Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/370

 Mahommed Ibn Rashid at Hail, and Abdallah Ibn Saʽud at Riad, ruled in western and eastern Nejd respectively, until 1892, when the former by his victory at ʽAnēza became emir of all Nejd. His successor, Abdul Aziz Ibn Rashid, was, however, unable to maintain his position, and in spite of Turkish support, sustained a severe defeat in 1905 at the hands of Ibn Saʽud which for the time, at any rate, restored the supremacy to Riād.

No data exist for an accurate estimate of the population; it probably exceeds 1,000,000, of which two-thirds may be settled, and one-third nomad or Bedouin. Palgrave in 1863, perhaps unduly exaggerating the importance of the town population, placed it at nearly double this figure.

The revenue of the emir Mahommed Ibn Rashid of Hail, who died in 1897, was estimated by Blunt in 1879 at £80,000, and his expenditure at little more than half that amount. Nolde who visited Hail in 1893 after the emir’s conquest of the Wahhabi state, believed that his surplus income then amounted to £60,000 a year, and his accumulated treasure to £1,500,000.

 NEJEF, or, a town of Asiatic Turkey, in the pashalik of Bagdad, 50 m. S. of Kerbela and 5 or 6 m. W. of the ruins of ancient Kufa, out of the bricks of which it is chiefly built. It stands on the eastern edge of the Syrian desert, on the north-eastern shore of a deep depression, formerly a sea, the Assyrium Stagnum of the old geographers, but in latter years drained and turned into gardens for the town. It is a fairly prosperous city, supplied with admirable water by an underground aqueduct from the Hindieh canal, a few miles to the north, which also serves to water the gardens in the deep dry bed of the former lake. The town is enclosed by nearly square brick walls, flanked by massive round towers, dating from the time of the caliphs, but now falling into decay. Outside the walls, over the sterile sand plateau, stretch great fields of tombs and graves, for Nejef is so holy that he who is buried here will surely enter paradise. In the centre of the town stands Meshed (strictly Meshhed) ʽAli, the shrine of ʽAli, containing the reputed tomb of that caliph, which is regarded by the Shiʽite Moslems as being no less holy than the Kaʽba itself, although it should be said that it is at least very doubtful whether ʽAli was actually buried there. The dome of the shrine is plated with gold, and within the walls and roof are covered with polished silver, glass and coloured tiles. The resting-place of ʽAli is represented by a silver tomb with windows grated with silver bars and a door with a great silver lock. Inside this is a smaller tomb of damascened ironwork. In the court before the dome rise two minarets, plated, like the dome, with finely beaten gold from the height of a man and upward. While the population of Nejef is estimated at from 20,000 to 30,000, there is in addition a very large floating population of pilgrims, who are constantly arriving, bringing corpses in all stages of decomposition and accompanied at times by sick and aged persons, who have come to Nejef to die. At special seasons the number of pilgrims exceeds many times the population of the town. Nejef is also the point of departure from which Persian pilgrims start on the journey to Mecca. No Jews or Christians are allowed to reside there. The accumulated treasures of Meshed ʽAli were carried off by the Wāhhābites early in the 19th century, and in 1843 the town was deprived of many of its former liberties and compelled to submit to Turkish law; but it is again enormously wealthy, for what is given to the shrine may never be sold or used for any outside purpose, but constantly accumulates. Moreover, the hierarchy derives a vast revenue from the fees for burials in the sacred limits.

 NELEUS, in Greek legend, son of Poseidon and Tyro, brother of Pelias. The two children were exposed by their mother, who afterwards married Cretheus, king of Iolcus in Thessaly. After the death of Cretheus, the boys, who had been brought up by herdsmen, quarrelled for the possession of Iolcus. Pelias expelled Neleus, who migrated to Messenia, where he became king of Pylos (Apollodorus i. 9; Diod. Sic. iv. 68) and the ancestor of a royal family called the Neleidae, who are historically traceable as the old ruling family in some of the Ionic states in Asia Minor. Their presence is explained by the legend that, when the Dorians conquered Peloponnesus, the Neleidae were driven out and took refuge in Attica, whence they led colonies to the eastern shores of the Aegean. By Chloris, daughter of Amphion, Neleus was the father of twelve sons (of whom Nestor was the most famous) and a daughter Pero. Through the contest for his daughter’s hand (see ) he is connected with the legends of the prophetic race of the Melampodidae, who founded the mysteries and expiatory rites and the orgies of Dionysus in Argolis. According to Pausanias (ii. 2. 2, v. 8. 2) Neleus restored the Olympian games and died at Corinth, where he was buried on the isthmus.

 NELLORE, a town and district of India, in the Madras presidency. The town is on the right bank of the Pennar river, and has a station on the East Coast railway, 109 m. N of Madras city. Pop. (1901) 32,040. There are United Free Church, American Baptist and Catholic missions.

The has an area of 8761 sq. m. It comprises a tract of low-lying land extending from the base of the Eastern Ghats to the sea. Its general aspect is forbidding: the coast-line is a fringe of blown sand through which the waves occasionally break, spreading a salt sterility over the fields. Farther inland the country begins to rise, but the soil is not naturally fertile, nor are means of irrigation readily at hand. About one-half of the total area is cultivated; the rest is either rocky waste or is covered with low scrub jungle. The chief rivers are the Pennar, Suvarnamukhi and Gundlakamma. They are not navigable, but are utilized for irrigation purposes, the chief irrigation work being the anicut across the Pennar. Nellore, however, is subject both to droughts and to floods. Copper was discovered in the western hills in 1801, but several attempts by European capitalists to work the ore proved unremunerative, and the enterprise has been abandoned since 1840. Iron ore is smelted by indigenous methods in many places, but the most important mining industry is that of mica. Salt is largely manufactured along the sea-coast. Nellore, with the other districts of the Carnatic, passed under direct British administration in 1801. The population in 1901 was 1,496,987 showing an increase of 2·3% in the decade. In 1904 a portion of the district was transferred to the newly formed district of Guntur, reducing the remaining area to 7965 sq. m., with a population of 1,272,815. The principal crops are millets, rice, other food grains, indigo and oil-seeds. The breed of cattle is celebrated. The East Coast railway, running through the length of the district, was opened throughout for traffic in 1899. The section from Nellore town to Gudur, formerly on the metre gauge, has been converted to the standard gauge. Previously the chief means of communication with Madras was by the Buckingham canal. The sea-borne trade is insignificant.

NELSON, HORATIO NELSON, (1758–1805), duke of Bronte in Sicily, British naval hero, was born at the parsonage house of Burnham Thorpe, in Norfolk, on the 29th of September 1758. His father, Edmund Nelson (1722–1802), who came of a clerical family, was rector of the parish. His mother, whose maiden name was Catherine Suckling (1725–1767), was a grand-niece of Sir Robert Walpole (1st earl of Orford). This connexion proved of little or no value to the future admiral, who, in a letter to his brother, the Rev. William Nelson, written in 1784, speaks of the Walpoles as “the merest set of cyphers that ever existed—in public affairs I mean.” His introduction to the navy came from his maternal uncle, Captain Maurice Suckling (1725–1778), an officer of some reputation who at his death held the important post of comptroller of the navy. Horatio, who had received a summary, and broken, education at Norwich Downham and North Walsham, was entered on the “Raisonable" when Captain Suckling was appointed to her in 1770 on an alarm