NEPAUL
946
NEPAUL
kinsman king Alfred, who held him in the highest re- spect, and he urged his royal relative to turn his mind from the vanities of the -world. It is pretended that it was by his advice that Alfred rc-endowed the English school at Kome and sent oiTerings to the pope, and that his influence with the pope procured for .Vlfred many apostolic favors. Some writers of very suspicious au- thority have gone still further, and asserted that not only did St. Neot originate the idea of the foundation of tlie University of Oxford, which they affirm was first laid by Alfred, but that he and Grimbald were the lirst two professors there. If we can put any faith in the stories told by the biographers, Neot must have died in or a little before tlie year 877 ; but all our information relating to him is extremely uncertain. His festival was kept on the 31st of .July. He was buried at St. Neot's in Cornwall, where his bones remained in peace until 971, wlien thej' were carried away by stealth to the newly-founded monastery of St. Xeot's in Huntingdon- shire, and were there deposited in a handsome chapel. The old bibliographers (Bale, Pits, etc.) attribute to Neot several writings, as Annals of the Juirlkr Part of Alfred's Rchjn: — Harmons and Krhortathms : — .1 Letter to Pope Martin on the Subject <f the Kn</Ush at Rome: — and a book of Exhortations to Kin;/ A If red. We may observe tliat there is less authority for making him the author of these writings than for making him professor at Oxford. St. Neot is described as " humble to all, af- fable in conversation, wise in transacting business, ven- erable in aspect, severe in countenance, moderate even in his walk, upright, calm, temperate, and charitable." Two towns in England bear his name. His attributes are the pilgrim's staif and wallet. lie is commemorated by the Church of Kome October 28th. There are sev- eral lives extant of St. Neot, but they are all filled more or less with legendary matter. The one on which the others were probably based was composed towards the beginning of the 11th century. Tlie most ancient of tlie lives now extant is a sketch in Anglo-Saxon, which has l)((ii ]iriMted in the Kev. (t. C. (iorham's History and Aiifi/iii/i,.-: (fEyneshury and St. Neofs (Lond. 1820- l.-^L' 1. 2 v(j1>. SvoJ. This is the most valuable of any re- mains regarding St. Neot. See also Wright, lihxjru- phia Britannica Literaria (Anglo-Saxon period), p. 381-3815 ; Clement, Hand-book of Legendary and Mytho- loftnd A rt, p. 233. (J. H. W.)
Nepa(ti)l, an independent kingdom of India, com- prising a portion of the southern slope of the Himalayas, bounded on the X. by Thibet, on the S. and W. by British India, and on the E. by Sikkim, a protected state, is sit- uated in long. 80^ 15"'-883 15' E. It is .iOU miles in lengtli l)y about 100 miles in average breadth, covers an area of JiO.OOO square miles, and has a population esti- mated at 2,000,000. The kingdom is separated from the plains of India by the long, narrow strip of land, re- sembling an English down, but unhealthy, called the Terai, which extends along the whole southern border. North of this, and running i)arallel with it, is the great forest of Nepaul, from eiglit to ten miles broad. North of this strip is a tract of hilly country, and above that are two tracts of greater elevation, tlie first of Avhich may be called mountainous, while the second might ap- propriately be called Alpine, if it did not comprise among its mountains peaks wliich, like Jlount Everest and iJliawalagiri, attain almost twice the elevation of JMont Blanc. The principal rivers are the Kurnalli. tlie Kapti, the (iunduk with its groat tributaries, and the Sun Kosi. The climate, most unhealthy in the Terai, is licaliliy and pleasant in the liilly and moun- tainous districts, suggesting that of Southern Europe. In the Vailiy (f \e/nnil—tUo district surrounding the capital— the heat of Bengal, wliich is felt in the hollow-. may be exchanged for the cohl of Hussia by ascendiiiL: the slopes of the liills which enclose it. The soil is ex- tremely rich and fruitful. Barley, millet, rice, maize, wheat, cotton, tobacco, sugar-cane, piiie-ap])le, and vari- ous tropical fruits are cultivated. Gold has not been
I found, but iron and copper mines are worked. The [ capital of the country is Khatraandu. The inhabitants ' consist of a variety of races, but the dominant jteople are j the Ghurkas, a tribe of Mongol origin, Hindus in relig- ! ion, who conquered the country about the close of the 18th century. Their chief occupation is war. !Many Hindus from Chiton settled in Nepaul at the time of the Mohammedan invasion, and some of them have pre- served their bloo<l pure to the present time, while others have intermarried with Chinese and Tartars. Tiie Hindus are found chiefly in the west; the east is populated by aboriginal tribes, among which are the Newars, Magars, Gurungs, Jariyas. Diienwars, Biiteas, 1 JIhanjas, and Bhanras. The most important of these arc the Newars, who constitute the agriculturists and artisans of the country. They are ingenious and peace- able, though excessively dirty ; of middle size and great strength, with round fiat faces, small eyes, broad noses, and open countenances. They are BmUlhists, but have a priesthood of their own, and reject tlie Tliibetan model of Buddhism as it prevails among the other aboriginals of Nepaul. They as well as otliers of the aijorigines practice polyandry to some extent. Tiiirteen dialects are spoken in Nepaul, but onh' two of the dialects pos- sess any literature, and they are the dialects of the two most prominent tribes — tlie Newars and Ghurkas.