Noon, a rendering in Gen. xliii, 16, and elsewhere, of CTilS, tsohora'yhn, douhklight, i. e. either the di- viding point between the growing and waning lights of morning and evening (Fiirst, s. v.), or the moment when light is double, and so brightest (Gesenius). By a nat- ural metaphor, the word is sometimes employed to des- ignate prosperity and happiness (Amos viii, 0; Zeph. ii, 4). See Day.
Noon -day Service, the service in the early Church at mid -day, and in which, Basil says, the ninetj'-first Psalm was read.
Nootkas, or Ahts, a family of tribes on Van- couver's Island and the mainland near it, embracing the Ahts proper (of whom the Moouchaht are the tribe called Nootkas by captain Cook, and others since), on the western side of the island, numbering 3500 ; the Quackewlth, embracing sixteen or seventeen tribes, on the western and eastern sides of the island, and on the mainland, also estimated at 3500 ; and the Cowichans, on the eastern side of the island, numbering 7000. The Ahts proper revere Quawteaht as their deity and pro- genitor, worship the sun and moon, and believe in a mighty supernatural bird, Totooch. They are divided
into clans, and a man cannot marry in his own, or in- vite men of liis own clan to a feast; children belong to the motlier's clan. They build houses forty by one hundred feet, having a row of posts in the middle and at each side, with string-pieces on them. These are permanent; but the cedar slabs and mats covering the sides and roof are carried as they move from one fishing station to another, laid across two canoes. Their canoes are long dug-outs; and they are expert fishers, taking salmon, herring, halibut, and whales; they also hunt, and gather for food shell -fish, sea -weed, and camash roots. They make blankets of cypress bark, rain capes of white-pine bark, curious hats of cedar and pine bark, and wooden dishes, dippers, and boxes ; they carve the posts of tlieir houses, and wooden masks used in war and in their dances. They hang up their dead chiefs and children in boxes, or canoes, in trees, or sometimes lay them on the ground and heap sticks over them. Burial is more rare. The Ahts are cruel and treacherous, and have frequently destroyed vessels, besides constantly kill- ing traders, thus provoking repeated chastisements from the whites. The Cowichans, although allied to the Ahts, are semi-civilized, readily adopting the ways of the whites; and both men and women prove useful to settlers as servants and laborers, and they have made some progress in agriculture. Among these tribes Prot- estant and Catholic missionaries have found encourage- ment. The most extended Aht vocabulary is in Sproat's Scenes and Studies of Savage Life (Loud. 1868). — The A merican Encyclopcedia, xii, 480.
Noph (Heb. id., tji ; Sept. MsfKpiQ ; Tulg. Memphis, Isa. xix, 13; Jer. ii, 16; Ezek. xxx, 13, 16; doubtless identical with l]73, Moph; Sept. Mtju^/c ; Yi\\g. Mem- 2}his, Hos. ix, 6), a city of Egypt, better known bj' its classic name Memphis. These forms are contracted from the ancient Egyptian common name, Men-Nufr, or ]\[en- Nefru, " the good abode," or perhaps " the abode of the good one ;" also contracted in the Coptic forms menphi, memjihi, menbe, membe (Mcmphitic) , 7nemphe (Sahidic) ; in the Greek MiixptQ, and in the Arabic Menf. The Hebrew forms are to be regarded as representing collo- quial forms of the name, current with the Shemites, if not with the Egyptians also. As to the meaning of Memphis, Plutarch observes that it was interpreted to signify either the haven of good ones or the sepulchre of Osiris (kuI rt]v ttuXii/ o'l ^iii> opjiov a-ya^wv fpitijvevov- criv, 01 d' [ISi^ojg rd(poi> 'OrripiSoc, De [side et Osiride, 20). It is probable that the epithet "good" refers to Osiris, whose sacred animal Apis was here worshipped, and here had its burial-place, the Serapeum, whence the name of the village Busiris (Pa-//esar ? "the [abode?] of Osiris"), now represented in name, if not in exact site, by Abu-Sir, probably originally a quarter of Mem- phis. As the great upper Egyptian city is character- ized in Nahum as " situate among the rivers" (iii, 8), so in Hosea the lower Egyptian one is distinguished by its Necropolis, in this passage as to the fugitive Israelites : " Mizraim shall gather them up, Noph shall bury them ;" for its burial-ground, stretching for twenty miles along the edge of the Libyan desert, greatly ex- ceeds that of any other Egyptian town. See Brugsch, Geogr. Inschr. i, 23'4 sq. — Smith. See Memphis.
No'phah (Heb. No'phach, nS3 ; the Samar. has the article, nSDtl; Sept. oi yvval.KtQ, v. r. ai y. aiiTwv; Vulg. Nophe'), a place mentioned only in Numb, xxi, 30, in the remarkable song apparently composed by the Amorites after their conquest of Heshbon from the Moabites, and therefore of an earlier date than the Israelitish invasion. It is named with Dibon and Me- deba, and was possibly in the neighborhood of Hesh- bon. A name very similar to Nophah is Nobah, which is twice mentioned ; once as bestowed by the conqueror of the same name on Kenath (a place still existing more than seventy miles distant from the scene of the Amoritish conflict), and again in connection with Jog-