NIMRAH

sown as the water retreated, and on the lower ground a second crop was obtained by artificial irrigation. Canals and embankments regulated the waters in ancient times. The water was raised for the irrigation of the fields by shadufs, i.e. buckets hung from the end of dipping poles, and handscoops, and carried by small channels which could be opened or stopped with a little mud and cut herbage: by this means the flow was directed to particular fields or parts of fields as might be required. Water-wheels were probably introduced in Greek times. In modern days, vast dams to store the water against the time of low Nile, and steam pumps (in Lower Egypt) to raise it, have changed the aspect of high Nile and revolutionized the system of irrigation; but for the smaller operations the old methods are still practised. The Nile had seven mouths, of which the western (the Canopic) and the eastern (the Pelusiao) were the most important. The former secured most of the traffic with Greece and the islands, the latter with the Phoenicians. The Pelusiac arm, on which Tahpanhes and Pi-beseth lay, would be best known to the inhabitants of Palestine. Now the ancient mouths are silted up; only a western (Rosetta branch) and a central one (Damietta branch) survive. The worship of the Nile-god must have been prominent in popular festivals, but has not left much monumental trace. The Nile was not one of the great gods, and his figure appears chiefly as emblematic of the river, e.g. bringing offerings to the gods; the figure is that of an obese man with water-plants on his head.

The Egyptians seem to have imagined a connexion of the Nile southwards with the Indian Ocean, and the priests taught the absurd notion that it gushed out north and south from two springs at the First Cataract. They also fancied a Nile in heaven producing rain, and another underground feeding the springs. The 'seven lean years' in Genesis is paralleled by an Egyptian tradition of a much earlier seven years' famine under the 3rd Dyn., and years of famine due to insufilcient rise of the Nile are referred to in more than one hiero-glyphic text. F. Ll. Griffith.

NSVIRAH. — See Beth-nimbah.

NIMEIM, THE WATERS OP (Is 15«, Jer 48").— Named along with Zoar and Horonaim, and must therefore be sought in the S. of Moab. The Onomasti-con ('Nemerim') places it to the N. of Zoar. The name seems to be found in Wddy N'meirah, which opens on the E. shore, at Burj en^N'meirah, about three miles from the S. end of the Dead Sea. W. Ewing.

mUROD (Gn 108-12, 1 Ch li», Mic 6«).— A legendary personage, described in Gn lO*^- as the first of the 'heroes,' 'a mighty hunter before the Lord,' the ruler of four ancient Babylonian cities, and the founder of the Assyrian Empire. In the statement that he was begotten by Cush, we have probably a reference to the Kash or Kasshu who conquered Babylonia about the 17th cent. B.C., and set up a dynasty •which lasted 600 years: the rise of Assyria is said to date from the decUne of Babylonia under the later Kassite kings. The nearest Babylonian parallel to the figure of Nimrod as yet discovered is Gilgamesh, the tyrant of Erech, whose adventures are recorded in the famous series of tablets to which the Deluge-story belongs, and who is supposed to be the hero so often represented on seals and palace-reMefs in victorious combat with a Uon. It was at one time hoped that the actual name Nimrod might be recovered from the ideogram commonly read as iz.dtj.bar; and though this expectation has been dis-pelled by the discovery of the true pronunciation Gil-gamesh, there is enough general resemblance to warrant the belief that the original of the Biblical Nimrod belongs to Babylonian lore. The combination of warlike prowess with a passion for the chase is illustrated by the numerous hunting scenes sculptured on the monuments; and it may well be imagined that to the Hebrew mind Nimrod

NO

became an ideal personation of the proud monarchs who ruled the mighty empires on the Euphrates and the Tigris. J. Skinnek.

imVrSHI.— Grandfather of king Jehu (1 K 9", 2 K 92. "■ 20, 2 Ch 22').

NINEVEH (Assyr. NinS, NinOa) is said in Gn. 10" to have been founded by Nimrod in Assyria. Nineveh was included in the dominions of Hammurabi, who restored the temple of Ishtar there. It was early an important city, and is frequently referred to in the royal inscriptions, but Sennacherib first raised it to the position of capital of Assyria. It lay on the E. of the Tigris, opposite the modern Mosul. Its chief remains are buried beneath the mounds of Kouyunjik and Nebi Yunus, but the outline of the old walls can be traced. They enclosed some 1,800 acres,'with a cir-cumference of about 8 miles. The mound of Kouyunjik is separated from the mound of Nebi Yunus by the Khoser, and overlies the palaces of Sennacherib to the S., and Ashurbanipal to the N. The southern mound, Nebi Yunus, covers palaces of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. The Nineveh of Sennacherib's day lay largely outside this area, and included the Rebit Ninua, or Rehoboth-ir, which extended as far as Khorsa bad, where Sargon built a great city, Dur-Sargon. The traditions of its great size may be due to a reminiscence of this outer girdle of inhabited country. The fall of Nineveh (b.c. 606) is referred to by Nahum and Zepha-niah (2i»-i5). 2 K 19» and Is 37" know it as the city of Sennacherib. For Jonah's mission, see Jonah. Later, Tobit (I"- " etc.) and Judith (1') refer to it. and the Ninevites are named in Mt 12", Lk ll'"- "'.

C. H. W. Johns.

NIPHIS (1 Es S^') perhaps =Magbish in Ezr 2™.

NISAN.— See Time.

NISROCH. — An Assyr. deity in whose temple Sen-nacherib was worshipping when assassinated (2 K 19",

Is 3738).

Geseniua compared the name with the Arabic nisr (' eagle) , and conjectured that it referred to one of the eagle-headed divinities that appear in the bas-reliefs. In later times attempts have been made to identify Nisroch with Nusku (the fire-god) — whose name would naturally be most familiar in the construct form Nusuk, — and even with Marduk. But Nusku did not at this period occupy a sufliciently prominent position in the Assyr. pantheon; and the idea of Marduk, the great god of Babylon, being the patron of Sennacherib, the arch-enemy of that city, is manifestly incongruous. 'The deity that should logically hold this place is Ashur. Accord-ingly Prince suggests that Nisroch is a hybrid form due to a confusion of Ashur with Nusku. But comparison with tlie Greek forms seems to indicate that the original reading waa something similar to Asorach. This Schrader explains as Ashurach, a hypothetical lenghtened form of Ashur. And Meinhold conjectures a coTD.pound{Ashur-Aku)oi Ashur with Aku, the Sumerian name of the moon-god, whose Assyr. name Sin is an element in the name Sennacherib.

W. M. Nesbit.

NITRE, in its modern usage, denotes saltpetre, nitrate of potash, but the nitron or nitrum of the ancients was a different substance, natron, carbonate of soda. 'Nitre' occurs twice in AV. In Pr 2S^<> the effect of songs on a heavy heart is compared to the action of vinegar upon 'nitre' (RVm 'soda'). Vinegar has no effect upon saltpetre, but with carbonate of soda it produces effervescence. In Jer 2^^ 'nitre' (RV 'lye') is referred to as a cleansing agent. Here, again, natron rather than modern nitre suits the connexion.

NO.— Jer 462S, Ezk 30"- >6- ■«, the name of Thebes (Diospolis Magna), Egyp. iVS: also No-amon, Nab 3', Amon (Aramon) being the god of the city. Nahum seems to imagine Thebes as resembling the cities of the less remote Delta surrounded by canals, which were their chief protection; in reality it lay on both banks of the Nile, with desert bounding it on either side, and water probably played little part in its defence. Thebes was of no importance until the Middle Kingdom

656