pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
NUAYHAS, or Ague Tree, a name given by the Indians to a sort of bamboo cane, the leaves of which falling into the water, arc said to impregnate it with such virtue that the bathing in it afterwards cures the ague. To dissolve coagulated blood, they use also a decoction of the leaves, giving it internally, and at the same time rubbing with it the bruised part externally. It is said that this plant bears its flowers only once in its life; that it lives sixty years before the flowers make their appearance; and that, when they begin to show themselves, it withers away in abouta month afterwards, that is, as soon as it has ripened the seed. There appears to be something of fiction in the account given of this tree in the Hortus Malabaricus ; but it seems certain, that the length of the stalk, or trunk, must be very great. In the gallery of Leyden there is preserved a cane of nuayhas twenty-eight feet long; and another not much shorter, and more than eight inches in diameter, may be seen in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.
NUBA, a race of black Pagans, in the neighbourhood of Sennaar, of whom we know nothing, except what has been stated by Bruce. That traveller passed a day or two amongst them in his way from Abyssinia; and he tells us that they are all soldiers of the melek or king of Sennaar, cantoned in villages, which surround the capital to the distance of four or five miles. They are not the aborigines of that part of Africa; but are either purchased or taken by force from Fazuclo, and the provinces to the south upon the mountains Dyre and Tegla.

The idolatry of the Nuba is described as a mixture of Tsabaism and statue worship; but what is very uncommon, their worship is chiefly addressed to the moon, whilst they pay no attention to the sun either rising or setting, advancing to the meridian or receding from it. It is an old observation, that the worship of every people is tinctured by their natural dispositions; and this is verified in the case of the Nuba. “That their worship is performed with pleasure and satisfaction, is obvious,” says Bruce, “every night that the moon shines. Coming out from the darkness of their huts, they say a few words upon seeing her brightness, and testify great joy, by motions of their feet and hands, at the first appearance of the new moon.” This is just what we should have expected from their gentleness and hospitality. They likewise worship a tree and a stone, but our author could never discover what tree or what stone; he only learned that neither of them exists in Sennaar, but in the country where the Nuba are born. Such of them as are natives of the villages where he saw them, become, like their masters, nominal Mahommedans.
NUBIAN Desert, a vast tract of barren rocks and burning sands, extending from Syene in Upper Egypt, to Geon, the capital of Berber in Nubia. As Syene is in latitude 24. 0. 45. north, and Geon in latitude 17. 57.22., the length of this desert from north to south is 6. 3. 23., or upwards of 420 English miles. Its breadth from east to west has not, as far as we know, been precisely ascertained.
NUCKERGAU Γ, a town of Northern Hindustan, in the province of Serinagur. Long. 78. 5. E. Lat. 30.3. N.
NUCLEUS, in general, denotes the kernel of a nut, or any seed enclosed within a husk. The term nucleus is also used for the body of a comet, otherwise called its head.
NUCTA, a dew, which, falling in Egypt about St John’s day, is, by the superstitious natives of the country, considered as miraculous, and the peculiar gift of that saint.
NUDDEA, a town of Bengal, and capital of a district of the same name. It is situated on an island at the confluence of the Jelinghy and Cossimbazar Rivers with the Hooghly, sixty miles north from Calcutta. It was the capital of a Hindu principality anterior to the Mogul conquest of Hindustan, and was taken and entirely destroyed in the year 1204. In modern times it has been the seat of a Brahmin seminary of learning; anterior, however, to that in Benares. Long. 88. 24. E. Lat. 23. 25. N. The district is situated between the twenty-second and twenty-fourth degrees of north latitude. It is of a sandy soil, and is considered as the healthiest and driest part of Bengal, though it is not equally productive with some others. It is computed to contain 764,000 inhabitants, about a third of whom are Mahommedans. The principal towns are Kishenagur, Nuddea, and Santipore.
NUESTRA Senhora de Luz, an island in the Pacific [7:16:299]Ocean, discovered by Quiros in 1506. It appears to be the same island which was called Pic de l’Etoile by Bougainville. Lat. 14. 30. S.
NULDINGAH, a town of Hindustan, in the province of Bengal, seventy-four miles north east by north from Culcutta. Long. 89. 7. E. Lat. 23. 25. N.
NUJENGODE, a town of Hindustan, in the province of Mysore, which stands on the south bank of the Cubany River, and is inhabited by Brahmins, who derive their support from a celebrated pagoda or temple, to which immense numbers of Hindus resort. Long. 76. 50. E. Lat. 12. l N.
NUMA Pompilius, the fourth son of Pompilius Pompo, an illustrious Sabine. Having married Tatia, the daughter of King Tatius, he remained with her in his native country, preferring the tranquillity of a private life to the splendour of a court. Upon the death of his wife, with whom he had lived thirteen years, he gave himself up entirely to the study of w isdom; and, leaving the city of Cures, confined himself to the country, wandering from solitude to solitude, in search only of those woods and fountains which religion had consecrated. His recluse life gave rise to the fable, which was very early received amongst the Sabines, that Numa lived in familiarity with the nymph Egeria. Upon the death of Romulus, both the senate and people strongly solicited him to become their king. They despatched Julius Proculus and Valerius Volesus, two senators of distinction, to acquaint Numa with their resolution, and make him an offer of the kingdom. The Sabine philosopher at first rejected their proposal; but being at last prevailed upon by the arguments and entreaties of the deputies, joined with those of his father, and of Martius his near relation, he at length yielded, and having offered sacrifices to the gods, set out for Rome, where he was received by all ranks of people with loud shouts of joy.

After a reign of forty-two years, during which he had given every possible encouragement to the useful arts, and in which he had cultivated peace, Numa died in the year of Rome 82. Not only the Romans, but also the neighbouring nations, were eager to pay respect to the memory of a monarch whom they revered for his abilities, moderation, and humanity. He forbade his body to be burned, according to the custom of the Romans, and ordered it to be buried near Mount Janiculum, along with many of the books which he had written. These books were accidentally found by one of the Romans, about four hundred years after his death; and as they contained nothing new or interesting, but merely the reasons why he had made innovations in the form of worship and in the religion of the Romans, they were burned by order of the senate.
NUMANTIA, a very noble city, the ornament of the Hither Spain, and celebrated for the long war of twenty years which it maintained against the Romans. The baseness and injustice of the Romans during this war were truly disgraceful to them, and altogether unworthy of a great and powerful people. The inhabitants obtained some advantages over the Roman forces, till Scipio Africanus was empowered to finish the war, and to effect the destruction of Numantia. He began the siege with an army of sixty thousand men, and was bravely opposed by the besieged, who were no more than four thousand men able to bear arms. Both armies behaved with uncommon valour, and the courage of the Numantines was soon changed into the fury of despair. Their provisions began to fail, and they fed upon the flesh of their horses, and afterwards upon that of their dead companions; but at last they were obliged to draw lots to kill and devour one another. The melancholy situation of their affairs obliged them to surrender to the Roman general. Scipio required them to deliver themselves up on the morrow; but they refused, and when a longer time had been granted to their petitions, they retired, and having set fire to their houses, destroyed themselves, so that not even one remained to adorn the triumph of the conqueror. Some historians, however, deny this, asserting that a number of Numantinesdelivered themselves into Scipio’s hands, and that fifty of them were drawn in triumph at Rome, the rest being sold as slaves. The fall of Numantia was more glorious than that of Carthage or Corinth, though the place was much inferior to either. It was taken by the Romans 629 a. u. c. ; and the conqueror obtained the surname of Nwnanticus.
NUMERATION, or Notation, in Arithmetic, the art of expressing in characters any number proposed in words, or of expressing in words any number proposed in characters. See Arithmetic.
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NUMERICAL, Numerous, or Numeral, something relating to numbers; thus Numerical Algebra is that which makes use of numbers instead of letters of the alphabet. Numerical difference is also that by which one man is distinguished from another. Hence a thing is said to be numerically the same, when it is so in the strictest sense of the word.
NUMISMATOGRAPHIA, a term applied to the description and knowledge of ancient coins and medals, whether of gold, silver, or brass.
NUN, the son of Elishamah, and father of Joshua, of the tribe of Ephraim. The Greeks gave him the name of Nane instead of Nun. This person is only known in sacred history by having been the father of Joshua.

Nun, a woman, in several Christian countries, who devotes herself, in a cloister or nunnery, to a religious life. There were women, in the ancient Christian church, who made public profession of virginity, before the monastic life was known in the world, as appears from the writings of Cyprian and Tertullian. These, for distinction’s sake, are sometimes called “ecclesiastical virgins,” and were commonly enrolled in the canon or matricula of the church. They differed from the monastic virgins chiefly in this, that they lived privately in their fathers’ houses, whereas the others lived in communities; but their profession of virginity was not so strict as to make it criminal for them afterwards to marry, if they thought fit. As to the consecration of virgins, it had some things peculiar in it, and was usually performed publicly in the church by the bishop. The virgin made a public profession of her resolution, and then the bishop put upon her the accustomed habit of sacred virgins. One part of this habit was a veil called the sacrum velamen ; and another was a kind of mitre or coronet [7:16:310]worn upon the head. At present, when a woman is to be made a nun, the habit, veil, and ring of the candidate are carried to the altar; and she herself, accompanied by her nearest relations, is conducted to the bishop, who, after mass and an anthem, pronounces the benediction; upon which she rises up, and the bishop consecrates the new habit, sprinkling it with holy water. When the candidate has put on her religious habit, she presents herself before the bishop, and sings, on her knees, Ancilla Christi sum ; then she receives the veil, and afterwards the ring, by which she is married to Christ; and, lastly, the crown of virginity. When she is crowned, an anathema is denounced against all who shall attempt to induce her to break her vows.
NUNCIO, or Nuntio, an ambassador from the pope to some Catholic prince or state, or a person who attends on behalf of the pope at a congress, or an assembly of several ambassadors.
NUNCUPATIVE, in the schools, means something that is only nominal, or has no existence but in name.

Nuncupative Will or Testament, a will made verbally, and not put in writing.
NUNDABAR, a town of Hindustan, in the province of Khandesh, belonging to the Mahrattas, seventy-six miles east from Surat. Long. 74. 15. E. Lat. 21. 17. N.
NUNDAPORAM, a town of Hindustan, in the Northern Circars, and district of Cicacole, eighty-two miles west from Cicacole. Long. 82. 40. E. Lat. 18. 23. N.
NUNDINA, a goddess amongst the ancient heathens, supposed to have had the care of the purification of infants. Because male infants were purified nine days after their birth, her name is derived from nonus, or the ninth; although female infants were also purified on the eighth day, which purification was by the Romans called lustration.
NUNDINAL, Nundinalis, a name which the Romans gave to the first eight letters of the alphabet, which were used in their calendar. This series of letters, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, is placed and repeated successively from the first to the last day of the year; and one of these always expressed the market-days or the assemblies called nundinae (quasi novendinae), because they returned every nine days. The country people, after working eight days successively, repaired to town on the ninth to sell their several commodities, and to inform themselves of all that related to religion and government. Thus the nundinal day being under A on the first, ninth, seventeenth, and twenty-fifth days of January, &c. the letter D will be the nundinal letter of the year following. These nundinals bear a very great resemblance to the dominical letters, which return every eight days, as the nundinals did every nine.
NUNDYDROOG, a celebrated and strong hill fortress of Hindustan, in the province of Mysore. The mountain on which it is built is 1700 feet high, and it is inaccessible on three sides. This fortress, always considered as impregnable, was stormed by the British in 1791, after a siege of three weeks. The neighbouring country is fertile, being studded with hills, in which there is much fertile land. It was long ruled by one of those independent chiefs called poligars in Southern India. He was compelled to pay tribute to Hyder Aly, who ravaged his territories and laid waste the country. Long. 77. 53. E. Lat. 13. 22. N.
NUNEATON, a town of the county of Warwick, in the hundred of Hemlingford, ninety-nine miles from London, and eight from Coventry. It stands on the river Anker, and had formerly a nunnery, to which it owes its name. It partakes of the trade of Coventry, like that place making many ribbons, and, besides, some woollen goods. There is a market on Saturday. The population amounted in 1801 to 4796, in 1811 to 4947, in 1821 to 6610, and in 1831 to 7799.
NUNIA, a village of Irak Arabi, about three quarters of a mile from the Tigris, opposite to Mosul. It is supposed to be the site of the ancient Nineveh. The history of this metropolis is lost in succeeding ages, and it appears to have fallen into decay after the building of Babylon; indeed in the reign of Hadrian it was so completely destroyed, that even the place where it stood was unknown. A city erected afterwards near the spot was called Ninus; and Mr Kinneir is of opinion that it is the ruins of the latter, and not those of old Nineveh, that are still visible. He mentions that he examined these remains in 1810, and that they consisted of a rampart and fosse, forming an oblong square four miles in compass. The wall is on an average twenty feet in height, and is covered with grass, like the Roman intrenchments in England.
NUPTIAL Rites, the ceremonies attending the solemnization of marriage, which are different in different ages and countries. We cannot omit here a custom which was practised by the Romans on these occasions. Immediately after the principal ceremonies were ended, the new married man threw nuts about the room for the boys to scramble for. Various reasons have been assigned for this; but that which most generally prevails, and seems to be the most probable, is, that by this act the bridegroom signified his resolution to abandon trifles, and commence a serious course of life. Hence nucibus relictis became in this sense a proverb. The nuts might also be an emblem of fertility. The ancient Greeks had a person to conduct the bride from her own to the bridegroom’s house, and hence he was called by the Greeks Nymphagogus, which term was afterwards used both by the Romans and the Jews.
NUREMBURG, or Nurnberg, a city of Bavaria, in the circle of the Rezat, and the bailiwick of the same name, of which it is the capital. It is situated on the river Pegnitz, which divides it into two parts. The walls are now kept in a state which renders them indefensible. It is an extensive but thinly peopled city, having much declined from the prosperity it enjoyed in the middle ages, when it was a free imperial city, and the place where the emperors occasionally resided. The city now contains 4500 houses, and 28,200 inhabitants, with eight Lutheran churches, one for the Catholics, and a chapel for the Calvinists. It has also many Jews. It is still a place of considerable manufactures, but they are chiefly on a small scale, furnishing the turnery wares called by its name, cutlery, braziery, looking-glasses, spectacles, needles, mathematical, musical, and surgical instruments, watches, leaf gold and silver, paper, maps, and other articles. It is celebrated as the birthplace of Albert Durer the painter, and the residence of Rudolph the inventor of wire, of Peter Hele the inventor of watches, of Denner the inventor of the clarionet, of Ebner the first cutler, and of Behairn, who first constructed globes. Long. 11. 1. 4. E. Lat. 49. 27. 8. N.
NURPOOR, a town of Hindustan, in the province of Lahore, and capital of a district of the same name. It is situated on the top of a hill, which is ascended by stone steps, and has all the appearance of opulence and industry. It is the residence of a Sikh chief, whose revenue amounts to L.50,000 a year. The district is situated between the thirty-second and thirty-third degrees of north latitude. It belongs to the Sikhs. The city is seventy-five miles eastnorth-east from the city of Lahore.
NURR AH, a town of Hindustan, in the province of Gundwana, tributary to the Nagpoor rajah, and possessed by native Goand chiefs. It is seventy-eight miles south by east from Ruttunpoor. Long. 82. 45. E. Lat. 21. 2. N.
NURSERY, in Gardening, is a piece of land set apart for raising and propagating all sorts of trees and plants to supply the garden and other plantations.
NUSANCE, or Nuisance, in Law, a thing done to the annoyance of another. Nuisances are either public or pri vate. A public nuisance is an offence against the public in general, either by doing what tends to the annoyance of all the king’s subjects, or by neglecting to do what the common good requires; in which case, all annoyances and injuries to streets, highways, bridges, and large rivers, as also disorderly ale-houses, gaming-houses, and the like, are held to be common nuisances. A private nuisance is, when only one person or family is annoyed by the doing of any thing; as where a person stops up the light of another’s house, or builds in such a manner that the rain falls from his house upon his neighbour’s.
NUSSERABAD, a town of Hindustan, in the Mahratta dominions, and province of Berar, forty-two miles southwest from Burhampoor. Long. 75. 51. E. Lat. 20. 56. N.
NUSSERITABAD, or Sackur, a town of Hindustan, in the province of Bejapore, belonging to the nizam.
NUSSERPOOR, a town of Hindustan, in the province of Sinde, and the capital of a district of the same name, situated near the banks of the Indus. Long. 69. 10. E. Lat. 25. 28. N. The district is situated principally between the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh degrees of north latitude, and is intersected by the river Indus.
NUT, among botanists, denotes a pericarpium of an extraordinary hardness, enclosing a kernel or seed.
NUTATION, in Astronomy, a kind of tremulous motion of the axis of the earth, by which, in each annual revolution, it is twice inclined to the ecliptic, and as often returns to its former position.
NUTHUIRS, a village of Persia, in the province of Irak, situated on a small plain surrounded with mountains, on the road from Ispahan to Sultania, and sixty-three miles north from Ispahan.
NUTMEG, the fruit of a tree, and a well-known spice. See Myristica.
NUTRITION, in the animal economy, is the repairing the continual loss which the different parts of the body undergo. The motion of the parts of the body, the friction of these parts against each other, and especially the action of the air, would destroy the body entirely, if the loss was not repaired by a proper diet containing nutritive juices, which being digested in the stomach, and afterwardscon-verted into chyle, mix with the blood, and are distributed throughout the whole body for its nutrition.

Buffon, in order to account for nutrition, supposes the body of an animal or vegetable to be a kind of mould, in which the matter necessary to its nutrition is modelled and assimilated to the whole. But of what nature is this matter which an animal or a vegetable assimilates to its own substance? What power is it that communicates to this matter the activity and motion necessary to penetrate this mould? and, if such a force exist, would it not be by a similar force that the internal mould itself might be reproduced?

As to the first question, he supposes that there exists in nature an infinite number of living organical parts, and that all organized bodies consist of such organical parts; that their production costs nature nothing, since their existence is constant and invariable; so that the matter which the animal or vegetable assimilates to its substance is an organical matter of the same nature with that of the animal or vegetable, which consequently may augment its volume without changing its form or altering the quality of the substance in the mould.

As to the second, there exist in nature certain powers, as that of gravity, which have no affinity with the external qualities of the body, but act upon the most intimate parts, and penetrate them throughout, and which can never fall under the observation of our senses.

And as to the third, he conceives that the internal mould itself is reproduced, not only by a similar power, but by the very same power which causes the unfolding and reproduction[7:16:312] thereof. For it is sufficient, he thinks, that, in an organized body which unfolds itself, there should be some part similar to the whole, in order that this part may one day become itself an organized body, altogether like that of which it is actually a part.
NUX Vomica, a flat, compressed, round fruit, about the breadth of a shilling, brought from the East Indies. It is found to be a certain poison for dogs, cats, and other animals, and it is not to be doubted that it would also prove fatal to man. Its surface is not much corrugated, and its texture is firm like horn, and of a pale grayish-brown colour. It is said to be used as a specific against the bite of a species of water-snake. It is considerably bitter and deleterious; but has been used in doses of from five to ten grains twice a day or so, in intermittents, particularly obstinate quartans, and in contagious dysentery. The strych-nus Ignatii is a tree of the same kind producing gourd-like fruit, the seeds of which are improperly called St Ignatius’s beans. These, as also the woods or roots of some such trees, called lignum colubrinum, or snakewood, are very narcotic bitters, like the nux vomica.
NUYTS ’ Reefs, several large reefs of rocks which lie off the south coast of New Holland, at Cape Nuyts. These reefs are about eight miles distant from the coast, and are eight miles in length. In some places the rocks rise above the water, and in others they are wholly concealed. Long, of Cape Nuyts, 132. 18. E. Lat. 32. 2. S.
NUZZER, or Muzzeranah, a present or offering from an inferior to a superior. In Hindustan no man ever approaches his superior for the first time on business without an offering of at least a gold or silver rupee in his right hand; and if this be not taken, it is a mark of disfavour. Nuzzeranah is also used to signify the sum paid to the government as an acknowledgment for a grant of lands or any public office.