Nijni-Novogorod

Nile (Nilus). P. R. 4. 71; See Nysnovogorod. Nativity 211; P. L. 1. 343, 413; Eng. Let., Ma on 1. 324. 4. 283; 12. 157; (See also Negus.) The importance of the Nile in Egypt was well known to the ancients; its seven mouths have been celebrated for ages {e. g., in ^neid 6. 800). Fuller writes “Nilus venteth itself into the Mediterranean Sea with seven mouths, nothing being more famous in human poetry and prose than this septemfluous river.” (P. 506.) Milton’s placing of the Aby in i an Mount Amara {q. v.) “by Nilus head” reminds us that only within the last century has the geography of the Nile become known. Knowledge of it in the time of Milton is represented by the following from Purchas: “There are many fish in Nilus in the end of the Province of Goyama [in Aby in i a], where is a bottomle Lake whence continually springs abundance of water, being the head of that River, little at the first, and after a daies journey and a halfe running to the East, and then entreth a Lake supposed the greatest in the world, pa ing swiftly through the midst thereof without mixture of waters, and casting it selfe over high Rockes, takes freer scope, but presently is swallowed of the earth, so that in some places it may be stepped over. After live dayes journey towards the East, it windes itselfe againe to the West, and so pa eth on his way towards Egypt.” {Pilgrimage, p. 852.) The stream here described is apparently the Blue Nile. The map-makers of the time {e. g., Mercat or, p. 623) represent the Nile as rising not in Aby in i a, but in lakes far to the south, much farther than those in which Purchas writes of this belief: the Nile is now known to rise. “Let us take view of the more inland and Easterly borders.:... which abutte on Congo: where we shall find … a Lake, called Zembre, great Mother, and chief Ladie of the Waters in Africa. There is indeed another Lake, which Nilus maketh in his course, but standeth Northwest from the first Lake Zembre. Neyther doth Nilus (as some afitirme) hide it selfe under the ground, and after ryse againe, but runneth through rnonstrous and Desart Valleyes, without any settled channel, and where no people inhabited, from whence that fabulous opinion did grow. This Lake is situate in twelve degrees of Southerly Latitude, and is compa ed about like a Vault with exceeding high Mountaines. The River Nilus runneth northwards many hundred myles, and then entreth into another great Lake, which the Inhabitants doe call a Sea. It is much bigger than the first, and contayneth in breadth two hundred and This twentie myles, right under the Equinoctiall Lyne. seemeth to be in Goiame, where the Aba ine entitleth himselfe King, and in his title calls it the Fountaine of Nilus, which (Pilgrimage, p. 878.) Alvares also mention eth.”.....,..... Ninevee (Ninos).. Eleg.... L 66; P. R. 3. 275. Nineveh, an A yrian city whose ruins are near Mosul, on the banks of the Tigris. Diodorus writes as follows [Ninus] “having got a great number of his forces together, and provided money and treasure, and other things nece ary for the purpose, built a city near the Euphrates, very famous for its walls and fortifications; of a long form; for on both sides it ran out in length above an hundred and fifty furlongs; but the two le er angles were only ninety furlongs apiece; so that the circumference of: the whole was four hundred and fourscore furlongs. And the founder was not herein deceived, for none ever after built the like, either as to the largene of its circumference, or the stateline of its walls. For the wall was an hundred feet in height, and so broad as three chariots might be driven together abreast: upon it there were fifteen hundred turrets upon the walls, each of them two hundred feet high. He appointed the city to be inhabited chiefly by the richest A yrians, and gave liberty to people of any other nation (to as many as would) to dwell there, and allowed to the citizens a large territory next adjoining to them, and called the city after his own name Ninus, or NineDiodorus then proceeds to describe the splendors veh.” (2. 3.); of this “first golden Monarchy.” Milton’s phrase, “of length within her wall several days journey,” suggests Jonah 3. 3: “Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city, of three days’ journey.” The reference to Salmana ar is founded on 2 Kings 17. 3-6, 18. 9-11, where is given the account of the captivity of Israel, also mentioned in 2 Esdras 13. 40, and, with a reference to Nineveh, in Tobit 1. 224