Greek poet of the 5th century, and native of Panopolis in Egypt, was the author of an heroic poem in 48 books, entitled Dionysiacorum, and a paraphrase in verse of St John's Gospel, which may serve as a commentary upon it.
Nonuplia, in the Italian music, denotes a quick time, peculiar to jigs. This species of time is otherwise called the measure of nine times, which requires two falls of the hand, and one rise. There are three sorts of nonupla. 1. Nonupla di semi minime, or dupla sesqui-quarta, thus marked $\frac{2}{3}$, where nine crotchets are to be in the bar, of which four make a semibreve in common time, i.e. in the down stroke six, and but three up: it is usually beat adagio. 2. Nonupla di creme, or sesqui ottava, marked thus $\frac{3}{2}$, wherein nine quavers make a bar instead of eight in common time, i.e. six down and three up: it is beat presto. 3. Nonupla di semicrome or super setti partiente nona, thus distinguished $\frac{3}{2}$, in which nine semiquavers are contained in a bar, whereof sixteen are required in common time, six down, and three up: it is ordinarily beat prestissimo. Besides these, there are two other species of nonupla, for which see Triple.
Nootka Sound, or, as it was called by Captain Cook, King George's Sound, lies in N. Lat. 49° 33' W. Long. 127° 12'. It is an entrance or strait to a vast inland sea on the west coast of North America, and is said to resemble the Baltic or Mediterranean in Europe. Upon the sea-coast the land is tolerably high and level; but within the sound it rises into steep hills, which have an uniform appearance. The trees of which the woods are composed, are the Canadian pine, white cypress, cypress, and two or three other sorts of pine. In general, the trees grow here with great vigour, and are of a large size. About the rocks and borders of the woods were seen some strawberry plants, and raspberry, currant, and gooseberry bushes, all in a flourishing state. The principal animals seen here were racoons, martens, and squirrels. Birds are far from being numerous, and those that are to be seen are remarkably shy, owing perhaps to their being continually harassed by the natives, either to eat them, or to become possessed of their feathers to be worn as ornaments. The quenatihuessoos, shags, and gulls, were seen off the coast; and the last two also frequent in the sound. Though the variety of fish is not very great, yet they are in greater quantities than birds. The principal sorts are the common herring, a silver coloured bream, and another of a brown colour. Captain Cook and Mr King, who visited this place, consider it as an excellent shelter for ships; and in the account of A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, they give some directions for sailing into it. These and other matters of that kind we shall not trouble our readers with; and perhaps the generality of them will be better pleased with the following extract from Meares's Voyages to the Northwest Coast of America.
"The people of the Nootka nation are, in general, robust and well-proportioned;—their faces are large and full, their cheeks high and prominent, with small black eyes;—their noses are broad and flat, their lips thick, and they have generally very fine teeth, and of the most brilliant whiteness.
"The manner in which the children of Nootka are treated, when young, is not more extraordinary from its strange, and, as it should appear, total inutility, than from its agreement with the customs of the Chinese and Tartars, to whom this practice gives these people a considerable resemblance. The head of the infant is bound by the mother with a kind of fillet of several folds, as low down as the eyes, in order to give it a certain form, which, at this tender age, it is capable of receiving. It might be supposed, that such a tight drawn ligature must cause considerable pain to the child; but we never observed that any of the infants, in such a state of preparation for sugar-loaf heads, suffered any visible pain or inconvenience.
"Though the custom of compressing the head in this manner gives them an unpleasant appearance, by drawing up the eyebrows, and sometimes producing the disagreeable effect of squinting; as well as of flattening the nose and distending the nostrils, they are by no means an ill-looking race of people. They have also the custom, which is known to prevail in so many Indian nations, of plucking out the beard by the roots, on its first appearance; and, as it continues to sprout, to keep it down by the same practice. It is one of the domestic employments assigned to their wives, to watch this appearance of manhood, and to eradicate the hairs as they come forth; which they do in a very dexterous manner with their fingers, and without giving the least pain in the operation.—Soon of them, however, though we saw but very few of this disposition, when they advance in years and become infirm, suffer their beards to grow without interruption. But, notwithstanding they have so great an aversion to the hair of their chin, that of the head is an object of their attention."
In their exterior form they have not the symmetry or elegance which is found in many other Indian nations.—Their limbs, though stout and athletic, are crooked and ill-shaped; their skin, when cleansed of filth and ochre, is white; and we have seen some of the women, when in a state of cleanliness (which, however, was by no means a common sight, and obtained with difficulty), who not only possessed the fair complexion of Europe, but features that would have attracted notice, for their delicacy and beauty, in those parts of the world where the qualities of the human form are best understood. But these examples of beauty are by no means numerous among the women of Nootka, who are calculated rather to disgust than to charm an European beholder. Their hair, like that of the men, is black; their eyes are of the same colour; and, in exterior appearance, they are not to be immediately distinguished from the men. In their characters they are reserved and chaste; and examples of loose and immodest conduct were very rare among them. There were women in St George's Sound, whom no offers could tempt to meretricious submissions."
All reports concerning Nootka Sound agree in characterizing the inhabitants as "a very inoffensive race of people."—Inoffensive, however, as they are, a custom of a very unnatural, and we should imagine cruel, kind prevails among them; for, together with many other articles which they exposed to sale to Captain Cook's ships, they brought human skulls and hands (part of the flesh still remaining on them), which they acknowledged they had been feeding on; and some of them, we are told, had evident marks of the fire.
From hence it is too apparent, that the horrid practice of devouring their enemies exists here as well as at New Zealand and other South sea islands; and hence, too, appears what men of even the best natural dispositions will be, if left entirely to the freedom of their own will, without law to control or religion to instruct them. As there are but two villages of the Sound inhabited, the number of people cannot be many; perhaps they are about 2000 in all. Our limits prevent us from being so minute as we could wish to be, respecting the form of their houses and their manner of building them; of their furniture, decorations, and other things of that kind: we can therefore only refer those who wish for further information on this subject to Cook, and other voyagers and travellers, &c.
The employment of the men is chiefly fishing, &c., whilst the women manufacture their garments. Their ingenuity in this and in the mechanic arts is far from being inconsiderable; and in the imitative arts their skill is very great. On these subjects, however, we cannot enlarge: we have in general made it our business, and it certainly is our duty, to dwell, where it can be done, on the manners or religion of the inhabitants of the several places which come under our notice; and they who know the utility of this in developing the philosophy of the human mind, the most important of all sciences, will not blame our intentions, even if they should not approve of the execution. In Cook's Cook's Voyages before referred to, we find the following observations on the religion and language of the inhabitants of Nootka Sound.
"Little knowledge we can be supposed to have acquired of the political and religious institutions established among these people. We discovered, however, that there were such men as chiefs, distinguished by the title of Acweek, to whom the others are, in some degree, subordinate. But the authority of each of these great men seems to extend no farther than to his own family, who acknowledge him as their head. As they were not all elderly men, it is possible this title may be hereditary.
"Nothing that we saw could give us any insight into their notions of religion, except the figures already mentioned, called Khumma. These, perhaps, were idols; but as the word acweek was frequently mentioned when they spoke of them, we may suppose them to be the images of some of their ancestors, whose memories they venerate. This, however, is all conjecture; for we could receive no information concerning them; knowing little more of their language than to enable us to ask the names of things, and being incapable of holding any conversation with the natives relative to their traditions or their institutions.
"Their language is neither harsh nor disagreeable, farther than proceeds from their pronouncing the k and h with less softness than we do. As to the composition of their language, we are enabled to say but little. It may, however, be inferred from their slow and distinct method of speaking, that it has few prepositions or conjunctions, and is destitute of even a single interjection to express surprise or admiration. The affinity it may bear to other languages, we have not been able sufficiently to trace, not having proper specimens to compare it with; but from the few Mexican words we have procured, there is an obvious agreement throughout the language, in the frequent terminations of the words in i, ii or ii.
"The word wakash was frequently in the mouths of the people of Nootka. It seemed to express approbation, applause, and friendship. Whenever they appeared to be pleased or satisfied at any sight or occurrence, they would call out wakash! wakash!—It is worthy of remark, that as these people do essentially differ from the natives of the islands in the Pacific ocean, in their persons, customs, and language, we cannot suppose their respective progenitors to have belonged to the same tribe, when they emigrated into those places where we now find their descendants."
We cannot finish this article without taking notice of a circumstance, which at the time made a great noise in Europe, and which it is probable will find a place in the future histories of the contending countries.
A small association of British merchants resident in the East Indies had, early in the year 1786, formed the project of opening a trade to this part of the world, for the purpose of supplying the Chinese market with furs. The principal point towards which these expeditions were directed, was Port Nootka, or King George's Sound; and the adventurers, being in some degree satisfied with their traffic, took measures, in the year 1788, to secure to themselves a permanent settlement; at the same time that the shipping employed in this expedition was generally two, and never exceeded the amount of four, small vessels. The Spaniards conceived some jealousy of the intrusion of the English into a part of the world which they had long been desirous to regard as their exclusive property; and accordingly a Spanish frigate of 26 guns was despatched from the province of Mexico, for the purpose of putting an end to this commerce. The Spanish frigate arrived in May 1789, and captured two English vessels in the following July, at the same time taking possession of the little settlement which had been formed upon the coast. Such, in short, is the circumstance which was likely to involve us in an expensive war. Happily, however, for both countries, and perhaps for Europe, the matter was at length, after great altercation, amicably settled; and it must still be so fresh in the memories of our readers, that we trust they will excuse us from enlarging further upon it—the whole article having extended perhaps to more than a sufficient length.