Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/746

Rh 688 N Y I N Y M them at bay till lie was able to make his escape. By the defeat of the Swedes under the walls of the fortress in 1659 the country was freed from their dominion. In 1808 the marquis La Romana, who with a body of Spanish troops garrisoned the fortress for France, revolted from his allegiance and held out till he and a portion of his men got off with the English fleet. NYIREGYHAZA, a town of Hungary, in the district of Szabolcs, is situated at the junction of the river Theiss and the railways of the north-east of Hungary, 30 miles to the north of Debreczin. It contains four churches, a gymnasium, and a mineral bath. The inhabitants of the town, who numbered 24,102 in 1880, are engaged in agriculture, wine-growing, and the manufacture of soda, matches, and saltpetre. The annual fairs are largely fre quented. A little to the north-west is the famous wine- producing district of Tokay, which yields about 1 8 million gallons of wine annually, including 3 or 4 million gallons of genuine Tokay. NYKOPING, a city of Sweden, the chief town of the province of Nykoping (Sodermanland), is situated on both banks of a stream which unites Lakes Yngaren, Tisaren, &c., with By Fjord, and so with the Baltic. Connected by a branch line with the railway from Stockholm to the Norwegian frontier, it lies about 100 miles by rail south west of Stockholm. The ruins of its once famous castle, the governor s residence, the churches of St Nicholas and All Saints, the town-house (1662), and the hospital are the more noteworthy buildings. The population was 4825 in 1862, 4813 in 1880. Nykoping (i.e., New-Market, Latinized as Nicopia) begins to ap pear as a regular town with churches and monasteries early in the 13th century. Its castle was the seat of the kings of Soderman land, and after those of Stockholm and Calmar was the strongest in Sweden. The death of Waldemar in 1293, the starving to death of Dukes Waldemar and Eric in 1318, the marriage and the deaths both of Charles IX. and his consort Christina of Holstein, the birth of their daughter Princess Catherine, and in 1622 the birth of her son Charles X. are the main incidents of which it was the scene. Burned down in 1665 and again damaged by fire in 1719, it still remained the seat of the provincial authorities till 1760. The town was burned by Albert of Mecklenburg s party in 1389, by an accidental conflagration in 1665, and by the Russians in 1719. NYLGHAU, or NIL-GAI, one of the largest of the antelopes, a handsome and graceful animal, with short, straight, erect horns, pointed and turned slightly forwards at the tips, and present in the male only (see Plate II., vol. ii.). It has a short erect mane, and the male has also a tuft of hair upon the throat. When adult the sexes are very different in colour, the male being generally of a dark iron-grey or slate colour, approaching black on the head and legs, while the female and young are of a bright light- brown or fawn colour. In both male and female at all ages the lips, chin, and under-parts as well as two trans verse stripes on the inner sides of the ears and rings on the fetlocks are white, and the mane and tip of the tail black. The horns are black, and from 8 to 9 inches long. The male stands about 4 feet 4 inches high at the shoulder, the female is smaller. The tail is 18 to 21 inches in length. The nylghau is one of the few true antelopes occurring in India, and is peculiar to that country, being found from near the foot of the Himalayas to the south of Mysore, though rare to the north of the Ganges and also in the extreme south. It is most abundant in central India, and does not occur in Assam or the countries to the east of the Bay of Bengal. It frequents forests and low jungles, though often found in tolerably open plains, associating in small herds. One, or very often two, young are pro duced at a birth, and when caught early they are readily tamed. They are often kept in captivity in the mena geries of the native princes, and also in Europe, but the temper of the old males is uncertain. When fighting they drop on their knees, and then, advancing in this position until within convenient distance, make a sudden spring, butting with their horns with great force. The first description of this animal, accompanied by a rude figure, was given by Dr Parsons in a paper entitled &quot;An Account of a Quadruped brought from Bengal, and now to be seen in London,&quot; published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1745. No name was assigned to it, but the author identified it with an animal called &quot; Biggel,&quot; seen in the stables of the viceroy of Goa by John Albert de Mandelsloe in his voyage through the Indies in 1638. In 1767 and the following years several living specimens were sent to England, from which Dr William Hunter drew up an excellent account of the characters of the male, female, and voting, and of their habits in captivity, which, with a very spirited figure by Stubbs (often since copied), was published in the Philosophical Trails- actions for 1770. Dr Hunter was apparently unaware of Parsons s paper, and gives the animal the native name of &quot;Nyl-ghau,&quot; signifying in Persian &quot;blue bull.&quot; On Parsons s description Pallas founded his Antilope tragocamclus (Spicilcgia Zoologica, i. p. 9, 1767), which was therefore its earliest specific name, though others have been used in later times, especially A. pida, given by Pallas (Spicilegia, xii. p. 14, 1777) to the animal described by Hunter under the supposition that it was a different species. It has also had several generic names, Boselaphns, Damalis, Portax, &c., the first-named being the one to which preference is now usually given. NYMPH. The belief that the nature which surrounds mankind the woods, the springs, the hills is full of a life resembling, yet different from, human life is universal in a primitive stage of thought. At Psophis in Arcadia a row of tall cypress trees was called ai Trdpdwoi, the damsels. In other places the name Kopou was used, but the general term for the spirits who dwell in external nature was vi /x^at. All three words have the same meaning. There is a close relation between the souls of dead men and the life of nature ; the Nymphs often play the part of death and carry away human beings to dwell with them. This idea appears in a slightly different form when heroes and favoured mortals live in communion with them. The connexion of a human being with a Nymph has something unnatural about it, and almost always brings some disaster on the mortal. Yet another form of the idea appears in the word la /^oA^Trros ; he whose mind the Nymphs take possession of loses his human wit and becomes mad, but has wisdom more than human. The worship of the Nymphs was practised throughout the classical period in places where they seemed to have chosen a home for themselves, in shady groves and beside springs of clear water. It retained its primitive simplicity. No temple, no statue, no priest was needed ; the offer ings of a rural people were placed on the simple altar. The cultus is therefore not often mentioned in literature ; but it appears to have been closely connected with the household life of the people, and to have had a strong hold on them. Among the ceremonies of marriage an acknowledgment of the power of the Nymphs was in cluded. The bride, herself a vr&amp;gt;fj.&amp;lt;f&amp;gt;r), was sprinkled with water from the fresh spring of the Nymphs, or she went to bathe in the spring. The Nymphs, the ever-youthful spirits of nature, pro tected and nourished children (Kovporpcxfrot.) ; they were themselves often, especially in Asia Minor, the mothers of the heroes of the land. In the Troad, Hermes and the Sileni sport with them in the mountain caves. Their life was long, according to Hesiod 9720 times that of man ; it was a common belief that they were born and died along with the trees of the forest. It was usual to distinguish Nymphs of the rivers and fountains, Naiads, from those of the forests and mountains, Dryads, Hama dryads, Oreades ; but they were all Kovpai Ato, the maidens of heaven, or, in more anthropomorphic language, the daughters of Zeus. The worship of the Nymphs became more fashionable in later time, and shrines of Nymphs (i/iyt&amp;lt;cua) were built even in cities.