1673.—"On the day of the Vernal Equinox, we returned to Gombroon, when the Moores introduced their New-Year Æde (see [EED]) or Noe Rose, with Banqueting and great Solemnity."—Fryer, 306.
1712.—"Restat Nauruus, i.e. vertentis anni initium, incidens in diem aequinoctii verni. Non legalis est, sed ab antiquis Persis haereditate accepta festivitas, omnium caeterarum maxima et solennissima."—Kaempfer, Am. Exot. 162.
1815.—"Jemsheed also introduced the solar year; and ordered the first day of it, when the sun entered Aries, to be celebrated by a splendid festival. It is called Nauroze, or new year's day, and is still the great festival in Persia."—Malcolm, H. of Persia, i. 17.
1832.—"Now-roz (new year's day) is a festival or eed of no mean importance in the estimation of Mussulman society.... The trays of presents prepared by the ladies for their friends are tastefully set out, and the work of many days' previous arrangement. Eggs are boiled hard, some of these are stained in colours resembling our mottled papers; others are neatly painted in figures and devices; many are ornamented with gilding; every lady evincing her own peculiar taste in the prepared eggs for now-roz."—Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali, Obsns. on the Mussulmans of India, 283-4.
NOWSHADDER, s. Pers. naushādar (Skt. narasāra, but recent), Sal-ammoniac, i.e. chloride of ammonium.
c. 1300.—We find this word in a medieval list of articles of trade contained in Capmany's Memorias de Barcelona (ii. App. 74) under the form noxadre.
1343.—"Salarmoniaco, cioè lisciadro, e non si dà nè sacco ne cassa con essa."—Pegolotti, p. 17; also see 57, &c.
[1834.—"Sal ammoniac (nouchadur) is found in its native state among the hills near Juzzak."—Burnes, Travels into Bokhara, ii. 166.]
NUDDEEA RIVERS, n.p. See under [HOOGLY RIVER], of which these are branches, intersecting the Nadiya District. In order to keep open navigation by the directest course from the Ganges to Calcutta, much labour is, or was, annually expended, under a special officer, in endeavouring during the dry season to maintain sufficient depth in these channels.
NUGGURKOTE, n.p. Nagarkoṭ. This is the form used in olden times, and even now not obsolete, for the name of the ancient fortress in the Punjab Himālaya which we now usually know by the name of Koṭ-kāngra, both being substantially the same name, Nagarkoṭ, 'the fortress town,' or Koṭ-kā-nagara, 'the town of the fortress.' [If it be implied that Kāngra is a corruption of Koṭ-kā-nagara, the idea may be dismissed as a piece of folk-etymology. What the real derivation of Kāngra is is unknown. One explanation is that it represents the Hind. khankhaṛa, 'dried up, shrivelled.'] In yet older times, and in the history of Mahmūd of Ghazni, it is styled Bhīm-nagar. The name Nagarkoṭ is sometimes used by older European writers to designate the Himalayan mountains.