Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/717

 firm hold over the Roman mind, and her popularity lasted till the end of paganism. Special games were held in her honour in the circus, and generals erected statues of her after a successful campaign. She came to be regarded as the protecting goddess of the senate, and her statue (originally brought from Tarentum and set up by Augustus in memory of the battle of Actium) in the Curia Julia (Dio Cassius li. 22; Suetonius, Aug. 100) was the cause of the final combat between Christianity and paganism towards the end of the 4th century. Victoria had altars in camp, a special set of worshippers and colleges, a festival on the 1st of November, temples at Rome and throughout the empire. The Sabine goddess Vicuna and Vica Pota, one of the dii indigetes (both of them goddesses of victory), are earlier varieties of Victoria (Livy xxix. 14). Representations of Nikē-Victoria in Greek and Graeco-Roman art are very numerous. The statue of Nikē at Olympia by Paeonius has been in great part recovered.

 NIKISCH, ARTHUR (1855–), Hungarian conductor, became known as a musical prodigy at an early age, making a public performance as a pianist at eight years old. He studied at the Vienna Conservatoire from 1866 to 1873, and while there he composed a symphony and other works. For a time he was engaged as a violinist, but in 1877 he began as assistant conductor at the Leipzig opera and two years later became chief conductor. His success there, and his reputation as the producer of the more modern types of music as well as of classical masterpieces led to his being appointed conductor of the symphony orchestra at Boston, U.S.A., from 1889 to 1893; and subsequently, after having been director at the Budapest opera, he was made conductor at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. His fame was now, widespread, and he made successful visits to London, Paris and other capitals, his ability as a pianoforte accompanist being recognized as no less marked than his brilliance as director of an orchestra.

NIKITIN, ATHANASIUS, of Tver (fl. 1468–1474), Russian merchant, traveller and writer, the earliest known Russian visitor to India. He started in 1468 on his “wanderings beyond the Three Seas” (Caspian, Euxine and Indian Ocean), and descended the Volga, passing by Uglich, Kostroma, Nizhniy Novgorod, Kazan, Sarai and Astrakhan. Near the latter he was attacked and robbed by Tatars; but he succeeded in reaching Derbent, where he joined Vasili Papin, the envoy of Ivan III. of Moscow to the shah of Shirvan; from Nizhniy Novgorod he had travelled with Hasan Bey, the Shirvan shah’s ambassador, returning to his master with a present of falcons from Ivan. At Derbent Nikitin vainly endeavoured to get means of returning to Russia; failing in this, he went on to Batu, where he notices the “eternal fires,” and thence over the Caspian to Bokhara. Here he stayed six months, after which he made his way southward, with several prolonged stoppages, to the Persian Gulf, through Mazandaran province and the towns of Amul, Demavend, Ray (near Tehran), Kashan, Nain, Yezd, Sirjan, Tarun, Lar and Bandar, opposite New (or insular) Hormuz. From Hormuz he sailed by Muscat to Gujarat, Cambay and Chaul in western India. Landing at Chaul, he seems to have travelled to Umrut in Aurangabad province, south-east of Surat, and thence to Beder, the modern Ahmedabad. Here, and in adjacent regions, Nikitin spent nearly four years; from the little he tells us, he appears to have made his living by horse-dealing. From Beder he visited the Hindu sanctuary (“their Jerusalem”) of Perwattum. He returned to Russia by way of Calicut, Dabul, Muscat, Hormuz, Lar, Shiraz, Yezd, Isfahan, Kashan, Sultanieh, Tabriz, Trebizond and Kaffa (Theodosia) in the Crimea. He has left us descriptions of western Indian manners, customs, religion, court-ceremonies, festivals, warfare and trade, of some value; but the text is corrupt, and the narrative at its best is confused and meagre. His remarks on the trade of Hormuz, Cambay, Calicut, Dabul, Ceylon, Pegu and China; on royal progresses and other functions, both ecclesiastical and civil, at Beder; and on the wonders of the great fair at Perwattum—as well as his comparisons of things Russian and Indian—deserve special notice.

NIKKO, one of the chief religious centres of Japan. The name belongs properly to the district, but is as Commonly applied to the principal village, Hachi-ishi, which is 91 m. N. of Tokyo by rail. The district is high-lying, mountainous and beautiful, and is in favour for summer residence. The chief mountain range is known as Nikko-Zan (Mountains of the Sun’s Brightness). A Shinto temple seems to have existed at Nikko from time immemorial, and in 767 its first Buddhist temple was founded by Shodo Sho-nin (the subject of many strange legendary adventures); but the main celebrity of the place is due to the sepulchres and sanctuaries of Iyeyasu and Iyemitsu, the first and third shoguns of the Tokugawa dynasty. Iyeyasu was buried with amazing pomp in 1617, and Iyemitsu, his grandson, was slain in 1650 while visiting his tomb. From 1644 to 1868 the “abbots” of Nikko were always princes of the imperial blood; thirteen of them are buried within the sacred grounds. Though the magnificent abbots’ residence was destroyed by fire in 1871, and the temples have lost most of their ritual and much of their material splendour, enough remains to astonish by excellence and bewilder by variety of decorative detail. Of the numerous structures which cluster round the shrine of Iyeyasu, it is sufficient to mention the cylindrical copper column (1643), a guardian against evil influences, 42 ft. high, adorned at the top with a series of lotus flowers, from the petals of which hang small bells; a five-storied pagoda (1659), 104 ft. high, with the signs of the zodiac carved round the base; the gate of the Two Kings, with its figures of unicorns, lions, tigers, elephants, mythical animals and tree-peonies; the vermilion-coloured timber enclosure to which this gate gives entrance, with three great storehouses, a sumptuous stable for the sacred horses, and a finely fashioned granite cistern (1618) for holy water; and the Yo-mei-mon gate, which with the contiguous cloister is covered with the most elaborate carving, and gives access by way of another gate (Kara-Mon) to the court in the midst of which stands the last and most sacred enclosure. This, known as the Tamagaki, is a quadrangle of gilt trellis-work 50 yds. square; within it stands the “chapel” or oratory (or rather a series of chambers), in the decoration of which gilding and black lacquer have been lavishly employed. The tomb of Iyeyasu lies apart about two hundred steps higher up the hills, in the shadow of tall cryptomerias—a single light-coloured bronze urn or casket standing on a circular base of three steps with a stone table in front on which rest a censer, a lotus-cluster and a stork with a candlestick in its mouth, the whole enclosed by a high stone wall. Somewhat similar are the tomb of Iyemitsu and its surroundings; and though the art displayed is of an inferior character, the profusion of buildings and embellishments is even more remarkable. Hotoké Iwa, the hill on which the tomb stands, is completely covered to the summit with trees of various tints. There are numerous temples and shrines of minor interest in the locality.

NIKOLAYEV, a town, seaport and chief naval station of Russia on the Black Sea, in the government of Kherson, 40 m. N.W. of the city of Kherson. Pop. (1881) 35,000; (1891) 77,210; (1897) 92,060. Nikolayev stands a little above the