These figures show a rapid increase between 1880 and 1890 in the number and proportion of negro prisoners, and between 1890 and 1904 a slow increase in the number and a notable decrease in the proportion.

But in order to make the figures for 1890 and 1904 comparable, it is necessary to exclude from those for the earlier date 4473 negro prisoners mainly belonging to two classes, persons in confinement prior to sentence and persons in prison because of their inability to pay a fine, but all belonging to classes which were excluded from the enumeration for 1904. This gives the following result:

264

84

278

19.804 26,087

77

1890 1904 The proportion of negro prisoners to population increased rapidly between 1880 and 1890 and slightly between 1890 and 1904, the increase for the first period being most accurately shown by the first set of figures and that for the second period by the second set of figures. It is noteworthy also that the proportion of white prisoners to population decreased during the same period. Perhaps a more significant comparison is that between the proportion of prisoners of each race to the population of that race in the northern states and the southern states respectively, the distribution of population and the systems of penal legislation and administration being widely different in the two sections. It is impossible to make the correction just referred to except for the United States as a whole, but it must be remembered that the figures for 1890 are not comparable with those for 1904, and that the true figures for that year would be decidedly less.

Number of Prisoners to each 100,000 People.
Southern States. Northern States.
Negroes. Whites. Negroes. Whites.

Date.

1904

285 221

62

681

40

743

99

111

83 These figures indicate that in the southern states in 1890 there were about four and a half times as many negro prisoners to population as white prisoners, and in 1904 about five and a half times as many; that in the northern states in 1890 there were about six times as many negro prisoners to population as white prisoners, and in 1904 about nine times as many. They throw no light whatever upon a point they are often quoted as establishing, the comparative criminality of the northern and southern negroes. Those residing in the north include an abnormal number of males, of adults, and of city population, influences all tending to increase the proportion of prisoners. It seems likely that if the figures for the south in 1890 could be made strictly comparable with those for the same region in 1904 the apparent decrease of 22% in the proportion of negro prisoners to population would almost but not quite disappear The evidence regarding crime indicates a continued but slow and slackening increase in the proportion of negro prisoners to negro population in the country as a whole and in its two main sections, an increase in the proportion of white prisoners to white population during the first interval and a decrease during the second, and a growing difference between the two races in the proportion of prisoners. Citizenship. When the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution were adopted, the former conferring United States citizenship on all native negroes and the latter providing that the right of such citizens to vote should not be abridged by any state on account of race, colour or previous condition of servitude, it was not the practice in northern states to allow negroes to vote. Proposals to grant them the suffrage were submitted to the voters in 1865 in Connecticut, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Colorado, and in each state they were rejected. In all states containing a large proportion of negroes the results of the Federal policy of reconstruction were disastrous, and those bitter years probably contributed more than the Civil War itself to estrange the two sections. Since the withdrawal of Federal troops in 1877 the prevailing and persistent judgment of southern whites regarding the laws and the policy to be adopted upon this subject has been accorded more and more weight in determining the action of the states and the Federal government. The number of negroes voting or entitled to vote has been reduced at first by intimidation or fraud. later by

ments are nominally directed not against any race but against certain characteristics which may appear mainly in the race, such as illiteracy, inability or unwillingness to pay an annual poll tax or to register each year, they have been and are likely to be held within the constitutional authority of the state. On the part of the overwhelming majority of negroes this practical disfranchisement has aroused no protest, while it has tended to improve the government and to open the way for the gradual development and expression in word and vote of differences within the ranks of white voters regarding questions of public policy.

Along with this decrease of pressure from without the southern states and the development of economic competition between the races within them, there has gone an increased demand on the part school, in church, in public conveyances and hotels, all founded upon of the whites for a complete social separation between the races in a fear that any disregard of such separateness will make intermarriage or fruitful illegal unions between the races more frequent. In short, these developments are towards a more and more rigid caste system. The negroes in the United States have played and are playing an important and necessary part in the industrial and economic life of the southern states, in which in 1908 they formed about one-third of the population. But that life was changing with marvellous rapidity, becoming less simple, less agricultural and patriarchal, more manufacturing and commercial, more strenuous and complex. It was too early to say whether the negroes would be given an equal or a fair opportunity to show that they could be as serviceable or more serviceable in such a civilization as they had been in that which was passing away, and whether the race would show itself able to accept and improve such chances as were afforded, and to remain in the future under these changing circumstances, as they had been in the past, a vital and essential part of the life of the nation. BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Writings about the American negro fall naturally into classes. The official governmental publications include those of the Census Bureau, notably Bulletin 8, "Negroes in the United States," reprinted in 1906 in the volume called Supplementary Analysis, those of the Bureau of Labor, especially important articles in the Bulletin of the Bureau, and those of the commissioner of education. The information in these is largely statistical, but in the later publications not a little interpretative matter has been introduced. The point of view is usually that of a dispassionate northern

man.

Among southern white men who have written wisely on the subject may be mentioned: Dr J. L. M. Curry, for many years general agent of the Peabody and Slater funds; H. A. Herbert, Why the Solid South? or Reconstruction and its Results (Baltimore, 1890); T. N Page, The Negro-the Southerner's Problem (New York, 1904). E. G. Murphy, Froblems of the Present South (New York, 1904). E. R. Corson, Vital Equation of the Colored Race; and A. H. Stone Studies in the American Race Problem (New York, 1908). F. L Hoffman's Race, Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro (New York, 1896) contains the most important collection of statistica congenial to most southern whites. data in any private publication and interpretations thoroughly

Among the southern negroes doubtless the most important writers are the two representatives of somewhat antagonistic views, Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery (New York, 1901), Future of the American Negro (Boston, 1899). Tuskegee and its People (New York, 1905), &c., and W. E. B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Foll (Chicago, 1903), The Philadelphia Negro (Boston, 1899), Health and Physique of the Negro American (1907), &c. With these should b of the Hampton Negro Conference and the file of the Southern mentioned Atlanta University annual publications, the Proceeding Workman. No northern man since the war has written on the subject with the thoughtfulness and weight of Frederick Law Olmsted, Journey in the Seaboard Slave States (New York, 1856). See also Sir H. H. Johnston, The Negro in the New World (1910). (W. F W.) NEGUS. (1) The title of a king or ruler (Amharic ncgūs or n'gus), in Abyssinia (q.v.); the full title of the emperor is ncgūs nagasti, "king of kings." (2) The name of a drink made of wine, most commonly port, mixed with hot water, spiced and sugared. According to Malone (Life of Dryden, Prose Works, i. 484) this drink was invented by a Colonel Francis Negus (d. 1732), who was commissioner for executing the office of master of the horse from 1717 to 1727, when he became master of the buckhounds.

NEHAVEND, a small but very fertile and productive province of Persia, situated south-west of Hamadan, west of Malayir, and the ancient city of Nehavend, where Yazdegird, the last monarch north-west of Burujird. Pop. about 15,000. The capital is of the Sassanian dynasty, was finally defeated by the Arabs. (A.D. 641). It has a population of about 5000, including 700 to 800 Jews; there are fine gardens, and an old citadel on a hill. It is situated at an elevation of 5540 ft., 27 m. from Doletābād '(Malayir), and 25 m. from Burujird.

NEIGHBOUR (O. Eng. nêahgebûr, from néah, “ nigh," " near ") and gebúr, "boor," literally "dweller," 'husbandman "; cf. Dan. and Swed. nabo, Ger. Nachbar), properly one who lives in a house close to one, hence any one of a number of persons living in the same locality. From Biblical associations (Luke x. 27) the word is used widely of one's fellow-men.

NEILE, RICHARD (1562–1640), English divine, was educated at Westminster school and at St John's College, Cambridge. His first important preferment was as dean of Westminster (1605), afterwards he held successively the bishoprics of Rochester (1608), Lichfield (1610), Lincoln (1614), Durham (1617) and Winchester (1628), and the archbishopric of York (1631). When at Rochester he appointed William Laud as his chaplain and gave him several valuable preferments. His political activity while bishop of Durham was rewarded with a privy councillorship in 1627. Neile sat regularly in the courts of star-chamber and high commission. His correspondence with Laud and with Sir Dudley Carleton and Sir Francis Windebank (Charles I.'s secretarics of state) are valuable sources for the history of the time.

NEILL, JAMES GEORGE SMITH (1810-1857), British soldier, was born near Ayr, Scotland, on the 26th of May 1810, and educated at Glasgow University. Entering the service of the East India Company in 1827, he received his lieutenant's commission a year later. From 1828 to 1852 he was mainly employed in duty with his regiment, the 1st Madras Europeans (of which he wrote a Historical Record), but gained some experience on the general and the personal staffs as D.A.A.G, and as aide-decamp. In 1850 he received his majority, and two years later set out for the Burmese War with the regiment. He served throughout the war with distinction, became second-in-command to Cheape, and took part in the minor operations which followed, receiving the brevet of lieutenant-colonel. In June 1854 he was appointed second-in-command to Sir Robert Vivian to organize the Turkish contingent for the Crimean War. Early in 1857 he returned to India. Six weeks after his arrival came the news that all northern India was aflame with revolt. Neill acted promptly; he left Madras with his regiment at a moment's notice, and proceeded to Benares. The day after his arrival he completely and ruthlessly crushed the mutineers (4th June 1857). He next turned his attention to Allahabad, where a handful of Europeans still held out in the fort against the rebels. From the 6th to the 15th of June his men forced their way under conditions of heat and of opposition, that would have appalled any but a real leader of men, and the place, "the most precious in India at that moment,' as Lord Canning wrote, was saved. Neill received his reward in an army colonelcy and appointment of aide-de-camp to the queen. Allahabad was soon made the concentration of Havelock's column. The two officers, through a misunderstanding in their respective instructions, disagreed, and when Havelock went on from Cawnpore (which Neill had reoccupied shortly before) he left his subordinate there to command the lines of communication. At Cawnpore, while the traces of the massacre were yet fresh, Neill inflicted the death penalty on all his prisoners with the most merciless rigour. Meanwhile, Havelock, in spite of a succession of victories, had been compelled to fall back for lack of men; and Neill criticized his superior's action with a total want of restraint. A second expedition had the same fate, and Neill himself was now

at Bithor (16th August) the tension on the communications was ended. Havelock's men returned to Cawnpore, and cholera broke out there, whereupon Neill again committed himself to criticisms, this time addressed to the commander-in-chief and to Outram, who was on the way with reinforcements. In spite of these very grave acts of insubordination, Havelock gave his rival a brigade command in the final advance. The famous march from Cawnpore to Lucknow began on September 19th; on the 21st there was a sharp fight, on the 22nd incessant rain, on the 23rd intense heat. On the 23rd the fighting opened with the assault on the Alum Bagh, Neill at the head of the leading brigade recklessly exposing himself. Next day he was again | heavily engaged, and on the 25th he led the great attack on Lucknow itself. The fury of his assault carried everything before it, and his men were entering the city when a bullet killed their commander. Strict as he was, he was loved not less than feared, and throughout the British dominions he had established a name as a skilful and extraordinarily energetic commander. The rank and precedence of the wife of a K.C.B. was given to his widow, and memorials have been erected in India and at Ayr. See J. W. Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers (1889). and J. C Marshman, Life of Havelock (1867).

NEILSON, ADELAIDE (1846-1880), English actress, whose real name was Elizabeth Ann Brown, was born in Leeds, the daughter of an actress, and her childhood and early youth were passed in poverty and menial work In 1865 she appeared in Margate as Julia in The Hunchback, a character with which her name was long to be associated. For the next few years she played at several London and provincial theatres in various parts, including Rosalind, Amy Robsart and Rebecca (in Ivanhoe), Beatrice, Viola and Isabella (in Measure for Measure) In 1872 she visited America, where her beauty and talent made her a great favourite, and she returned year after year She died on the 15th of August 1880. Miss Neilson was married to Philip Henry Lee, but was divorced in 1877.

NEISSE, three rivers of Germany. (1) The Glatzer Neisse rises on the Schneegebirge, at an altitude of 1400 ft., flows north past Glatz, turns east and pierces the Eulengebirge in the Wartha pass, then continues east as far as the town of Neisse, and after that flows north-east until at an altitude of 453 ft it joins the Oder between Oppeln and Brieg. Owing to its torrential character the greater part of its course is only used for floating down timber. It abounds in fish, and its total length is 121 m. (2) The Lausitzer or Görlitzer Neisse rises near Reichenberg in Bohemia, on the south side of the Riesengebirge, at an altitude of 1130 ft., flows north past Reichenberg, Görlitz, Forst and Guben, and enters the Oder above Fürstenberg at an altitude of 105 ft. Its length is 140 m., of which less than 40 m. are navigable. (3) The Wütende Neisse is a tributary of the Katzbach.

NEISSE, a town and fortress of Germany, in the province of Prussian Silesia, at the junction of the Neisse and the Biela, 32 m. by rail S.W. of Oppeln. Pop. (1905) 25,394 (nostly Roman Catholics) including a garrison of about 5000. It consists of the town proper, on the right bank of the Neisse, and the Friedrichstadt on the left. The Roman Catholic parish church of St James (Jakobikirche) dates mainly from the 13th century, but was finished in 1430. The chief secular buildings are the old episcopal residence, the new town hall, the old Rathaus, with a tower 205 ft. in height (1499), the beautiful Renaissance Kämmerei (exchequer) with a high gabled roof ornamented with frescoes, and the theatre. A considerable trade is carried on in agricultural products.

Neisse, one of the oldest towns in Silesia, is said to have been founded in the 10th century, and afterwards became the capital of a principality of its own name, which was incorporated with the bishopric of Breslau about 1200. Its first walls were erected in 1350, and enabled it to repel an attack of the Hussites in 1424It was thrice besieged during the Thirty Years' War. The end of the first Silesian War left Neisse in the hands of Frederick the Great, who laid the foundations of its modern fortifications.

The town was taken by the French in 1807. Neisse can, at the | will of the garrison, be protected by a system of inundation.

See Kastner, Urkundliche Geschichte der Stadt Neisse (Neisse and Breslau, 1854-1867, 3 vols.), Schutte, Beiträge zur Geschichte von Neisse (Neisse, 1881), and Ruffert, Aus Neisse's Vergangenheit (1903). NEJD, a central province of Arabia, bounded N. by the Nafud desert, E. by El Hasa, S. by the Dahna desert and W. by Asir and Hejāz. It lies between 20° and 28° N. and 41° and 48° E., extends nearly 550 m from north to south, 450 from cast to west, and covers approximately 180,000 sq. m. The name Nejd implies an upland, and this is the distinctive character of the province as compared with the adjoining coastal districts of Hejaz and El Hasa. Its general elevation varies from 5000 ft. on its western border to 2500 in Kasim in the north-east, and somewhat less in Yemama in the south-east. In the north the double range of Jebel Shammar, and in the east the ranges of J. Tuwek and J 'Arid rise about 1500 ft. above the general level, but on the whole it may be described as an open steppe, sloping very gradually from SW to N.E. of which the western and southern portion is desert, or at best pasture land only capable of supporting a nomad population; while in the north and east, owing to greater abundance of water, numerous fertile oases are found with a large settled population. The principal physical features are described in the article ARABIA.

The main divisions of Nejd are the following: Jebel Shammar, Kasim, Suder, Wushm, 'Arid, Afláj, Harík, Yemama and Wadi Dawasir J. Shammar is the most northerly: its principal settlements are situated in the valley some 70 m. long, between the two ranges of J. Aja and J. Selma, though a few lie on their outer flanks. Jauf, Tēma and Khaibar, though dependencies of the Shammar principality, lie beyond the limits of Nejd. The capital, Hail, has been visited by several Europeans, by W. G. Palgrave in 1862, when Talal was emir, and by Mr Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt, Charles Doughty, C. Huber, T. Euting and Baron E Nolde during the reign of Mahommed b. Rashid, who from 1892 till his death in 1897 was emir of all Nejd. Its well ordered and thriving appearance is commented on by all these travellers. The town is surrounded by a wall and dominated by the emir's palace, a stately, if somewhat gloomy building, the walls of which are quite 75 ft. high, with six towers, the whole giving the idea of an old French or Spanish donjon.

is limited by the necessity of artificial irrigation. Kahafa, Kuseba and Kuwara are the principal villages of upper Kasim, and 'Anēza and Burēda, Madnab, Ayun and Ras of lower Kasim.

Doughty's and Huber's explorations did not extend east of Kasim, and for all details regarding eastern and southern Nejd Palgrave is the only authority. According to him, a long desert march leads from Madnab to Zulfa the first settlement in Suder, where the land rises steadily to the high calcareous tableland of J. Tuwek. The entire plateau is intersected by a maze of valleys, generally with steep banks, as if artificially cut out of the limestone. In these countless hollows is concentrated the fertility and population of Nejd; gardens and houses, cultivation and villages lie hidden from view among the depths while one journeys over the dry flats, till one comes suddenly on a mass of emerald green beneath.

Suder forms the northern end of the plateau, 'Arid the southern, while Wushm appears to lie on its west, and Aflāj and el Harik below it and to the south and south-west respectively. The principal town is Majma the former capital of Suder, a walled town situated on an eminence in a broad shallow valley surrounded by luxuriant gardens and trees. Tuwēm, Jalājil and Hula are also described by Palgrave as considerable towns.

'Arid is entered at Sedūs, on the W. Hanifa, a broad valley bottom with precipitous sides, here 2 or 3 m. wide, full of trees and brushwood. Along its course lie the villages of Ayāna, and Deraiya the former Wahhabi capital, destroyed by Ibrahim Pasha in 1817; and a few miles farther E. the new capital Riad, built by the emir Fésal after his restoration and visited by Palgrave in 1863, and by Pelly two years later. It was then, and still is, a large town of perhaps 20,000 inhabitants with thirty or more mosques, well-stocked bazārs, and like the towns of Kasim, surrounded by well-watered gardens and palm groves. To the south the valley opens out into the great plains of Yemāma, dotted with groves and villages, among which Manfuha is scarcely inferior in size to Riad itself. Still farther to the southeast lies the district of Harik, with its capital Hauta, the last in that direction of the settled districts of Nejd, and on the borders of the southern desert.

Palgrave visited El Kharía the chief place of the Aflaj district some 80 m. S.W. of Riad. This district seems to be scantily peopled as compared with Suder or Yemama, and a large propor

he made inquiries about the adjoining district of W. Dawasir. Its length was stated to be ten days' journey or 200 m.; scattered villages consisting of palm-leaf huts lie along the way, which leads in a south or south-westerly direction to the highlands of Asir and Yemen,

Among the other settlements of J Shammar are Jafēfa and Mukak at the northern foot of J. Aja, Kasr and Kafär at its southern foot, Rauda, Mustajidda and Fed at the foot of J. Selma, all large villages of 3000 to 5000 inhabitants. 'Akda is a small valley in the heart of J Aja, an hour's ride from Hail; it was the oldest possession of the Ibn Rashid, since 1835 the ruling family of J. Shammar, and is a place of great natural strength. Kasim lies E. of J. Shammar in the valley of the W. Rumma the great wadi of northern Nejd; the chief towns Burēda and ‘Anēza are situated about 10 m. apart, on the north and south sides of the wadi respectively. Doughty described 'Anēza in 1879 as clean and well built with walls of sun-dried brick, with well supplied shops. Many inhabitants live in distant houses in gardens outside the town walls. 'Aneza and Burēda each contain some 15,000 inhabitants. The dry bed of the Wadi Rumma in lower Kasīm is about 2 m. across, fringed in places with palm plantations; water is found at 6 or 8 ft. in the dry season and in winter the wells overflow. The staple of cultivation is the date-palm, the fruit ripening in August or September Fruit trees and fields of wheat, maize or millet surround the villages, but the extent of cultivation

The Bedouin who occupy the remainder of Nejd consist in the main of the four great tribes of the Shammar, Harb, 'Ateba and Muter. The first-named represent that part of the great Shammar tribe which has remained in its ancestral home on the southern edge of the Nafud (the northern branch long ago emigrated to Mesopotamia); many of its members have settled down to town life, but the tribe still retains its Bedouin character, and its late chief, the emir Mahommed Ibn Rashid, the most powerful prince in Nejd, used to live a great part of the year in the desert with his tribesmen. The Harb are probably the largest of the Bedouin tribes in the peninsula; they are divided into a number of sections, several of which have settled in the oases of Hejaz, while others remain nomadic. Their territory is the steppe between Kasim and Medina, and across the pilgrim road between Medina and Mecca, for the protection of which they receive considerable subsidies from the Turks. The 'Ateba circuits extend from the Hejaz border near Mecca along the road leading thence to Kasim. The Muter occupy the desert from Kasim northwards towards Kuwēt.

Nejd became nominally a dependency of the Turkish empire in 1871 when Midhat Pasha established a small garrison in El Hasa, and created a new civil district under the government of Basra, under the title of Nejd, with headquarters at Hofuf Its real independence was not, however, affected, and the emirs.

Mahommed Ibn Rashid at Hail, and Abdallah Ibn Sa'ud at Riad, ruled in western and eastern Nejd respectively, until 1892, when the former by his victory at 'Aneza became emir of all Nejd. His successor, Abdul Aziz Ibn Rashid, was, however, unable to maintain his position, and in spite of Turkish support, sustained a severe defeat in 1905 at the hands of Ibn Sa'ud which for the time, at any rate, restored the supremacy to Riad. No data exist for an accurate estimate of the population; it probably exceeds 1,000,000, of which two-thirds may be settled, and one-third nomad or Bedouin. Palgrave in 1863, perhaps unduly exaggerating the importance of the town population, placed it at nearly double this figure.

The revenue of the emir Mahommed Ibn Rashid of Hail, who died in 1897, was estimated by Blunt in 1879 at £80,000, and his expenditure at little more than half that amount. Nolde who visited Hail in 1893 after the emir's conquest of the Wahhabi state, believed that his surplus income then amounted to £60,000 a year, and his accumulated treasure to £1,500,000. AUTHORITIES.-W. G. Palgrave, Central and Eastern Arabia (London, 1865); Lady Anne Blunt, Pilgrimage to Nejd (London, 1881); C. M. Doughty, Arabia Deserta (Cambridge, 1885): C. Huber, Journal d'un voyage en Arabie (Paris, 1891); J. Euting, Reise in inner Arabien (Leyden, 1896): E. Nolde, Reise nach inner Arabien (Brunswick, 1895). (R. A. W.)

NEJEF, or MESHED 'ALI, a town of Asiatic Turkey, in the pashalik of Bagdad, 50 m. S. of Kerbela and 5 or 6 m. W. of the ruins of ancient Kufa, out of the bricks of which it is chiefly built. It stands on the eastern edge of the Syrian desert, on the north-eastern shore of a deep depression, formerly a sea, the Assyrium Stagnum of the old geographers, but in latter years drained and turned into gardens for the town. It is a fairly prosperous city, supplied with admirable water by an underground aqueduct from the Hindieh canal, a few miles to the north, which also serves to water the gardens in the deep dry bed of the former lake. The town is enclosed by nearly square brick walls, flanked by massive round towers, dating from the time of the caliphs, but now falling into decay. Outside the walls, over the sterile sand plateau, stretch great fields of tombs and graves; for Nejef is so holy that he who is buried here will surely enter paradise. In the centre of the town stands Meshed (strictly Meshhed) 'Ali, the shrine of 'Ali, containing the reputed tomb of that caliph, which is regarded by the Shi'ite Moslems as being no less holy than the Ka'ba itself, although it should be said that it is at least very doubtful whether 'Ali was actually buried there. The dome of the shrine is plated with gold, and within the walls and roof are covered with polished silver, glass and coloured tiles. The resting-place of 'Ali is represented by a silver tomb with windows grated with silver bars and a door with a great silver lock. Inside this is a smaller tomb of damascened ironwork. In the court before the dome rise two minarets, plated, like the dome, with finely beaten gold from the height of a man and upward. While the population of Nejef is estimated at from 20,000 to 30,000, there is in addition a very large floating population of pilgrims, who are constantly arriving, bringing corpses in all stages of decomposition and accompanied at times by sick and aged persons, who have come to Nejef to die. At special seasons the number of pilgrims exceeds many times the population of the town. Nejef is also the point of departure from which Persian pilgrims start on the journey to Mecca. No Jews or Christians are allowed to reside there. The accumulated treasures of Meshed 'Ali were carried off by the Wahhabites early in the 19th century, and in 1843 the town was deprived of many of its former liberties and compelled to submit to Turkish law; but it is again enormously wealthy, for what is given to the shrine may never be sold or used for any outside purpose, but constantly accumulates. Moreover, the hierarchy derives a vast revenue from the fees for burials in the sacred limits.

See W. K. Loftus, Chaldaea and Susiana (1857); J. P. Peters, Nippur (1897); B. Meissner, Hirau Huarnaq (1901). J. P. PE.)

NELEUS, in Greek legend, son of Poseidon and Tyro, brother of Pelias. The two children were exposed by their mother, who afterwards married Cretheus, king of Iolcus in Thessaly. After

the death of Cretheus, the boys, who had been brought up by herdsmen, quarrelled for the possession of Iolcus. Pelias expelled Neleus, who migrated to Messenia, where he became king of Pylos (Apollodorus i. 9; Diod. Sic. iv. 68) and the ancestor of a royal family called the Neleidae, who are historically traceable as the old ruling family in some of the Ionic states in Asia Minor. Their presence is explained by the legend that, when the Dorians conquered Peloponnesus, the Neleidae were driven out and took refuge in Attica, whence they led colonies to the eastern shores of the Aegean. By Chloris, daughter of Amphion, Neleus was the father of twelve sons (of whom Nestor was the most famous) and a daughter Pero. Through the contest for his daughter's hand (see MELAMPUS) he is connected with the legends of the prophetic race of the Melampodidae, who founded the mysteries and expiatory rites and the orgies of Dionysus in Argolis. According to Pausanias (ii. 2. 2, v. 8. 2) Neleus restored the Olympian games and died at Corinth, where he was buried on the isthmus.

NELLORE, a town and district of India, in the Madras presidency. The town is or the right bank of the Pennar river, and has a station on the East Coast railway, 109 m. N. of Madras city. Pop. (1901) 32,040. There are United Free Church, American Baptist and Catholic missions.

The DISTRICT OF NELLORE has an area of 8761 sq. m. It comprises a tract of low-lying land extending from the base of the Eastern Ghats to the sea. Its general aspect is forbidding: the coast-line is a fringe of blown sand through which the waves occasionally break, spreading a salt sterility over the fields. Farther inland the country begins to rise, but the soil is not naturally fertile, nor are means of irrigation readily at hand. About one-half of the total area is cultivated; the rest is either rocky waste or is covered with low scrub jungle. The chief rivers are the Pennar, Suvarnamukhi and Gundlakamma. They are not navigable, but are utilized for irrigation purposes, the chief irrigation work being the anicut across the Pennar. Nellore, however, is subject both to droughts and to floods. Copper was discovered in the western hills in 1801, but several attempts by European capitalists to work the ore proved unremunerative, and the enterprise has been abandoned since 1840. Iron ore is smel.ed by indigenous methods in many places, but the most important mining industry is that of mica. Salt is largely manufactured along the sea-coast. Nellore, with the other districts of the Carnatic, passed under direct British administration in 1801. The population in 1901 was 1,496,987 showing an increase of 2.3% in the decade. In 1904 a portion of the district was transferred to the newly formed district of Guntur, reducing the remaining area to 7965 sq. m., with a population of 1,272,815. The principal crops are millets, rice, other food grains, indigo and oil-seeds. The breed of cattle is celebrated. The East Coast railway, running through the length of the district, was opened throughout for traffic in 1899. The section from Nellore town to Gudur, formerly on the metre gauge, has been converted to the standard gauge. Previously the chief means of communication with Madras was by the Buckingham canal. The sea-borne trade is insignificant.

NELSON, HORATIO NELSON, VISCOUNT (1758-1805), duke of Bronte in Sicily, British naval hero, was born at the parsonage house of Burnham Thorpe, in Norfolk, on the 29th of September 1758. His father, Edmund Nelson (1722-1802), who came of a clerical family, was rector of the parish. His mother, whose maiden name was Catherine Suckling (1725-1767), was a grandniece of Sir Robert Walpole (1st earl of Orford). This connexion proved of little or no value to the future admiral, who, in a letter to his brother, the Rev. William Nelson, written in 1784, speaks of the Walpoles as "the merest set of cyphers that ever existed-in public affairs I mean." His introduction to the navy came from his maternal uncle, Captain Maurice Suckling (1725-1778), an officer of some reputation who at his death held the important post of comptroller of the navy. Horatio, who had received a summary, and broken, education at Norwich, Downham and North Walsham, was entered on the "Raisonable" when Captain Suckling was appointed to her in 1779 on an alarm