1870, pt. i, p. 228 sq. ; Brit. Qua?: Rev. April, 1873, p. 28 sq. ; Jan. 1873, p. 12G.
Neyelah is the name of a deity worshipped by the ancient Arabians before the days of Mohammed.
Nezi'ah (Heb. Netsi'ach, tl"^^?, illustrious; Sept. Nno-^ie. Ezra ii, 54 ; Nto-f i», Neh. vii, 56 ; v. r. NfSjf , Ni(Tt« ; Vulg. Nasia), the father of a family of Nethinim wlio returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Ezra ii, 54 ; Neh. vii, 5G). B.C. 536.
Ne'zib (\iah. Netsih' , '2'''^^, fixed, or a garrison [as in 1 Sam. x, 5 ; xiii, 3, 4 ; 1 Chron. xi, 6] ; Sept. Natri'/S V. r. titatiji), a city in the Shephelah or maritime plain of Judah ; mentioned between Ashnah and Keilah (Josh. XV, 43), in the group in the south-western part of the hilly region (Keil, Comment, ad loc). Eusebius and Jerome give it the same name (jSiaa-ifi, Nazib), and place it at the ninth (Jerome, seventh) mile from Eleuthe- ropolis towards Hebron (Onomast. s. v. Neesib). It is doubtless the present Bcit-Xusib, situated on a rising ground, at the edge of the plain and mountain tract, two and a half hours from Beit-Jebrin towards Hebron (Kobinson, Bib. Res. ii, 343 sq., 404 ; iii, 12 ; Schwarz, Palest, p. 104). It has ruins of considerable extent, especially a massive tower sixty feet square, with the foundations of another great fabric, and broken columns and large building-stones (Porter, Hand-book, p. 280). Tobler, however, describes it as " an insignificant cupola with a few ruins" {Dritte Waiulerung, p. 150).
Nezikim ; Nezinoth. See Talmud.
Nias, an important East India island to the west of Sumatra, in 18' 54"-l° 35' N. lat., and 97°-98^ E. long., with an area of about 1575 square miles, belongs to Holland, and had in 1857, when the Dutch took pos- session, a population of about 170,000. There are sev- eral places where ships can anchor and take in provis- ions, water, etc. On the east coast is the village Nias, and on the west Silorongang. Little islands and coral reefs lie here and there on the coast, which in some places is steep, while mountain-chains run from the south-east to the north-west. There is a greater breadth of excellent farming-grounds than the population, re- duced by internal wars and the exportation of slaves, can properly cultivate. They grow rice, cocoa-nuts, bananas, tobacco, sugar-cane, etc., and annually export about 1 10,000 pounds of pepper. Cat- tle and horses have been imported, and they pay great attention to the raising of pigs and fowls. Formerly, about 500 Niassers were carried away annually as slaves to Batavia and other places, and though this traffic has been in a great measure suppress- ed, it is still to some extent carried on clandestinely.
The Niassers are of the Malay race, but fairer than the Malays usually are. They are gentle, sober, and peaceful, remarkably ingenious in handicraft, ornamenting their houses with wood -carvings, forging arms, etc. The women labor in the tields, the children weave mats, while the men look after the live-stock, and hunt the deer and wild swine. They worship a superior deity, and fear a powerful one, who pursues them if they do evil. Polygamy is jjermitted, but is rare. The gift to the bri<le's family is from $G0 to 3)500. Divorce is not allowed, and adultery is punished by the death of both parties. Dead bodies are placed in coffins above the ground, and creepers and flowering shrubs planted, which speedily grow up and cover them. Trade is on
ford's Descriptive Dictionary (London, I85G) ; Tydschrift voor Ned. Indie (1854, 18G0). — Chambers, Cyclop), s. v.
Nibby, Antonio, an Italian archtuologist of liigh celebrity, was born at Rome in 1792, and died in that city Dec. 29, 1839. Nibbj' was one of those who, fol- lowing in the footsteps of Winckelmann, made an elab- orately minute investigation of the remains of an- tiquity a special study. Tlie first work that made him known was his translation of Pausanius, with anti- quarian and critical notes. In 1820 he was appointed professor of archaeology in the University of Rome. In the same year appeared his edition of Nardini's Roma Antica; and in 1837 and 1838 his learned and admir- able Analisi Storicotopografico-antiquaria della carta de Contorni di Roma, to which was added (1838 and 1840) a description of the city of Rome itself. Among his other writings may be mentioned his Le Mura di Roma disegnate da W. Cell, and a large number of val- uable treatises on the form and arrangement of the earliest Christian churches, the circus of Caracalla, the temple of Fortuna at Praeneste, the graves of the Horatii and the Curiatii, etc.
Nib'haz (Heb. Nibchaz', T!n^3 [v. r. innS, and even '(11^5], of uncertain meaning; Sept. Ni/3x«i^ or Nai/3«e [v. r. 'Afiaa^(p or N«/3aa^fp or 'EjiXaZ.kp, the last syl- lable evidently being the Assyrian termination assar, or the Bab3'lonian ezzai-^ ; Vulg. Nebchaz), a deity of the Avites, introduced by them into Samaria in the time of Shalmaneser (2 Kings xvii, 31). There is no certain information as to the character of the deity, or the form of the idol so named. The rabbins derived the name from a Hebrew root ndbach' (tVyi), " to bark." and hence assigned to it the figure of a dog, or a dog-headed man (Jerus. Talm. A boda Sai'a, iii, 423 ; Bab. Talm. Sanhedr. 63, 2). There is no a jwiori improbability in this; the Egj'ptians worshipped the dog (Plutarch, De Is. 44), and according to the opinion current among the Greeks and Romans they represented Anubis as a dog-headed man, though Wilkinson {Anc. Egypt, i, 440, second series) as- serts that this was a mistake, the head being in reality that of a jackal. See Axubis. Some indications of the worship of the dog have been found in Syria, a colossal figure of a dog having formerlj' existed between Bery tus and Tripolis (Marmarel, in Bohn's Early Travels in Palest, p. 412). A singular trace of this is found in a