thought that tahmds refers to the ostrich, the root λάπιας signifying ‘to be violent or unjust,’ and that it corresponds to the Arab galim, which alsa signifies ‘the unjust bird’=the ostrich. But if ‘ostrich’ is the elope rendering for bath-hayya'- dnah, it is not likely that another word would be used for the bird in the same context, especially if the expression ‘ after his kind,’ at the end of the assage, refers to all the four birds mentioned. But even admitting, as is most probable, that this expression is limited to the genus immediately after which it occurs, still, if we agree with RV in the rendering ‘ostrich’ for bath-hayya'dndh, we must seek for another bird to correspond with tahmdas. Unfortunately, this is difficult to find. Γλαύξ, for which we have the authority of the LXX, and noctua that of the Vulg., signify some sort of owl. But two other words in this context are tr* respectively ‘little owl’ and ‘great owl.’ ‘Night hawk’ would seem to be a mere guess. Perhaps it would be better with RVm to transliterate tahmas. G. E. Post.
NIGHT MONSTER (nS Jilith, évoxévraupos, lamia, Is 344 AVm and RV ga ha monster,’ AV ‘screech owl,’ RVm ‘ Lilith’ [wh. see]).—The reference is to a nocturnal spectre, similar to the
Atl of the Arabs. ΑἹ] nations have, in their egends, similar apparitions (cf. Wellh. Reste?, 148 ff.; W. R. Smith, RS 113f.). The Heb. has two other words of similar import, api>y (see HORSE-LEECH) and o yy (see AZAZEL, SATYR). The mention of such fabulous monsters does not commit Scripture to an endorsement of the fact of their existence. See OWL, 5.
G. E. Post.
NILE.—The word Νεῖλος is of unknown origin. It was the name by which the river was known to the Greeks, Hesiod being the earliest writer to use it; Homer has but one name, Αὔγυπτος, for river and land. It does not occur in MT or LAX. Besides the ἜΘΕΙ connexion with 773, it has been proposed to refer it to a Demotic form, ne-il-u, meaning ‘the rivers.’* The so-called canal, Shatt en-Nil, in Babylonia, is thought by some to have an etymological connexion with the Egyptian river.t Of the many native names, one of the commonest and most ancient} was i‘ p, a word in some way zoplyatg the idea of eoveriny or hiding. This name, however, is aleve employed in a sense more or less mythological: that so frequent later on, itrw,—the origin of the above Demotic form,—which became the everyday designation of the river, did not grow into popularity until the Middle Kingdom. §
The Semitic languages record no name for the Nile till a comparatively late date; none, at any rate, Bypass to be met with before the 7th cent. (Assurbanipal), when the Assyrians were making use of the native itrw in the modified pronuncia- tion already current in Egypt, iarw’i, the last letter here representing the syptian Ὁ, ‘great,’ as it appears eventually in the Coptic iero, iaro.|| This same word was as Ν᾽, 7%; most usuall employed also by the Hebrews (e.g. Gn 411, Ex 1), who for other large rivers used 77} (e.g. Gn 1518, 2K 5", Jer 218), The plur. of “Ν᾽ generally indicates the canals or subsidiary branches of the Nile.
Another name used by Hebrew writers is 1nd, ‘ny, Σιώρ, Ἵ Shihor (only Jos 13%. 1 Ch 13°, Is 233, Jer 218), of which the etymology 1s obscure; the word
* Groff in Bull. Inst. égypt. 1892, 165.
Ὁ Delitzsch, Paradies, 71. YaAkQt (iv. 861) attributes this name merely to a supposed physical resemblance,
Σ In the Pyramid texts, e.g. Wnis 431, 545.
§Inscr. of Chnemothes at Beni-Hasan, Kahun Pap., ed. Griffith, ii. 61.
|| Steindorff in Beitr. z. Assyr. i. 612; Erman in ZDMG xlvi 108, Cf. Ptolemy's ὁ μέγας ποταιμεός (Geogr. iv. δ).
‘J Gloss in Cod. March. (Holmes, xii. ; Swete, Q), Jer 218,
a “΄:.-- ον ΘΒΒΒΙΝΝ
NILE
is said to refer to the dark hue of the water; but, in fact, the Nile is anything but dark in colour. No Egyptian derivation for the name has been recognized. Though it may sometimes refer to the Nile (Is 233, Jer 28), sin? elsewhere seems more appropriate to the Wady el-Arish, ‘the Brook of t’ (Jos 138, 1 Ch 13°). See Eaypr (RIVER OF). ether the Nile is to be recognized, as it was
by Josephus,* in one of the four rivers of Paradise (Gn 2) is still debated. Of the two not yet identified, Pishon and Gihon, the latter has, owing to its connexion with the land of Cush, been often held to represent the river which flows through Ethiopia as well as Egypt. The LXX in Jer 2% seem, at any rate, to understand it so (cf. Streane, Double Text of Jer. 38f.). This Cush is, however, now less ponerally held to be Ethiopia than formerly. Delitzsch+ regards it as a Babylonian province ; Hommel ¢ takes it for a district of cen Arabia. The Egyptians fully realized the debt they owed to the river by whose agency their country had been created and was maintained. The Nile was a deity honoured, from the earliest to the latest times, throughout the land,§ irrespective of local, often antagonistic cults; yet he ge to have had few temples of his own, and his priests are seldom mentioned.|| Several deities besides H'pi, the personification of its name, were regarded as connected with the river in one or other of its aspects. For instance, Hnm-Chnubis, Jnkt-Anukis, Stt-Satis were thought to rule the Cataracts, the point at which the Nile came within the knowledge of the Egyptians; Sdk-Souchos, again, was the tutelary god of the Fayyfm lake. It is possible that Osiris himself was originally a Nile deity. The Nile god is represented as a man with woman’s breasts, water-plants on his head, and, for dress, the girdle of a sailor or fisherman. Some- times he carries an offering of fish and water-fowl. This representation appears to date from the 12th Dynasty. Long hymns are extant in his praise, enumerating his benefits to mankind;** he is honoured, too, in many shorter inscriptions. The festivals held in medisval and modern times to celebrate the Inundation are doubtless survivals of ancient heathen ceremonies, one of which classical authors call the Νειλῶα. 1 The Copts have always used special prayers for the river’s rise ; so, too, have the Ethiopian Ghristians. ἐν A curious liturgy is extant, containing a sort of harvest service in connexion with the Inundation, which was in use among the medieval Syriac-speaking community