o_ (Marburg, 1857).

BRASS, a river, town and district of southern Nigeria, British West
Africa. The Brass river is one of the deltaic branches of the Niger,
lying east of the Rio Nun or main channel of the river. From the point
of divergence from the main stream to the sea the Brass has a course of
about 100 m., its mouth being in 6 deg. 20' E., 4 deg. 35' N. Brass town
is a flourishing trading settlement at the mouth of the river. It is the
headquarters of a district commissioner and the seat of a native court.
Its most conspicuous building is a fine church, the gift of a native
chief. The capital of the Brass tribes is Nimbe, 30 m. up river.

The Brass river, called by its Portuguese discoverers the Rio Bento, is
said to have received its English name from the brass rods and other
brass utensils imported by the early traders in exchange for palm-oil
and slaves. The Brass natives, of the pure negro type, were noted for
their savage character. In 1856 their chiefs concluded a treaty with
Great Britain agreeing to give up the slave-trade in exchange for a duty
on the palm-oil exported. Finding their profitable business as middlemen
between the up-river producer and the exporter threatened by the
appearance of European traders, they made ineffective complaints to the
British authorities. The establishment of the Royal Niger Company led to
further loss of trade, and on the 29th of January 1895 the natives
attacked and sacked the company's station at Akassa on the Rio Nun, over
forty prisoners being killed and eaten as a sacrifice to the fetish
gods. In the following month a punitive expedition partially destroyed
Nimbe, and a heavy fine was paid by the Brass chiefs. Since then the
country has settled down under British administration. The trade
regulations of which complaint had been made were removed in 1900 on the
establishment of the protectorate of Southern Nigeria (see NIGERIA).

Valuable information concerning the country and people will be found
in the _Report by Sir John Kirk on the Disturbances at Brass (Africa_,
No. 3, 1896).

BRASS (O. Eng. _braes_), an alloy consisting mainly if not exclusively
of copper and zinc; in its older use the term was applied rather to
alloys of copper and tin, now known as bronze (q.v.)Thus the brass of
the Bible was probably bronze, and so also was much of the brass of
later times, until the distinction between zinc and tin became clearly
recognized. The Latin w