Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/417

 NASAVA. iv. 7.) Their modem representatives are equally inhospitable, as the traveller Bruce, who was shipwrecked on their coast, experienced. (Bruce, Travels, Introduction, vol. i. p. 131.) The Na.su- mones, however, were breeders of cattle, since Hero- dotus informs us (iv. 172) that in the summer sea- son, '■ they leave their herds on the coast and go up to Augila to gather the date harvest" — the palms of that oasis being numerous, large, and fruitful. And here, again, in existing races we find corre- spondences with the habits of the Nasamones. For according to modern travellers, the people who dwell on the coast of Derna, gather the dates in the plain of Getjabib, five days' journey from Auffila. (Fro- ceedmgs of Afric. Association, 1790, ch. x.) Herodotus describes the Nasamones as practising a kind of hero-worship, sacrificing at the graves of their ancestors, and swearing by their manes. They were polygamists on the widest scale, or rather held their women in coinmon ; and their principal diet, besides dates, was dried locusts reduced to powder and kneaded with milk intoa kind of cake — jwlenta. Their land produced also a precious stone called by Pliny (xxxvii. 10. s. 64) and Solinus (c. 27) Nasamonitis; it was of a bluod red hue with black veins. Herodotus introduces his description of this tribe, with a remarkable story relating to the knowledge possessed by the ancients of the sources of the Nile. He says (ii. 32) that certain Nasamones came from the neighbourhood of Cyrene, and made an expedition into the interior of Libya ; and that they explored the continent as for as the kingdom of Timbuctoo, is rendered probable by his account of their adventures. For, after passing through the inhabited region, they came to that which was infested by wild beasts ; next their course was westward through the desert {Sahara), and finally they were taken prisoners by black men of diminutive stature, and carried to a city washed by a great river flowing from W. to E. and abounding in crocodiles. This river, which the historian believed to be the upper part of the Nile, was more probably the Niger. The origin of the story perhaps lies in the fact that the Nasamones, a wandering race, acted as guides to the caravans which annually crossed the Libyan continent from the territories of Carthage to Aethiopia, ]Ieroe, and the ports of the Red Sea. [W. B. D.] NASAVA (Nao-aJa, al. Nairauae, Ptol. iv. 2. § 9), a river of Mauretania Caesariensis, the mouth of which is to the E. of Saldae. This river of Borjeiyah, is made by a number of rivulets which fall into it from different directions, and, as the banks are rocky and mountainous, occasion inundations in the winter. (Shaw, Trav. p. 90.) [E. B. J.] NASCL [Khipaei Montes.] NASCUS (NaffKos, al. MaoaKorcos fi7}rp6irois), an inland city of Arabia Felix, in long. 81° 15', lat. 20° 40' of Ptolemy. (Ptol. vi. 7. § 35.) Jlr. Forster takes it to be Nessa of Pliny, the chief town of the Amathei, who occupied the present dis- trict of Yemdma. {Geoijraplty of Arabia, vul. ii. jip. 266, 267.) [G. W.] NASL [Caphyae.j NA'SIUM (Nacriov), in Gallia. Ptolemy names two cities of the Leuci, Tullum {Toul) and Nasium, which he places 20 minutes further south than Tullum, and as many minutes east. Both these indications are false, as the Itins. show, for Nasium is on a road from Durocortorum {Eei7ns) to Tullum; and consequently west of Toul, and it is not south. An old chronicle places Nasium on the Ornain or VOL. II. NAUCEATIS. 401 Ornez, a branch of the Maas ; and its name exists in Naix or Nais, above Ligmj. The Antoniiie Itin. makes it 16 leagues from Nasium to Tullum. The Table places Ad Fines between Nasium and Tullum, 14 leagues from Nasium and h from Tullum. [As to Ad Fines, see Fines, No. 14.] [G. L.] NASUS. [Oeniadae.] NATISO (NaTioroif, Strab. : Natisone), a river of Venetia, which flowed under the walls of Aqui- leia, on the E. side of the city, and is noticed in connection with that city by all the geographers as well as by several other ancient writers. (Plin. iii. 18. s. 22; Strab. v. p. 214; Mela, ii. 4. § 3; PtoL iii. 1. § 26; Ammian. xxi. 12. § 8; Jornand. Get. 42.) Pliny speaks of the Natiso together with the Turrus {Natiso cum Turro), as flowing by the co- lony of Aquileia. At the present day the Natisone, a considerable stream which descends from the Alps near Cividale, falls into the Torre (evidently the Turrus of Pliny), and that again into the Jsonzo; so that neither of them now flows by Aquileia; but it is probable that they have changed their course, which the low and marshy character of the country renders easy. A small stream, or rather canal, com- municating from Aquileia with the sea, is still called N'atisa; but it is clear that the Natissa of Jor- nandes, which he describes {I. c.) as flowing under the walls of Aqvtileia, must be the far more impor- tant stream, now called the Natisone, as he tells us it had its sources in the Mons Picis, and it would be vain to look for any mountains nearer than the Alps. Strabo {I. c.) also speaks of the Natiso as navigable for ships of burden as far as Aquileia, 60 stadia from the sea; a statement which renders it certain that a considerable river must have flowed under the walls of that city. [E. H. B.] NAVA, the river Nava in Tacitus {Hist. iv. 70) and in Ausonius {Mosella, v. 1) is the Nalie, a small stream which flows into the Rhine, on the left bank just below Binginm {Bingen^. [G. L.] NAVA'LIA or NABA'LIA (NawaAio), a small river on the north-west coast of Gei-many (Tac. Hist. V. 26), either an eastern branch of the Rhine, at the mouth of which Ptolemy (ii. 1 1. § 28) places the fort Navalia, or some river in the country of the Frisians. [L. S.] NAVARI. [Neuri.] NAVARUM. [Neuri.] NAUBARUM. [Neuri.] NAU'CEATIS (NauH-parir, Herod, ii. 179; Strab. xvii. p. 801 ; Ptol. iv. 5. § 9; Callimach. Ejngr. 41 ; Plin. v. 10. s. 11 ; Steph. B. .';. v.: Eth. NavKpaTiTTis or NauKpaTioJTT/s), was originally an emporium for trade, founded by colonists from Mi- letus, in the Saitic nome of the Delta. It stood upon the eastern bank of the Canopic arm of the Nile, which, from the subsequent importance of Naucratis, was sometimes called the Ostium Naucraticura. (Phn.v. lO.s. 11.) There was, doubt- less, on the same site an older Aegyptian town, the name of which has been lost in that of the Greek dockyard and haven. Naucratis first at- tained its civil and commercial eminence in tlie reign of Amasis (b. C. 550) who rendered it, as re- garded the Greeks, the Canton of Acgypt. From the date of his reign until the Persian invasion, or perhaps even the founding of Alexandrcia, Naucratis possessed a monopoly of the Mediterranean com- merce, for it was the only Deltaic harbour into which foreign vessels were permitted to enter; and if accident or stress of weather had driven them I) u