The father of English ethnology, Dr. Prichard, thought that the original pair must have been Negroes, and that mankind descended from tliem. His words are: '"It must be concluded that the process of nature in the human species is the transmutation of the char- acters of the Negro into those of the European, or the evolution of white varieties in black races of men. We have seen that there are causes existing which are ca- pable of producing such an alteration, but we have no
NEGRONE
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NEHEMIAH
facts which induce us to suppose that the reverse of this change could in any circumstances be effected. This leads us to the inference that the primitive stock of men were Negroes, which has every appearance of truth" (^Researches, p. 233). It is not a little remarka- ble that altliough Blumenbach and Prichard were both advocates for the unitj' of man, they materially differed in their argumentation. Blumenbach saw in his five varieties of man nothing but degeneracy from some ideal perfect type. Prichard, on the contrary, could imagine no arguments, or knew of any facts, to support such a conclusion. Prichard, however, was not alone in this supposition, for Pallas, Lacipede, Hunter, Dor- nik, and Link were also inclined to the same view. See Hunt, in Memoirs of' the Anthropol. Society of London, vol. i, art. i; see also in these memoirs, same vol., art. ii ; Prichard, Researches into the Phys. Hist, of Mun- Und, i, 199-211 (3d ed.) ; Latham, Varieties of Man, p. 469 sq.; Nott, Types of Mankind, p. 200; (Juatrefages, Unite de VEsp'ece Humaine (Paris, 1861); Lubbock, Oi-- iffin of Civilization, ch. iv-vi ; Traits, of the Ethnolorjical Society of London, vol. i, new series, p. 317 sq. ; Casalis, Les Bassoutos ou Vingt-trois annees de sejour et d'ohser- vations cm sudd'Afriqne (Paris, 1859), especially p. 257- 268; Burton, Lake Regions of Central Africa (1861), vol. i ; Gorz, Reiseskizzen aus Nordost-Afrika (1855), i, 162 sq., 175 sq. ; Eeade, Savage Africa, ch. xxxvi; Pruner Bey, Memoir on the Negro ; \Vanderiiigs in West Africa, vol. i and ii ; the Rev. Henry J. Cox, D.D., in the Meth. Qti. Rev. Jan. 1875, art. v ; and in the same lieview, April, 1874, art. iv; Blackwood's Magazine, May, 1860, art. iii. See also the recent publications on Africa by the celebrated travellers Barth, Livingstone, Speke, Chapman, and Schweinfurth.
Negrone or Nigrone, Pieteo, called II Giovane Zinguro ('■ the yotmg (iypsy"), a painter of the Neapol- itan school who devoted himself mostly to sacred art, was born at Calabria about 1505. Dominic sajs he first studied under Gio. Antonio d'Amato, afterwards under Marco Calabrese ; and he commends him as an accomplished and diligent artist. In S. Agnello, at Na- ples, there is a picture of The Virgin and the Infant in the Clouds, with Saints and a Glory of Angels; also in S. Maria Donna Romata are two pictures by him, repre- senting the Adoration of the Magi and the Scourging of Christ, painted in 1541. He died, according to Lan- zi, about 1565. See Spooner, Biog. Hist, of the Fine Arts, ii, 612.
Negroponte, Fra Franxesco, or Antonio, a monk of the Capuchin order, who flourished at Venice in the early part of the 15th century; he devoted him- self to the cultivation of sacred art, and was a noted painter, whose works, according to Kugler, resemble those of Jacobello del Fiore. See Spooner, Biog. Hist, of the Fine Arts, ii, 613.
Nehalennia, a pagan goddess, the origin of whose name it is difficult to trace, was worshipped in ancient Gaul and Germany. An image of this female deity was first discovered in 1646 in Zealand, among some ruins which had long been covered by the sea. Several images have since been discovered in France, Germany, and Italy. Youth seems to have been one of her attributes. She is sometimes represented sitting and sometimes standing. Montfaucon, in his Antiqui- ties, gives seven pictures of this goddess. She is repre- sented carrying a basket of fruit, with a dog at her side. The resemblance of her name with the Greek via tjtXii- VI) (new moon) may trace a connection to the goddess Diana ; others think her an ocean deity. See Besche- relle. La Mythologie Illustree, p. 78 ; Grimm, Deutsche Mytliologie, s. v.; Mallet, Nortliern Antiquities.
Neheramite (Heb, Nechelami', ''^^113, with the art.; Sept. AiXo^irrjg v. r. 'EXafiirijc, NfjXa/d'rfjc? Ai'- Xapi), an appellation of a man named Shemaiah, a false prophet, who went with the captives to Babylon (Jer. xxix, 24, 31, 32). The name is no doubt formed from
that either of Shemaiah's native place or the progenitor of his family; which of the two is uncertain. See Shemaiah. No place called Nehelani is mentioned in the Bible, or known to have existed in Palestine, nor does it occur in any of the genealogical lists of families. It resembles the name which the Sept. has attached to Ahijah the prophet, namely, the Enlamite — 6 Ei'Xn/Lui ; but by what authority they substitute that name for "the Shilonite" of the Hebrew text is doubtful. The word "Nehelamite" also probably contains a play on the " dreams" (chalam) and "dreamers," whom Jeremiah is never wearied of denouncing (see ch. xxiii, xxvii, xxix). Flirst, however, thinks {/hh. Lex. s. v.) that there is an allusion to the failure of an inheritance (3H3), as threatened. The Targum gives the name as Chelam, C?n. A place of this name [see Helam] lay somewhere between the Jordan and the Euphrates. — Smith.