or Akassa, a river of Marocco, forming part of the southern boundary of that country. It rises in the Atlas range, and flows westward to the Atlantic, into which it discharges itself, 30 miles S.W. of Cape Nun, after a course of 130 miles.

or Non, a promontory of Marocco, in N. Lat. 28° 46', W. Long. 11° 3'.

Nonn, or Nom, a river of the Chinese Empire, rises in Manchooria, flows generally southward, forming part of the boundary between Manchooria and Mongolia, and falls into the Songari, an affluent of the Amar. Its length is about 600 miles, and its chief tributaries are the Hoojor, Noomin, Yalo, Tchola, and Toro.

NUNS, in the Roman Catholic Church, are female ascetics, who, like the monks of the other sex, retire from the world, form themselves into religious communities, and profess perpetual chastity. There are various orders of nuns; some devoting themselves entirely to private religious exercises, while others engage in the more active duties of Christian charity. The first nunnery is said to have been founded by one St Synectica, a contemporary of St Anthony, in the third century. (See Monachism.) The first institution of the kind in France was founded near Poitiers by St Marcellina A.D. 360; and the first established in England owed its origin, according to Dugdale, to Edalid, king of Kent, who founded a nunnery at Folkestone A.D. 630.