Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/669

NILGAI. 569 NIMBUS. along the neck and the eh'valid forward part of the back, and the hreast is adorned with a long hanging tuft of hair. The nilgai inliabils the husliy parts of India, where it has long Ijeen re- garded as one of the nol>lest kinds of game. It is cap.'ible (jf domestication, hut is said to mani- fest an irritable and capricious temper with advancing age. Consult Ulanford. Fiiiiiia of lirilisli hidia: Mamiiuils (l.ondon, 1880), and works on sport in India. See I'late of Axte- l.orES. NILGIRI (ni-1-ge're) HLLLS, or NEIL- GHERKY HILLS. An almost isolated plateau iir mountain group in Southern India, presidency of ^Madras (Map: India. C 0). It is situated about 40 miles from the west coast, 200 miles north of Cape Comorin, and rises in general to heiglits of between 3000 and (iOOO feet above the surrounding plains, the highest point being Jlount Dodabetta, with an altitude of 8700 feet. Granite ridges connect it with the neighboring Ghat Mountains, and it is itself composed of granite covered with a rich layer of soil. The slopes are covered with dense, hot, and unhealthful forest jungles, but the uplands consist of beautiful grassy plains with a temperatc-zime flora and a delightful climate, which has made the Xilgiri Hills one of the principal sanatoriums in India for European invalids, who are chiefly concen- trated in the town of Utakamand. The native in- habitants are Dravidian herdsmen. NILOM'ETEB, (Gk. NciXo/i^Tpioi-, Neilomet- rioii. from NeiXos, ■Xeilos, Nile -|- ixirpov, metron, measure). A construction for measuring the height of the Nile. Two such constructions have survived from antiquity. The first is situated on the island of Roda, south of Cairo. This mikijus, as it is called in Arabic, is a square well. Ifi feet in diameter, with an octagonal graduated pillar of marble in the centre, marking 17 cubits of 21..S80 inches. The official guarding it announces that the water has risen high enough to cut the dams and to begin the irrigation when the river has risen to 15% cubits. Taxation was formerlj- regulated in accordance with the height of the inmdation. This construction is due to the Caliph Suleiman, a.d. 71.5-717, but has been re- stored repeatedly since the ninth century. The other nilometcr is situated on the island of Elephantine (q.v. ), near the First Cataract. It consists of a well with a staircase of stone, and is very correctly described by Strabo. It was restored to official use in 1870. NILSSON, nil'son, Christi^'E (184.3—). A Swedish soprano. She was born near Wexici, and although her parents were in humble circum- stances, she became proficient on the violin, learned the flute, and attended fairs and other places of public resort, at which she sang, ac- companying herself on the violin. While per- forming in this manner at a fair in Ljungby in 1S.")7. her voice attracted the attention of F. 0. Tornerhjem. who sent her to Stockholm, where she received instruction from I'"ran/. Berwald. She made her d<ibut at Stockholm in 1800. and then went to Paris to continue her nnisical edu- cation, under Masset and Wartel. In 1804 she ap|)eared at the Th^iltre Lyrique of Paris, a.s Violetta in Lii Tnivintu. with such success that she was engaged for three years. She made her first appearance in London in 18fi7. where she imnie- diatelv became a favorite. In 1808 she sang the part of Ophelia in the 0]icra Humht, by Ambroise Thomas, at the Grand Opera in Paris. During the same year she sang in England at the Handel festival at the Crystal Palace. In 1870 slie came to America, apjjcaring in concerts and operas, and achieved popularity wherever she was heard. She was married in 1872 to Auguste Rouzaud, a merchant of Paris. After leaving Saint Petersburg, where she had been very suc- cessful, she returned to America with the Stra- kosch Italian opera troupe. She also sang Elsa in Wagner's Luhcnijrhi. The death of her hus- band in 1882, after she had retired from the operatic stage, caused her to return to it, but her marriage to Count Miranda in 1887 brought about her permanent retirement in 1888. What her voice lacked in volume was compensated for in smoothness, sweetness, and evenness of tone. NILSSON, nil'son, Sven (1787-1883). A Swedish zoologist and archaologist, born near Landskrona. At twenty-five he became assistant professor of natural history at Lund. He was appointed director of the Zoological Museum of that city in 1819, and returned there after four years in a like post at Stockholm. He resigned in 1856. Nilsson wrote, on Scandinavian fauna and antiquities: Ornilholofjia Huecica (1817- 21); Prodroinus IchthyologicE (1832); Observa- tioius [chthyologicw (1835) ; Skandinavisk fauna (1820-53); and SkandinaKiska Tfordens urin- cunare (1838-43; in German translation by Mestorf, 1863-68). . NUVTBLE FLY. A fly of the family Dexiids, a group allied to the parasitic family Tachinidie, so called from its rapid movements. Their legs are unusually long, and in their early stages they are parasitic in various insects, especially in beetles and also in snails. About fifty species inhabit Xorth America. NIMBUS. See Cloud. NIMBUS (Lat., cloud). In art, especially in sacred art. the name given to the disk or halo which enriches the head of the sacred personage who is represented. Its use is occasional in non- Christian religious art, especially the Hindu, and it was not unknown to classic and Oriental art. The nimbus, strictly so called, was first systematically used in Christian art, appearing first in the fifth century. Later, in Christian art, it became almost a necessary appendage of all representations of God or of the saints. It is of two kinds — either circumscribed by a well- defined outline, or radiating in vanishing lines. It took various forms. The square or oblong shape indicated a saintly person, such as a pope, still living, and was used mainly between the fifth and ninth centuries. The square form was .symbolic of the material and earthly. The com- mon form was the circular, symbolic' of the spiritual and perfect. The earliest figure to re- ceive the nimbus was that of Christ, and this nimbus almost innncdiatcly took a peculiar form, which was ordinarily given to Him up to the ^ sixth century, and this was the monogram <f«  or ■?■ in the shape of a cross, called the Constan- tinian monogram (see Labari'm). formed of the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ, circumscribed in the circle and appearing above and on either side of His head. This became, after the sixth century, the ordinary cruciform