NAMUR (31), capital of a province of the same name in Belgium, is situated at the junction of the Meuse and the Sambre, 35 m.  SE. of Brussels.  The town is strongly fortified, but only a few of its fine old buildings have escaped the ravages of war.  The citadel still stands, the cathedral, and the Jesuit church of St. Loup.  Cutlery, firearms, &c., are manufactured.  THE PROVINCE (339) skirts the NE. border of France between Hainault and Luxembourg.

NANA SAHIB, a Hindu traitor, his real name Dundhu Panth, of Brahman descent, adopted son of the ex-Peshwa of the Mahrattas, whose pension from the British Government was not continued to Nana on his death, and which rendered the latter the deadly foe to British rule in India, and the instigator, on the outbreak of the Mutiny in 1857, of the massacre of Cawnpore; he had on the outbreak of the Mutiny in question offered his services to a British general, and placed himself at the head of the mutineers; the miscreant escaped, and his fate was never known; b. 1820.  See CAWNPORE.

NANCY (87), capital of the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, North-East France, is prettily situated amid woodland scenery on the river Meurthe, 220 m.  E. of Paris; the new town is spaciously laid out, while the old town, narrowed in its streets, has many interesting old buildings, e. g. the cathedral, the 16th-century palace; there is a university, and an active trade in embroidered cambric and muslin, besides cotton and woollen goods, &c.

NANKING (150), an ancient city, and up to the 15th century the capital of China, is situated on the Yangtse River, 130 m. from its mouth; between 1853 and 1864 its finest buildings were destroyed by the Taiping rebels; its manufactures of nankeen and satin and of its once famous pottery and artificial flowers have fallen off, but it still continues the chief seat of letters and learning in China.

NANNA, in the Norse mythology the wife of Balder, the sun-god; distinguished for her conjugal fidelity, threw herself on the funeral pyre of her husband, and descended to the shades along with him; when the pair were entreated to return, he sent his ring to Odin and she her thimble to Frigga.

NANSEN, FRIDTJOF, Arctic explorer, born at Froen, near Christiania, son of a Norwegian advocate; explored the seas in a scientific interest round Spitzbergen in 1882, and crossed Greenland in 1888, conceived the idea of reaching the Polar regions by following the Polar ocean currents; sailed in the Fram, a ship specially constructed for a Polar voyage, in 1893, and on his return wrote an account of his expedition in “Farthest North” in 1897; b. 1861.

NANTES (116), capital of the department of Loire-Inferieure, North-West France, on the Loire, 35 m. from the sea; its fine streets, handsome buildings, and historical associations make it one of the most interesting cities in France; the cathedral and the ducal castle date from the 15th century; shipbuilding, sugar-refining, and hardware are the staple industries, while an active shipping trade is kept up with the colonies.