Chapter Norris to Nouman of N by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Notes and Queries, a weekly periodical for literary criticism and information; started by W. J. Thoms, in 1849.

Nottingham (The countess of), a quondam sweetheart of the earl of Essex, and his worst enemy when she heard that he had married the countess of Rutland. The queen sent her to the Tower to ask Essex if he had no petition to make, and the earl requested her to take back a ring, which the queen had given him as a pledge of mercy in time of need. As the countess out of jealousy forbore to deliver it, the earl was executed.—H. Jones: The Earl of Essex (1745).

Nottingham Lambs (The), the Nottingham roughs.

Nottingham Poet (The), Philip James Bailey, the author of Festus, etc. (1816– ).

Notus, the south wind; Afer is the south-west wind.

Notus and Afer, black with thundrous clouds.
   —Milton: Paradise Lost, x. 702 (1665).

Noukhail, the angel of day and night.

The day and night are trusted to my care. I hold the day in my right hand, and the night in my left; and I maintain the just equilibrium between them, for if either were to overbalance the other, the universe would either be consumed by the heat of the sun, or would perish with the cold of darkness.—Comte de Caylus: Oriental Tales (“History of Abdal Motallab,” 1743).

Nouman (Sidi), an Arab who married Aminê, a very beautiful woman, who ate her rice with a bodkin. Sidi, wishing to know how his wife could support life and health without more food than she partook of in his presence, watched her narrowly, and discovered that she was a ghoul, who went by stealth every night and feasted on the fresh-buried dead. When Sidi made this discovery, Aminê changed him into a dog. After he was restored to his normal shape, he changed Aminê into a mare, which every day he rode almost to death.—Arabian Nights (“History of Sidi Nouman”).

Your majesty knows that ghouls of either sex are demons which wander about the fields. They commonly inhabit ruinous buildings, whence they issue suddenly on unwary travellers, whom they kill and devour. If they fail to meet with travellers, they go by night into burying-grounds, and dig up dead bodies, on which they feed.—History of Sidi Nouman.