Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/623

* NIAGARA KIVEB AND FALLS. 529 NIBELUNGENLIED. BliiLloGRAPHV. Holley, History of llic Falls of Mui/ara (New York, 1882); Harrison, The Condition of Niagara Falls (ib., 1882); Gil- bert, "The History of the Niagara Kivcr," in Smithsonian Report for 1890 (Washington) ; id.. Xiai/aro Falls and Their Histori/ (New York, 1895); The Xiagara Book, by several antliors (Buffalo, 1893) ; Grabau, Guide to the (leoloyy and Paleontology of Niagara (New York, 1901) ; also Kibbe's account of the various surveys and maps of the falls in the Seventh Annual Report of the commissioners of the New York State Reservation at Niagara (Albany, 1891). NIAGARA SERIES. The lowest division of the I'ljper Silurian (or Silurian) system of rocks. It is made up of a series of sandstones, limestones, and shales, which are grouped to- gether under the Medina, Clinton, and Niagara stages. The rocks of the Niagara series are found in central and eastern New York, and extend soutliward through Ohio. Pennsylvania, Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and Tennessee, and westward through Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa. They are also known westward in Illinois, Vis- consin, and Indiana. Many of the beds are very persistent. The Oneida conglomerate at the base forms the bold scenery of the Shawangunk Mountains, iu New Y'ork; the Clinton division carries a bed of red hematite iron ore wliieh is found from New Y'ork to Biriiiingliam. Ala., where it forms the basis of a large steel in- dustry. The limestone and shale of the Niagara opocli are seen at Niagara Falls, where it is the undermining of the limestone, due to the wearing away of the shale, which has caused the falls. Fossils are found in great abundance in most of the rocks. See Siluri.^n Sy.stem ; Clin- ton Stage. NIAM NIAM, ne-ilm' ne-iim', or Zandeii. A numerous people of Negro-Ham ite blood on the Nile-Congo-Chad water-shed north of the Welle Eiver, Southeastern Suihiii, between 4° and 7' north latitude and 25° and 29° east longitude. They are negroes, brachyeephalic, muscular, of medium lieiglit. and brown color. They are noted for their cannibalism. Their houses are conical, with clay walls and thatclied roofs; the kitchen hut and sleeping hut for boys form part of the dwelling group. They are hunters and agricul- turists, excel in textile work and handicraft in cl.iy, wood, and iron, and play on .a five-stringed harp. They fight with throwing knives, swords, assegais, clubs, and shields. Numbering over two millions, they are divided into small sov- sreignties, partly independent, partly under the Congo Free State. Consult: Stanford, Afriea (London, 1895) ; Deniker. Raees of Man (Lon- •don. 1900). NIAN'TIC, or NEHANTIC. A small Al- gonquian tribe, formerly occupying the south- western coast of Rhode Island, adjoining the Narraganset (q.v.). who claimed dominion over them. Their principal village was at Fort Neck, ■on the Great Pond in Charlestown. Bv refusing to_join the hostiles in King Pliilip's War of 1075-70. they were able tn preserve their terri- tory and tribal organization, and at the close of the war the Narraganset who submitted to the English were settled with the Nianlic. and the whole body thenceforth took the name of Narraganset. A detached body, supposed to have been cut off from the main tribe by an invasion of the Pequot, resided on Niantic Bay, in Con- necticut. They were subject to the Pequot, and with them were nearly destroyed in the war of 1037, the few survivors gradually wasting away by emigration and disease until none were left in the original territory. The present Narra- ganset of Rhode Island are chietly of Niantic (iescent, so far as their Indian blood is con- cerned. NIAS, ne'iis'. An island in the Indian Ocean, belonging to the Netherlands, and situated 05 miles from the west coast of Sumatra (Map: Aus- tralasia, B 2). It is 05 miles long, 20 miles wide, and has an area of about 1800 square miles. It is mountainous and surrounded by coral reefs, and the soil is very fertile, the chief products being rice, sugar, and pepper, the latter amounting to over 100,000 pounds annually. The inhabitants, whose number is estimated at 200.000. are a Malay people closely akin to the Battaks. They are somewhat lighter in color of skin than many of the Malayan tribes, and are sometimes classed as Indonesians. In head-form they tend toward dolichocephaly. The island has suffered much from intertribal wars, and the slave trade con- tinued here with unusual persistency. Consult: Modigliano, Vn riaggio a Xias (Milan. 1890) ; Sundermann, "Kleine niassische Chrestomathie." in Bijdragen voor de taal- land- en rolkenlcunde ran Xederlandseh Indie, ser. v., vol.vii. ( 'sGraven- hage, 1S92) ; id., Kur;:gefasste niussiselie ilrum- matik (Mors, 1892) ; id., Oeutsch-niassisches Worterbuch (ib., 1892). NIATA, nyit'ta. or NATA, nii'ta. A breed of deformed cattle, long existent in Argentina, but now very rare. These animals greatly inter- ested Darwin as an example of a variation, be- lieved to have originated early in the eighteenth century among the Patagonian Indians, and to have remained constant for a long period. They have very short, broad foreheads, upturned noses, lips withdrawn, showing the teeth, and a ludi- crous facial resemblance to pug dogs. They are remarkable for "breeding true,' and the amount of inrtuence exerted on the hybrid otTspring when crossed with other cattle. Consult Darwin. A Xaturalist's Voyage (London, 3d ed., 1800; New Y'ork reprint, 1899). Compare Prepotency. NIBELXJNGEN, Ring ues. See Ring of the NlUliLUNGEN. NIBELUNGENLIED, ne1)e-li.ing'cn-let' (Ger., Song of the Nibelungs). A great German epic, composed by an unknown poet on the basis of earlier German songs, traditions, and possibly Latin poems, at the beginning of the tliirtecnth century. The original form of the poem is probably in none of the ten complete MSS., but that known as 15 seems closest to the original. A seems an abridgment, C an en- largement of B, and to one of these three types all the MSS. and fragments belong. The song falls into two parts, the first dealing with the woo- ing, marriage, and murder of Siegfried, the sec- ond with the vengeance of his widow. Kriem- hild. The scene of the former is the Burgundian court of Gunther and his wife, Brunhilda, at Worms, of the latter the Hunnish court of Etzel or Attila; but both parts appear to have .sot their present form among the Franks, whence the legends spread over Germany and to Scan- dinavia, where we find them much modified in the Edda and the Thidreksaga. The outline of