ceremonies attending the solemnization of marriage, which are different in different ages and countries. We cannot omit here a custom which was practised by the Romans on these occasions. Immediately after the principal ceremonies were ended, the new married man threw nuts about the room for the boys to scramble for. Various reasons have been assigned for this; but that which most generally prevails, and seems to be the most probable, is, that by this act the bridegroom signified his resolution to abandon trifles, and commence a serious course of life. Hence nucibus relatis became in this sense a proverb. The nuts might also be an emblem of fertility. The ancient Greeks had a person to conduct the bride from her own to the bridegroom's house, and hence he was called by the Greeks Nympheagous, which term was afterwards used both by the Romans and the Jews.

Nuremburg, or Nurnberg, a city of Bavaria, in the circle of the Rezat, and the bailiwick of the same name, of which it is the capital. It is situated on the river Pegnitz, which divides it into two parts. The walls are now kept in a state which renders them indefensible. It is an extensive but thinly peopled city, having much declined from the prosperity it enjoyed in the middle ages, when it was a free imperial city, and the place where the emperors occasionally resided. The city now contains 4500 houses, and 28,200 inhabitants, with eight Lutheran churches, one for the Catholics, and a chapel for the Calvinists. It has also many Jews. It is still a place of considerable manufactures, but they are chiefly on a small scale, furnishing the turnery wares called by its name, cutlery, brassery, looking-glasses, spectacles, needles, mathematical, musical, and surgical instruments, watches, leaf gold and silver, paper, maps, and other articles. It is celebrated as the birthplace of Albert Durer the painter, and the residence of Rudolph the inventor of wire, of Peter Hele the inventor of watches, of Denner the inventor of the clavinet, of Ebner the first cutler, and of Behaim, who first constructed globes. Long. 11. 1. 4. E. Lat. 49. 27. 8. N.