Chapter Name-son to Nathaniel of N by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

of the narwhal used to be greatly valued, from the supposition that they counteracted the fatal effects of poison.

Naseby (Northamptonshire) is the Saxon nafela (the navel). It is so called because it was considered the navel or centre of England. Similarly, Delphi was called the “navel of the earth,” and in this temple was a white stone kept bound with a red ribbon, to represent the navel and umbilical cord.

Nasi The president of the Jewish Sanhedrim.

Naso The “surname” of Ovid, the Roman poet, author of Metamorphoses. Naso means “nose,” hence Holofernes' pun: “And why Naso, but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy.” (Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2.)

Nasser The Arabian merchant whose fables are the delight of the Arabs. D'Herbelot tells us that when Mahomet read to them the history of the Old Testament, they cried out with one voice that Nasser's tales were the best; upon which Mahomet gave his malediction on Nasser, and all who read him.

Nastrond [dead-man's region ]. The worst marsh in the infernal regions, where serpents pour forth venom incessantly from the high walls. Here the murderer and the perjured will be doomed to live for ever. (Old Norse, nà, a dead body, and strond, a strand.) (Scandinavian mythology.) (See Likstrond .)

Nathaniel (Sir). A grotesque curate in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost.