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NUIUS

NUIUS (Νουΐου ἐκβολαί, Ptol. 4.6.6; in the Latin translation, “Nunii ostia” ), a river of Interior Libya, which discharged itself into the sea to the S. of Mauretania Tingitana. It has been identified with that which is called in the Ship-journal of Hanno, LIXUS (Λίξος, Geog. Graec. Min., p. 5, ed. Müller), and by Scylax of Caryanda (if the present text be correct), XION (Ξιῶν, p. 53), and by Polybius (ap. Plin. 5.1), COSENUS. The Lybian river must not be confounded with the Mauretanian river, and town of the same name, mentioned by Scylax (I. c.; comp. Artemidorus, ap. Strab. xvii. p.829; Steph. B. sub voce Λίγξ; Λίζα,, Hecat. Fr. 328; Λίξ, Ptol. 4.1. § § 2, 13; Pomp. Mela, 3.10.6; Plin. Nat. 5.1), and which is now represented by the river called by the Arabs Wady-el-Khos, falling into the sea at El-‘Arîsch, where Barth (Wanderungen, pp. 23--25) found ruins of the ancient Lixus. The Lixus of Hanno, or Nuius of Ptolemy, is the Quad-Dra (Wady-Dra), which the S. declivity of the Atlas of Marocco sends to the Sahara in lat. 32°: a river for the greater part of the year nearly dry, and which Renou (Explor. de l'Alg. Hist. et Geogr. vol. viii. pp. 65--78) considers to be a. sixth longer than the Rhine. It flows at first from N. to S., until, in N. lat. 29° and W. long. 5°, it turns almost at right [p. 2.453]angles to its former course, runs to the W., and after passing through the great fresh-water lake of Debaid, enters the sea at Cape Nun. The name of this cape, so celebrated in the Portuguese discoveries of the 15th century, appears to have a much older origin than has been supposed, and goes back to the time of Ptolemy. Edrisi speaks of a town, Nul or Wadi Nun, somewhat more to the S., and three days' journey in the interior: Leo Africanus calls it Belad de Non. (Humboldt, Aspects of Nature, vol. i. pp. 118--120, trans.)

[E.B.J]

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