides those already named, Payne Knight, Mackay, Grote in the first volumes of his history, and Keightley are the only names of any note, and their works can in nowise compete in originality, extent of research, in discriminating criticism, or in largeness of view, with the productions of the German school. The best for common purposes is Keightley; the most original, Payne Knight. Recently, G. W. Cox, in a work on Aryan mythology, has pushed the sanscritising tendencies of Max Müller to an extreme which to most minds seems absurd. On the special mythologies of India, Rome, Greece, etc., information will be found under the heads of the respective countries to which they belong. The more important mythological personages are noticed under their own names; see BACCHUS, JUPITER, HERCULES, etc.

MYTILE NE, or MITYLENE, CITY. See CASTRO.

MYTILE NE, or MITYLENE, ISLAND. See LESBOS.

MYTILI'DE. See MUSSEL.

MYXINE, a genus of cartilaginous fishes, synonomous with the gastro-branchus of Bloch, of which the myxine glutinosa or glutinous hag is the type. See HAG. MYZONTS. See MYXINOIDS.

N.

N

THE fourteenth letter of the English alphabet is one of the nasal liquids of the lingual class. See LETTERS. Its Hebrew (and Phenician) name, Nun, signified a fish, which its original form was probably meant to represent. N is interchangeable with L (q.v.) and M, as in collect, commingle, confer; and in Ger. boden, compared with Eng. bottom. In Latin, this letter had a faint, uncertain sound at the end of words and in some other positions, especially before 8. This accounts for words on having lost the n in the nominative case, though retaining it in the oblique cases, as homo, hominis; and for Greek names like Platon being written without the final a in Latin. The dull, muffled pronunciation of n, which is indicated by such words as consul, censor, testamento, being frequently spelled cosul, cesor, testameto, was the first stage of the modern French nasal n. Before a guttural letter, n naturally assumes the sound of ng, as bank.

NABIS, d. 192 B.C., b. Sparta; usurped the throne of Lacedæmon on the death of king Machanidas, in 207. He put to death the son of the late king Lycurgus, and by threats or torture exacted large sums of money from the rich. He was thus able to raise a considerable army, with which he endeavored to capture the city of Messene. Philopomen, the commander of the forces of Megalopolis, repulsed him, but the next year Nabis gained the advantage over the Megalopolitans. It seems to have been the design of Nabis to restore the Spartan hegemony in the Peloponnesus, but in 195, he was forced

to make peace with the Romans, whose army under Flaminius had besieged Sparta. In 192, being at war with the Achaians, he asked aid from the Etolians, who furnished him with a small contingent, really for the purpose of destroying him; and their general Alexamenes speedily assassinated him.

NAAS, a market and assize t. of Kildare co., Ireland, 204 m. s.w. of Dublin, and, next to Athy, the largest town in the county. The population in 1881 was 3,808. The principal street is about half a mile in length; the county court-house is in the main street. Having been anciently the seat of the kings of Leinster, Naas was early occupied by the English. A parliament was held in it in 1419, and it obtained charters successively from Henry V., Elizabeth and James I. At present, Naas is a place of little trade, and is almost entirely without manufactures. It returned two members to the Irish parliament. but was disfranchised at the Union. It is the seat of a diocesan school, and of three national schools, one of which is attached to the Roman Catholic convent. A newspaper, printed at Maryborough, is also published here.

NABLUS. See NABULUS.

NA BOB, or NABAB, a corruption of the word nawab (deputy), was the title belonging to the administrators, under the Mogul empire, of the separate provinces into which the district of a subahdar (q.v.) was divided. The title was continued under the British rule, but it gradually came to be applied generally to natives who were men of wealth and consideration. In Europe, and especially in Britain, it is applied derisively to those who, having made great fortunes in the Indies, return to their native country, where they live in oriental splendor.

NABONAS'SAR, ERA OF, was the starting-point of Babylonian chronology, and was adopted by the Greeks of Álexandria, Berosus and others. It began with the accession of Nabonassar to the throne-an event calculated (from certain astronomical phenomena recorded by Ptolemy) to have taken place Feb. 26, 747 B.C.

NABULUS, or NABLUS' (a corruption of the Gr. Neapolis, New City, the name given to it in the reign of Vespasian), anciently called SHECHEM OF SICHEM, in the New Testa ment (John iv. 5), SYCHAR; is a t. of Palestine, possessing, it is said, “the only beautiful site from Dan to Beersheba." It lies between mount Ebal and mount Gerizim, on the s. side of the valley of Erd-Mûkhna, and has a population variously estimated at from 8,000 to 14,000 of whom about 500 are Christians, 150 Samaritans, and 50 Jews; the rest are Mohammedans, fierce, turbulent, and fanatical. The houses are pretty good, but the streets (as usual in the East) are narrow, gloomy, and filthy. The chief productions are soap, cotton, and oil-the soap manufactories are large, and the oil is considered the best in Syria.-See Porter's Handbook for Syria and Palestine, and Stanley's Palestine.

NACHTIGAL, GUSTAV, b. Germany, 1834; studied medicine, which he practiced in Algeria, 1859-63. He then became a physician in the military service of the bey of Tunis, who soon made him his private medical adviser. In 1869 he started for Kuka, joining a caravan which was dispatched to carry from the king of Prussia to the sheikh of Bornoo, some gifts in recognition of his services to various German explorers. After a journey in the Tiboo country, he set out for Kuka, where he arrived in 1870. He made a thorough exploration of Bornoo, from which he went on several exploring expeditions. He went to lake Tchad, and collected a large store of materials in regard to the geography of the s. districts of Sahara. Making his way to Baghirmi, he followed up the Shai river and its tributaries. In the spring of 1878, he set out for Egypt, going s. of lake Tchad, through Waday which he was the first European to penetrate. He visited Abeshr, the capital of Waday, passed through the kingdom of Darfoor, and arrived at Cairo, Nov., 1874. An account of his explorations is given in his Die Tributären Heidenländer Baghirmis. He was president, Berlin Geog. Soc. He d. 1885.

NACOGDO'CHES, a co. in e. Texas, bounded on the e. by Attoyac river, and on the 8.w. by the Angelina river; 900 sq.m.; pop. '80, 11,592-11,511 American birth, 3.040 colored. The surface is undulating and hilly, and much of it covered with a thick growth of forests. The soil is generally fertile, and particularly adapted to raising corn and cotton. Other productions are sweet potatoes, barley, and sorghum molasses. Co. seat, Nacogdoches.

NACRE. See MOTHER OF PEARL.

NA'DAL, BERNHARD H., D.D., LL.D., 1812-70; b. Maryland; admitted as a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church by the old Baltimore conference in 1835. He was the pastor of 15 churches in different states n. and south. While a pastor he was a diligent student, and when stationed at Carlisle in 1848 he graduated at Dickenson college, pursuing his studies in connection with his pastoral work. He also taught a class in college. In 1849 he supplied the pulpit of an Independent church in Baltimore. In 1854-57 he was professor in the Indiana Asbury university. In 1857, returning to the Baltimore conference, he was made presiding elder of the Roanoke district in Virginia, During the slavery agitation at this time he vigorously defended his church and conference. In sermons and addresses he earnestly espoused and aided the cause of the national government in the war of the rebellion, and enjoyed the friendship of president Lincoln. In 1869 he became professor of historical theology in Drew seminary at Madi

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son, N. J., and after the death of Dr. McClintock was acting president, but was soon removed by death. He was an able preacher, a vigorous and polished writer, and con tributed largely to periodicals. He was one of the editors of the Methodist, of whom Dr. Crooks said that "in writing he was almost without a peer in the American Methodist church." He was a thorough scholar and highly esteemed as an instructor.

NA'DIR, an Arabic word signifying that point in the heavens which is diametrically opposite to the zenith, so that the zenith, nadir, and center of the earth are in one straight line. The zenith and nadir form the poles of the horizon (q.v.). See ZENITH.

NADIR SHAH, of Persia, belonged to the Afshars, a Turkish tribe, and was born near Kelat, in the center of Khorassan, Persia, in 1688. When 17 years old, he was taken prisoner by the Usbeks, but escaped after four years of captivity; entered the service of the governor of Khorassan, and soon obtained high promotion. Having, however, been degraded and punished for some real or supposed offense, he betook himself to a lawless life, and for several years was the daring leader of a band of 3,000 robbers, who levied contributions from almost the whole of Khorassan. An opportunity having occurred, Nadir seized the town of Kelat, and gradually extended his territorial authority. Persia was at this time ruled by Melek Ashraf, an Afghan of the tribe of Ghilji, whose grinding tyranny and cruelty produced in the mind of every Persian a deadly hatred of the very name Afghan, which exists to the present day. Nadir having avowed his intention of expelling the hated race from the country, and restoring the Suffavean dynasty, numbers flocked to his standard, and Meshed, Herat, and all Khorassan were speedily reduced. Ashraf, signally defeated in several engagements, fled before the avenger, who, with a celerity only equaled by its thoroughness, purged the provinces of Irak, Fars, and Kerman of even the semblance of Afghan domination. The assassination of Ashraf, during his retreat, terminated the war. The rightful heir, Tamasp, then ascended the throne, and Nadir received for his services the government of the provinces of Khorassan, Mazanderan, Seistan, and Kerman, assuming at the same time the title of Tamasp-kûlı (the slave of Tamasp), the title of khan being subsequently added. He was sent against the Turks in 1731, and defeated them at Hamadan, regaining the Armenian provinces which had been seized by the Turks in the preceding reign; but his sovereign having in his absence engaged unsuccessfully the same enemy, Nadir caused him to be put in prison, and elevated his infant son, Abbas III., to the throne in 1732. The death of this puppet, in 1736, opened the way for the elevation of Nadir himself, who was crowned as Nadir shah, Feb. 26, 1736. He resumed the war with the Turks; and though totally defeated in the first two battles by the grand vizier Asman, turned the tide of fortune in the subsequent campaign, and granted peace to the Turks on condition of receiving Georgia. He also conquered Afghanistan, and drove back the invading Usbeks. His ambassador to the Great Mogul having been murdered along with his suite at Jelalabad, and satisfaction having been refused, Nadir, in revenge, ravaged the Northwest Provinces, and took Delhi, which he was, by the insane behavior of the inhabitants, reduced to the necessity of pillaging. With booty to the amount of £20,000,000, including the Koh-1-nûr (q. v.) diamond, he returned to the w. bank of the Indus. He next reduced Bokhara and Khaurezm, restoring to Persia her limits under the golden reign of the Sassanides. From this period, his character underwent a sudden change; he was formerly open-hearted, liberal, and tolerant; he now became suspicious, avaricious, and tyrannical. The empire groaned under his extortions, and he was finally assassinated on June 20, 1747. His only surviving son was carried to Constantinople, and thence to Vienna, where he was brought up as a Catholic under the surveillance of the empress Maria Theresa, and died a maj. in the Austrian service, under the title of baron Semlin. Nadir's tyranny has now been forgotten; and at the present day he is regarded with pride and gratitude as the "Wallace" of Persia.

NÆ VIUS, CN., one of the earliest Latin poets, was born, probably in Campania, in the first half of the 3d c. B. C. In his youth, he served in the first Punic war; but about the year 235 B.C., he made his appearance at Rome as a dramatic writer. Of his life, we know little; but of his character, rather more. He was very decidedly attached to the plebeian party; and in his plays, satirized and lampooned the Roman nobles with all the virulence and indiscretion of a hot-blooded impetuous Campanian-that Gascon of ancient Italy! His rashness ultimately caused his banishment to Utica in Africa, where he died, 204 or 202 B.C. Besides his dramatic writings, comprising both tragedies and

comedies, he wrote an epic poem, De Bello Punico, in the old Saturnian meter. Of these, only a few very unimportant fragments are extant, which may be found in Bothe's Poetarum Latinorum Scenicorum Fragmenta (Halberstadt, 1824), or Klunmann's collec tion of the same (Jena, 1843), enriched by a life of Nævius, and an essay on his poetry. See also Sellas's Poets of the Roman Republic and Simcox's Hist. of Latin Lit. (1882).

NÆ VUS (known popularly as mother-spot or mole) is a congenital mark or growth on a part of the skin. Sometimes it is merely a dark discoloration of the surface as described in the article MACULA, in which case it is termed a mole and is perfectly harmless; but often it consists of a dense net-work of dilated blood-vessels, forming a reddish or livid tumor, more or less elevated above the surface of the surrounding skin. The most fre quent situations of these vascular nævi are the skin and subcutaneous cellular tissue of the head; but they may occur elsewhere. The popular belief is, that they are caused by

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the longing of the mother during her pregnancy for a lobster, or strawberry, or raspberry, or some other red-colored article of food, and that the influence of her mind has impressed upon the fetus a more or less vivid image of the thing she longed for; and hence the name of mother-spot. Sometimes these tumors waste away spontaneously, and give no trouble; but frequently they increase rapidly, invade the adjacent tissues, and ulcerate or slough, and thus become dangerous to life by hemorrhage. When these tumors do not show a tendency to increase, no treatment is necessary. When they are obviously increasing in size, the continual application of cold (by means of freezing mixtures), with moderately firm pressure, is sometimes of service; but a more certain method is to employ means to produce such an amount of inflammation as to obliterate the vessels; for this purpose, the seton, the application of nitric acid, and vaccination of the tumor, have been successfully applied. The injection of strong astringents, with the view of coagulating the blood, has sometimes effected a cure. If all these means fail, extirpation, either with the ligature or knife, must be resorted to; the ligature being regarded as the safest and best method. For the various methods of applying the liga ture, the reader is referred to any standard work on operative surgery. If the tumor is in an inaccessible spot, as in the orbit of the eye, and is increasing rapidly, the only course is to tie the large vascular trunk supplying it. The common carotid artery has in several instances been tied with success for vascular nævus in the orbit.

NÄ'FELS, a village of Switzerland, in the canton of Glarus, and 5 m. n. of the town of that name, in a deep valley, is one of the most famous battle-fields in the country. Pop. abt. 3,000. Here, in 1388, 1500 men of Glarus, under Matthias am Buhl, overthrew an Austrian force of from 6,000 to 8,000 men. The event is still celebrated yearly. NAFTIA, LAGO, a curious small lake in Sicily, about two miles from Mineo, in Catania. It is situated in a plain, amidst craggy hills, and is of a circular form, commonly sixty or seventy yards in diameter, and about fifteen feet deep, but in dry weather shrinking to a much smaller size, and being occasionally altogether dried up. In the midst of it are three small craters, two of which perpetually send up water in jets to the height of two or three feet; the third is more intermittent. The water is greenish, or turbid, and has an odor of bitumen. The whole lake resembles a boiling caldron, from the escape of carbonic acid gas, rushing upwards with great force. The atmosphere is consequently fatal to birds attempting to fly across the surface of the lake, and to small animals which approach it to satisfy their thirst; and an approach to it is attended with headache and other painful circumstances to man himself. The ancients regarded these. phenomena with great dread. They supposed that Pluto, when carrying off Proserpine, drove his fiery steeds through this lake, ere his descent to the lower regions. A temple was erected here to the gods of the two craters, the Dii Palici, who were supposed to be twin sons of Jupiter by the nymph Thalia. Pilgrims flocked to this shrine; and it afforded an inviolable asylum to slaves who had fled from their masters. An oath by the Dii Palici was never broken by the master, who found himself compelled here to come to terms with his runaway slave. No remains of the temple of the Dii Palici are left, although it is described as having been magnificent.

NAGA is, in Hindu Mythology, the name of deified serpents, which are represented as the sons of the Muni Kas'yapa and his wife Kadrû, whence they are also called Kadraveyas. Their king is S'eshia, the sacred serpent of Vishn'u.

NAGAPATA'M, a seaport of British India, on the Coromandel coast, in the province of Tanjur, 15 m. south of Karikal. It was taken by the Dutch in 1660, but fell into the hands of the English in 1781. Its site is an open sandy plain, elevated only three or four feet abova sea-level. The port is visited by small vessels, and carries on some trade with Ceylon. Pop. at the census of 1881, 53,855.

NAGARJUNA, or NAGASENA, is the name of one of the most celebrated Buddhistic teachers or patriarchs-the thirteenth-who, according to some, lived about 400 years, according to others, about 500 years, after the death of the Buddha S'âkyamuni (i. e., 143 or 43 B.C.). He was the founder of the Madhyamika school, and his principal disci ples were Aryadeva and Budhapâlita. According to the tradition of the Buddhas, he was born in the south of India, in a Brahmanical family. Even as a child, he studied all the four Vedas; later, he traveled through various countries, and became proficient in astronomy, geography, and magical arts. By means of the last, he had several amorous adventures, which ended in the death of three companions of his, but in his Own repentance, and, with the assistance of a Buddhist mendicant, in his conversion to Buddhism. Many miracles are, of course, attributed to his career as propagator of this doctrine, especially in the south of India, and his life is said to have lasted 300 years.See E. Burnouf, Introduction à l'Histoire du Buddhisme Indien (Paris, 1844); Spence Hardy, A Manual of Buddhism (Lond. 1853): W. Wassiljew, Der Buddhismus, seine Dogmen, Geschichte und Literatur (St. Petersburg, 1860).

NAGASA'KI, or NANGASIKI, a city and port of Japan, opened to foreign commerce by the treaty of 1858, on July 1, 1859, is situated in 32° 44' n. lat., and 129° 51' e. long, on the western side of a peninsula in the n. w. of the island of Kiusin. Previously to 1859, it was the only port in Japan open to foreigners. The harbor, which is one of the most beautiful in the world, is about six miles in width, and three or four in length. To