Neʹreids (2 syl.)

Nereids or Nereʹidēs (4 syl.). Seanymphs. Camoens, in his Lusiad, gives the names of three—Doto, Nyse, and Neriʹne; but he has spiritualised their office, and makes them the sea-guardians of the virtuous. They went before the fleet of Gaʹma, and when the treacherous pilot supplied by Zacecʹia, King of Mozamʹbique, steered the ship of Vasco da Gama towards a sunken rock, these guardian nymphs pressed against the prow, lifting it from the water and turning it round. The pilot, looking to see the cause of this strange occurrence, beheld the rock which had nearly proved the ruin of the whole fleet (bk. ii.)