Nox

“ While Nifflepok had been interviewing Five, Handy and Nox had been having a troublesome conference of their own. Each plan they devised for finding the little King and escaping from the Silver King's Mountain proved impractical. To summon the hammer elf to release them from the prison pit would probably rouse the underground guards and minions of the wizard, and give Wutz himself an opportunity to steal the hammer. To tap the hammer lightly and ask the advice of Himself had next seemed a good idea, but as Nox quickly pointed out, that, too, was dangerous. ”

“ Children of Mylitta the moon goddess, they cannot abide the day; and will fall, brown and shrivelled, before the sun grows high, after one night of beauty and life, and probably of enjoyment. Even more swiftly fades an even more delicate child of the moon, the Ipomœa, Bona-nox, whose snow-white patines, as broad as the hand, open at nightfall on every hedge, and shrivel up with the first rays of dawn. ”

“ NOX, or NIGHT, the oldest of the deities, was held in great esteem among the ancients. She was even reckoned older than Chaos. Orpheus ascribes to her the generation of gods and men, and says, that all things had their beginning from her. Pausanias has left us a description of a remarkable statue of this goddess. “We see,” says he, “a woman holding in her right hand a white child sleeping, and in her left a black child likewise asleep, with both its legs distorted ”

“ Nisus, King of Megara
Noah, as legendary ancestor of French, Roman, German, and British peoples
Noman, name assumed by Ulysses
Norns, the three Scandinavian Fates, Urdur (the past) , Verdandi (the present) , and Skuld (the future)
Nothung, magic sword
Notus, southwest wind
Nox, daughter of Chaos and sister of Erebus, personification of night
Numa, second king of Rome
Nymphs, beautiful maidens, lesser divinities of nature Dryads and Hamadryads, tree nymphs, Naiads, spring, brook, and river nymphs, Nereids, sea nymphs Oreads, mountain nymphs or hill nymphs ”

“ But Knox the man and the hero still!
For life at best is a hard-set game;
The cards come stacked from the Dealer’s hand;
And a man plays king of his luck just once—
When he faces death in the last grim stand.
Knox had been drummer in Crook’s command;
A devil of daring lived in his drum;
With his heart in the call and his hand on the sticks
The dead from their sand-filled graves might come:
Crippled for life he drummed his last ”

“ In 1774 Knox led his men 100 miles farther west, and built a camp and station for skins on a site nine miles east of Greensburg, on Green river, where they slew many thousands of bears, panthers, otters, beavers, deer, and other game. ”

“ Knox, of Edinburgh, who had the courage to state his conviction that they connected man with the lower animals, was looked upon, even by members of his own profession, as one prompted by the evil-one. ”

“ But when he promises with tongue and pen to justify her if she does well, Knox is once more on his own ground—that of a man whose office is superior to all the paltry distinctions of kingship or lordship, a servant of God commissioned to declare His divine will, endowed with an insight beyond that of ordinary men, and declaring with boundless certainty and confidence the things which are to be. ”

“ At the abatement of the deluge, the serpent demanded his promised reward. Noah, in despair, acted upon the advice of the angel Gabriel, and flung the serpent into the fire.
Then, casting forth its ashes, from them rose up immediately a swarm of bugs, fleas, and all such noxious vermin, which hastened to fulfil their destiny by the enjoyment of that unnatural food which the patriarch had so rashly pledged to allow their progenitor. ”

“ Our names are Clifford, Martin, Olive, Alan, Lottie, and Madeline, who is only a cousin, and not exactly like us, somehow. What the author is now about to narrate happened in the summer. A person called Miss Knox was staying with us. Father and we don't like her, but mother says she has seen better days, and we must be kind to her. We try to, but we cannot like her, whatever she may have seen. I should say, myself, the fairest sights were thrown away on Miss Knox. ”

“ Young Knox turned to talk to Esmé, his handsome face troubled. A mere ordinary young fellow, capable of ordinary love, cleanly bred, cleanly minded, with nothing to offer the girl but the life of a marching soldier's wife, and some day a house on the shores of a lake far away in the west. ”

“ Knox is pronounced by Carlyle to have been the one Scotchman to whom, “of all others, his country and the world owe a debt”; “In the history of Scotland,” he says, “I can find properly but one epoch; we may say it contains nothing of world interest at all but this Reformation by Knox.... It is as yet a country without a soul ... the people now begin to live ... ”

“ When the reformed preachers were summoned to appear before the queen regent at Stirling on 10 May 1559, for refusing to attend the mass, they prudently determined to send Erskine of Dun—described by Knox as a ‘man most gentill of nature, and most addict to please hir in all things not repugnant to God’—to confer with her on the matter. ”

“ Nyx, the daughter of Chaos, being the personification of Night, was, according to the poetic ideas of the Greeks, considered to be the mother of everything mysterious and inexplicable, such as death, sleep, dreams, &c. She became united to Erebus, and their children were Aether and Hemera (Air and Daylight) , evidently a simile of the poets, to indicate that darkness always precedes light.
Nyx inhabited a palace in the dark regions of the lower world, and is represented as a beautiful woman, seated in a chariot, drawn by two black horses. ”

“ NIX'S MATE The black, pyramidal beacon, called Nix's Mate, is well known to yachtsmen, sailors, and excursionists in Boston harbor. It rises above a shoal,—all that is left of a fair, green island which long ago disappeared in the sea. In 1636 it had an extent of twelve acres, and on its highest point was a gallows where pirates were hanged in chains. One night cries were heard on board of a ship that lay at anchor a little way off shore, and when the watch put off, to see what might be amiss, the captain, named Nix, was found murdered in his bed. ”

“ From the mountains of the moon, where reigns our god in silvery state, I bear a message to the goddess Coyocop. Peste, Doña Noco! Have you gone to sleep?” He shook her gently, striving hard to find her eyes.
“It cannot be,” muttered the old crone, trembling under his grasp as if the night wind chilled her time-worn frame—“it cannot be. ’Twould mean your life—and mine.”
“Hold, señora! Remember Cabanacte—and pin your faith to me! No matter what the odds may be, the brother of the moonbeams always wins! Bear that in mind, good Noco, or the future may grow black for thee. ”

“ On fine sunny days the nixies may be seen sitting on the banks of rivers, or on the branches of trees, combing their long golden locks. Previous to a drowning accident the nixies can be seen dancing on the surface of the water. Like all sea and river spirits, their subaqueous abode is of a magnificence unparalleled upon earth, and to this they often convey mortals, who, however, complain that the splendours of the nixies’ palaces are altogether spoiled for them by the circumstance that their banquets are served without salt. ”

“ Tottering and breathless, old Noco reached the crest of the tree-crowned hillock upon which Doña Julia and de Sancerre, gasping, speechless, but strong with renewed hope, stood awaiting her coming. Throwing her old bones upon the damp grass, Noco lay moaning for a time in senile misery. Youth, under the spurs of fear and hope, had led old age a cruel race. Noco had come into the forest to solve by moon-magic the secret of her grandson’s flight, and, lo! ”

“ He peered through the shadows toward the exit through which Noco had passed and, for a moment, doubt of her good faith entered his mind. He fully comprehended the perils of his environment, and realized that upon the loyalty of the old hag who had just left his side depended his [135] escape from the dangers which beset him. While it might be that he, an envoy from the moon, helped to fulfil an ancient prophecy in which these fickle sun-worshippers put faith, the fact remained that their chief, the Great Sun, had failed to give him countenance before the temple priests. ”

“ Another water-spirit not unlike the Lorelei is the nixie, which is both male and female, the male appearing like any human being, but, as in the case of the water-spirits of the Slavonic peoples and England, Scotland, and Central America, being possessed of green teeth. The male is called nix, the female nixie, the generic term for both being nicker, from a root which perhaps means ‘to wash.’ There is perhaps some truth in the statement which would derive the Satanic patronymic of ‘Old Nick’ from these beings, as spirits extremely familiar to the Teutonic mind. ”

“ To-night he would surprise the Nixy, and the divine strain should no more drift like a melodious mist through his brain; for at midsummer night the Nixy always plays the loudest, and then, if ever, is the time to learn what he felt must be the highest secret of the musical art.
Hugging his Stradivarius close to his breast, to protect it from the damp night-air, Nils hurried through the birch woods down to the river. The moon was sailing calmly through a fleecy film of cloud, and a light mist hovered over the tops of the forest. ”

“ Evidently he did not like the sport, as he was threatening to strike them with his oar, of which they did not seem to have much fear. A boy who had never in all probability seen a circus was balancing himself on the back of a wide-horned ox, and urging the beast to join the bathing-party; the ox was not at all disinclined to the bath, and the Doctor told the boys that the oxen, or buffaloes, of the Philippines cannot exist without frequent bathing. They like to lie all day in the water, and, if it is not attainable, they will readily accept mud as a substitute. ”

“ I always come home some time!" cried the Lady Noggs in a bitterly aggrieved tone. "Some body's always worrying. How was I to know that Liza's baby would get a pin in its throat, and I should have to flag the Northern Star and take him to London? ”

“ Noah steers much better when there's no land in sight. It's all practice, you know.'
'And when we come in sight of land, will he steer badly then?'
'Oh, anybody can steer then,' said Billy; 'you if you like.' So it was Lucy who steered the ark into harbour, under Mr. Noah's directions. Arks are very easy to steer if you only know the way. Of course arks are not like other vessels; they require neither sails nor steam engines, nor oars to make them move. The very arkishness of the ark makes it move just as the steersman wishes. ”

“ In the Urus we consequently have the type of the wild and untameable Feræ among quadrupeds, the eagles among birds, and the innumerable analogies which all the subordinate groups of these two great divisions present. Following this is the typical Ox—a god among the ancients, and that animal above all others, which, from its vital importance to man, we should naturally expect such a nation as the ancient Egyptians would exalt above all others. ”

“ Nux could not answer this problem, but after a few moments it solved itself, for the robbers and Bry appeared upon the sandy shore, close to the water, and walked briskly along the narrow strip of beach between the lapping waves and the grim precipice of the mainland. It was not long before a bend in the coast hid them completely, and then we sat up and looked at one another inquiringly.
“What we do now?” asked the black.
“Let’s go down the rock,” I suggested, assuming to be braver than I really was. “They’ve left the gold behind them, that’s sure; and the gold is what we’re after, Nux. ”

“ THE NIXIE’S MUSIC.
Little Nils was born on Sunday.
His mother told him that the fairies always liked a Sunday child. They would help him to be a great and good man.
She said that if he were kind and true, he would see the Nixie sometime. Then the Nixie would grant him three wishes.
Nils wanted to see the Nixie more than anything else. Many a time he sat by the water where the Nixie lived and listened for her music. ”

“ On reaching the part of the forest where I had, the day before, been chopping wood, I filled the cart with a heavy load, as a security against another runaway. But the neck of an ox is equal in strength to iron. It defies ordinary burdens. Tame and docile to a proverb, when well trained, when but half broken to the yoke, the ox is the most sullen and intractable of animals. I saw in my own situation several points of similarity with that of the oxen. They were property; so was I. Covey was to break me—I was to break them. ”

“ So please will you tell me now what the next deed is that I have to do?'
'Will you go by ark?' Mr. Noah asked, rolling up his yellow mat to make an elbow rest and leaning on it; 'I shall be delighted.'
'I thought,' said Philip, 'we might go in the Lightning Loose. I've never sailed her yet, you know. Do you think I could?'
'Of course you can,' said Mr. Noah; 'and if not, Lucy can show you. Your charming yacht is steered on precisely the same principle as the ark. And in this land all the winds are favourable. ”

“ It was wounded, but did not fall; and it went away into the forest with the spear sticking in its side. The young man pursued the Ox, following, following, following far away. But he did not overtake it.
On his way, he reached unexpectedly a small, lonely hut, where an Old Woman was living by herself. When she saw him, she said to him, "Do not follow any longer. That Ox was a person like yourself. He is dead; and his people have hung up that Spear in their house."
The young man told the old woman that he was very hungry. So she cut down for him an entire bunch of plantains. ”