N N", n, the 14th letter and the 11th con- sonant in the English alphabet. It is a dental nasal, and is formed by placing the tip of the tongue against or close to the root of the upper teeth, and emitting a voiced sound through the nose. Its or- dinary sound is that heard in not, ton, done, etc., but before gutturals, as g or k, it has a guttural nasal sound, almost equivalent to ng, as in sink, link, finger, sing, song, etc. When, however, the gut- turals belong to a different syllable the n generally retains its ordinary sound, as in congratulate, engage, engine, etc. N final after m is silent, as in autumn, hymn, condemn, etc. When preceded by g, k, m, and p at the beginning of a v^ord, the n alone is sounded, as in gnaw, know, mnemonics, pneumatic, •etc. S is always sounded before initial n, as in snow. NABATJEANS, a people of northern Arabia. They took possession of the country once occupied by the Edomites; and in the beginning of the 3d century B. c. they were one of the most powerful among the Arab tribes, warlike, with a force of 10,000 fighting men, nomadic, and busy carriers of merchandise be- tween the East and the West. By the 1st century B. C. they had shaped their power into a kingdom; in the time of St. Paul their king Aretas, who died in A. D. 40 after a reign of 48 years, was master of Damascus and Ccele-Syria. Trajan, in 105, captured their stronghold and put an end to their kingdom. They possessed a certain measure of culture, derived from the Syrians. The language of their coins and inscriptions is Ara- maic. WABLUS (the ancient Shechem) , (cor- rupted from the Greek Neapolis), a town of Palestine, on the highest part of the pass, between Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, that leads from the Mediterranean to the Jordan. In the same valley or gap are Jacob's Well, the Tree of the Sanctuary, and Joseph's grave. At first a Canaanite city, it was destroyed by Abimelech, a son of Gideon the Judge. Here Rehoboam was crowned King of Israel. The place still is the religious center of the Sa- maritans. The Greek city gave birth to Justin Martyr, and suffered during the Crusades. NABUCO, JOAQUIM, Brazilian politi- cal writer. Born in Recife in 1849, he was educated as a lawyer and became an attache with the Brazilian legation in Washington. He was elected to the Brazilian Chamber in 1878, and was active in the movement to abolish slavery. When Brazil adopted a repub- lican constitution, he left politics and en- gaged in writing a history of the reig:n of Pedro II. He represented Brazil in London from 1901 to 1905, and in Wash- ington from 1905 till his death. His works include: "Pensees detachees et souvenirs" (1906). He died in 1910. NACHTIGAL, GUSTAV (na/i'te-gal), a German traveler; born in Eichstedt, Germany, Feb. 23, 1834. He studied medi- cine and served as army surgeon till 1863. A long and successful journey, in the course of which he visited, the first of Europeans, the native states of Ti- besti, Borku, and Wadai, put him in the forefront of modern travelers. His vast collection of most valuable information was written down in the three volumes of "Sahara and Sudan" (1879-1889). In 1884 Nachtigal was commissioned to an- nex for Germany Togoland, Kamerun, and Liideritzland (Angra-Pequena) on the W. coast of Africa. He died on the return journey off Cape Palmas, April 19, 1885. NADAB, a King of Israel, and son of Jeroboam, whom he succeeded in 954 B. C. In the second year of his reign, he led "all Israel" against Gibbethon, but was slain during his siege of that city, by Baasha, son of Ahijah, who mounted the throne, and reigned 23 years, during which he "smote all the house of Jero- boam; he left not to Jeroboam any that 364
