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much embarrassed his numerous com

mentators.

ZEELAND. (See Zealand.)

ZEGEDIN, or SZEGEDIN; a royal free town of Hungary, in Csongrad, near the conflux of the rivers Maros and Theisse; CO miles north-west of Temesvar, 68 north of Belgrade; lon. 9° 56′ E.; lat. 46° 15 N.; population, 32,000; houses, 3800. It is surrounded by a mound and moat, has a brick fort, is one of the most considerable towns in Hungary, and contains a college of the monks called Piarists, a Catholic gymnasium, a small philosophical seminary, a monastery of Minorites, and several Catholic and Greek churches. It has some manufactures of woollens, leather and toys. Its commercial intercourse is considerable, its position, at the junction of two navigable rivers, giving it the command of an extensive water carriage. The exports consist chiefly of corn, cattle, wool, tobacco and timber.

ZEISBERGER, David, a missionary among the Indians, distinguished by his zeal in religious labors, and by the services which he has rendered to general philology, was born in Moravia, a province of Austria, whence he emigrated, when young, with his parents, to Herrnhut (q. v.), in Upper Lusatia, for the sake of obtaining religious liberty. In 1738, he went to America, and landed in Georgia, where, at that time, some of the United Brethren (q. v.) had begun a settlement for the purpose of preaching the gospel to the Creek nation. Thence he removed to Pennsylvania, and assisted at the commencement of the settlements of Bethlehem and Nazareth. From 1746 to his death, which took place Nov. 17, 1808 (when he was eightyseven years and seven months old), a period of sixty-two years, he was, with very few and short intervals, a missionary among the Indians, and made himself master of several of their languages. Those Indians among whom he lived loved him, and often referred decisions, even respecting disputes among different tribes, to him. He received no salary, wanting nothing but food and clothing, and liberty to preach the gospel. He was one of the oldest white settlers in the state of Ohio, and there, and in Upper Canada, dwelt with the Indians, who had given him the name of Anausseracheri (signifying On-the-pumpkin), with whom he endured the greatest hardships. He was chiefly acquainted with two Indian languages, the Onondago (one of the idioms of the Six Nations) and the Delaware, but understood other languages connected

with them. In the Onondago he com-
pleted, about the year 1768, two gram-
mars, one written in English and the
other in German, and a copious dictiona-
ry (German and Indian), containing up-
wards of one thousand seven hundred
pages. In the language of the Lenape
(or Delaware), he published, in the year
1776, his first edition of a spelling-book,
and, in 1806, his second edition, enlarged.
Two other books were published by him
in this language, the one sermons to chil-
dren, and the other a hymn-book, con-
taining about three hundred sixty pages,
and upwards of five hundred hymns,
translated partly from the English, partly
from the German. He left, in manuscript, a
grammar of the Delaware language, writ-
ten in German, which has been translated
into English for the American Philosophi-
cal Society of Philadelphia, by Mr. Dupon-
ceau,and which the distinguished and learn-
ed translator pronounces to be the most
complete grammar that we have ever had
of any one of those languages which are
called barbarous (see Indian Languages,
Appendix to vol. vi); and also a transla-
tion into Delaware of the Harmony of the
Four Gospels. Mr. Zeisberger's works
are so important to the students of the
particular dialects which he had learned,
and afford so valuable materials to the
general philologist, that we think it prop-
er to add the titles of them, as they are
enumerated in the Catalogue annexed to
Mr. Duponceau's Report to the American
Philosophical Society, in whose library
they are deposited: Deutsch und Onon-
dagoisches Wörterbuch; a Dictionary of
the German and Onondago Languages
(7 vols., 4to., MS.); a Grammar of the
Lenni Lenape or Delaware Language
(translated from the German MS. of the
author by P. S. Duponceau, since pub-
lished in the Transactions of the Philo-
sophical Society at Philadelphia); Essay
of an Onondago Grammar, or a short In-
troduction to learn the Onondago, alias
Maqua, Tongue (4to., 67 pp., MS.); Onon-
dagoische Grammatik (4to., 87 pp., MS.);
another Onondago Grammar (in the Ger-
man language, 4to., 176 pp., MS.) See a
Narrative of the Mission of the United
Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan
Indians, from its Commencement, in 1740,
to 1808, by John Heckewelder (q. v.)
(Philadelphia, 1820).

ZEIST. (See Zeyst.)

ZEITZ; formerly a Saxon city, but since 1815, has belonged to Prussia. It is about twenty-three miles distant from Leipsic, on the right bank of the White

Elster, on a high mountain, contains 7000 inhabitants, manufactories of cloth, leather, &c. The town is very old, has four churches, and a gymnasium, a house of correction, an institution for the reformation of juvenile offenders, a good library with 12,000 volumes and many manuscripts. The former bishopric of Zeitz was founded by the emperor Otho I, in 968, in order to promote the conversion of the Wends (q. v.) to Christianity. In 1029, the bishops transferred their see to Naumburg.

ZELLE, OF CELLE; a city of Hanover, in Luneburg, 128 miles west of Berlin; lon. 10° 14 E.; lat. 53° 42′ N.; population, including the suburbs, 9729. It contains five churches, two hospitals, a gymnasium, an orphan-house, a lunatic hospital, a school of surgery, a society of agriculture, &c. It is fortified, and tolerably built, situated on the Aller, which is here navigable, and, behind the New Town, is joined by the Fuhsee, and has some trade and manufactures. It contains the courts of appeal for the Hanoverian territory at large. It was formerly the capital of a duchy belonging to the house of Brunswick.

ZELTER, Charles Frederic, professor and director of the singing academy in Berlin, a man of much musical talent, was born in 1758, in Berlin. In his seventeenth year, he began to learn the trade of his father, a mason. All his leisure, however, was given to music. Bach's and Hasse's works first made him acquainted with the rules of scientific composition. At last his father forbade him the study of music altogether, because he neglected his trade. In 1783, he became a master mason. Being now independent, he became an active member of the singing academy above mentioned, of which he was made director in 1800. In 1809, he was made professor of music in the Berlin academy of arts and sciences, and founded the first Liedertafel (glee club) in Berlin. From this glee club numerous others proceeded in Germany, to which the amateurs of music are indebted for many beautiful tunes and songs. He composed many glees for this club. He also composed other music; but his glees and motetts (q. v.) are his best productions. He has done much towards improving vocal music in Berlin, a city perhaps superior to any in respect to the general diffusion of fine singing. Died '32. ZEMLIN. (See Semlin.) ZEMZEM. (See Mecca.)

ZEND-AVESTA (Living Word) is the

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name of the sacred books which the descendants of the ancient Persians, the Guebers (q. v.) in Persia, and the Parsees in India, assert that they received, more than four thousand years ago, from their lawgiver, and the founder of their religion, Zoroaster (q. v.), or Zerdusht. English and French travellers, at an early period, gave some information respecting the religion of the Guebers and their sacred books. Anquetil du Perron (q. v.) learned, during his residence in India, the sacred language in which those books are written, brought copies of them to Europe in 1762, and published, in 1771, a French translation of the Zend-Avesta English and German scholars soon raised doubts respecting the genuineness and antiquity of these writings, which occasioned disputes. Even the fire-worshippers (q. v.) themselves are said to have admitted that the real Zend-Avesta has long been lost. Their present books are said to be legends of the middle ages, and the religion of the present Guebers a mixture of ancient Greek, Christian, and perhaps even Mohammedan notions. Rask (q. v.), however, in his treatise On the Age and Genuineness of the Zend Language and of the Zend-Avesta (translated into German by Hagen; Berlin, 1826), maintains the genuineness of the ZendAvesta, at least of some parts; but who is the author he does not decide. The Zend-Avesta consists of five books, writ ten in the Zend language. A part of it was revealed to Zoroaster by Ormuzd, the highest among good beings. They treat of Ormuzd, and of the antag onist principle of evil, Ahriman; also of the genii of heaven (the angels), the rewards and punishments of a future state, &c., and are read aloud during religious service. Another part consists of a collection of prayers, glorifications of the most important genii, moral sentiments, &c. These are by various authors, and written in various dialects. There are also historical and geographical notices contained in these books, which, however, seem to be capable of various interpretations. Respecting the contents of the Zend writings, see Rhodes's work, The Sacred Traditions and the complete Religious System of the ancient Bactrians, Medi ans and Persians, or of the Zend People (Frankfort on the Maine, 1820). The great work of M. Burnouf, secretary of the Asiatic society in Paris, will throw light on this subject. (See Burnouf, Appendix to this volume.)

ZENITH; an Arabic word, used in as

tronomy to denote the vertical point of the heavens, or that point of the heavens directly over the head of the observer. Each point on the surface of the earth has therefore its corresponding zenith. The zenith is called the "pole of the horizon," as it is 90° distant from every point of that circle. (See Nadir.) The zenith distance of a heavenly body is the arc intercepted between the body and the zenith, being the same as the co-altitude of the body.

ZENO; a name which often appears in ancient history. Two philosophers of this name are particularly celebrated :— 1. Zeno, the Eleatic, of Elea, or Velia, a Greek colony in Magna Græcia, lived about the eightieth Olympiad (about 450 B. C.), at which time he went with Parmenides to Athens. He was a disciple of the Eleatic school, founded by Xenophanes. (q. v.) To him is ascribed the invention, or at least the developement, of dialectics, of which he made use with much acuteness for the defence of the Eleatic system. Of his writings, nothing has come down to us. According to Aristotle, he taught that there is only one being, which is God; that in nature there is no vacuum, and that motion is impossible. Seneca even asserts that he carried his scepticism so far as to deny the existence of external objects. He is represented as a man of noble spirit, full of vigor and patriotism. Failing in his attempt to deliver Elea from the tyrant Nearchus, he calmly endured the torture, and at length bit off his own tongue, in order to prevent himself from betraying his companions. It is said that he was at last pounded in a mortar; and that, in the midst of his torments, he called Nearchus to him, as if he wished to reveal something of importance. The tyrant approached, and Zeno, pretending to whisper, caught his ear with his teeth, and bit it off.

2. Zeno, the founder of the Stoic sect, was born at Cittium, a maritime town of Cyprus, about 366 B. C. His father was a merchant, who occasionally visited Athens, where he purchased many of the writings of the Socratic philosophers for his son, who early displayed a great propensity for learning. When he became a man, he visited Athens himself, where he became the disciple of the Cynic philosopher Crates; but, wishing to extend the sphere of his knowledge beyond the narrow limits of a sect which prided itself in a contempt for all science, he forsook Crates for Stilpo, and various other mas

ters, finishing his course of study in the school of Polemon, who detected his purpose of selecting materials for the formation of a sect of his own. The design he ultimately carried into execution, in a place called the painted porch, from its being adorned with the pictures of Polygnotus, and other eminent painters, and more generally the Stoa, or porch, whence all his followers acquired the name of Stoics. Zeno obtained great fame by the acuteness of his reasonings; and, his private character being also highly respectable, he was much beloved and esteemed by his numerous disciples, and even by the great. The Athenians placed so much confidence in his integrity, that they deposited the keys of their citadel in his hands, and decreed him a golden crown and a statue. He is said to have come rich into Greece, but he lived with great simplicity and abstemiousness; and the modesty of his disposition led him to shun crowds and personal distinctions. He reached the advanced age of ninety-eight, when, hurting one of his fingers in a fall, he interpreted the accident into a warning to depart, and, repeating from the tragedy of Niobe, "Here I am; why do you call me?" went home and strangled himself, on the principle that a man was at liberty to part with life whenever he deemed it eligible to do so. The Athenians honored him with a public funeral and a tomb, with an inscription recording his services to youth, by his rigid inculcation of virtuous principles and good conduct. His death is dated in the first year of the 129th Olympiad (B. C. 263). As the founder of a new school, he seems rather to have invented new terms than new doctrines, and agreed in many points with his masters of the Platonic sect. In morals, he followed the principles of the Cynics, freed of their practical indecencies, which induced Juvenal to observe that the two sects only differed in the tunic. (For an account of his philosophy, see Stoics.)

ZENO, Nicholas and Anthony; two celebrated Venetian navigators of the fourteenth century, to whom the discovery of America, prior to the voyage of Columbus, has been attributed. The story is as follows: Nicholas having set sail in a ship equipped at his own cost, on a voyage to Flanders and England (about 1388), was driven by a storm upon an island called by the inhabitants Friseland, which geographers suppose to have been one of the Faroe islands. Here he was kindly received by a prince of some

neighboring islands, called Porland, who was then meditating the conquest of Friseland. Having aided that prince in conquering this and other northern islands, Nicholas Zeno sent for his brother Anthony, who joined him there in 1391 or 1392. The former died about 1395; but the latter remained in the country till about 1405, when he returned to Venice. During their residence in Friseland, their attention was attracted by the report of a fisherman concerning some land about 1000 miles west of Friseland, inhabited by people living in cities, acquainted with the mechanical arts, and possessing some Latin books, which, however, they did not understand. While in that country, which he said was called Estotiland, the same person declared that he went, in a fleet fitted out by the prince of Estotiland, to a country to the south, called Drogeo, the inhabitants of which were naked and barbarous, though, far to the south-west, there was another civilized country, where the people had great abundance of gold and silver, and in their temples sacrificed human victims. This account determined the prince to send an expedition thither under Anthony Zeno, which, however, returned, after discovering the island of Icaria, and visiting Greenland, without accomplishing the objects of the voyage. The relation and letters of the brothers Zeni, and the map of the country mentioned in them, remained in the family archives a century and a half, when they were published by Marcolini, under the title of the Discovery of the Isles of Friseland, Esland, Engroveland, Estotiland and Icaria (Venice, 1588). This work is given in the second volume of Ramusio's collection, and in the third volume of Hakluyt, and has excited much discussion among geographical writers, such as Ortelius, Mercator, Forster, Malte-Brun, &c. The latter considers Estotiland to be Newfoundland, Drogeo, Nova Scotia or New England, and the civilized people to the south, the Mexicans, or some ancient nation of Florida or Louisiana. Irving (Life of Columbus, appendix, No. xiii) remarks that, although the brothers Zeni probably visited Greenland, the rest of the story resembles the fables circulated shortly after the discovery of Columbus, to arrogate to other nations and individuals the credit of the achievement.-See, further, Daru's Histoire de Venise (vol. i, b. 40). At all events, it is evident that Columbus had no knowledge of these accounts, as he sailed under the expecta

tion of finding land to the west, and not to the north.

ZENO, Apostolo, an eminent Italian man of letters, was born at Venice, in 1668. He was the son of a physician in that city, who was a descendant from a noble family long settled in the island of Candia. He was educated in a seminary of religion at Castelli, but principally culti vated polite literature, and the study of Italian history and antiquities. He first acquired celebrity by his melo-dramas-a species of poetry then much in vogue in Italy. In 1696, he instituted at Venice the academy Degli Animosi, and was the editor of the Giornale de' Letterati d'Italia, of which he published thirty-eight volumes between the years 1710 and 1719,and which still maintains its reputation. His first musical drama, L'Inganni Felice,was performed at Venice in 1695; and between that time and his quitting Vienna, to which he was invited by Charles VI, in 1718, who made him both his poet and historian, be produced forty-six operas and seventeen oratorios. He continued eleven years in the imperial service, at the expiration of which he obtained his dismission from the emperor, his personal friend, who allowed him to retain his salary on condition of furnishing annually a drama for music; which he continued to do until the appointment of Metastasio. On his return to Venice, he lived in literary leisure until his death, Nov. 11, 1750, a few months before which he gave his valuable library and collection of coins to the Dominicans. Zeno was of much service to the musical poetry of the Italians, especially the opera, to which he gave a more regular form. (See Opera, and Italian Poetry.) But his labors as a biographer and historian are of more importance. These include his notes to Fontanini's Biblioteca della Eloquenza Italiana, his Dissertazioni Vossiane, his additions to Foresti's Mappamondo Istorico, and his biographies of Sabellico, Guarini, Davila, and the three Manutiuses. He also aided the labors of others, as Muratori. The dramatic works of Zeno were published at Venice in 1744 (10 vols., 8vo.). They rank not very high as poetical compositions; but he is the first Italian poet who gave his countrymen good rules for tragedy, and freed it from the intermixture of low buffoonery, with which the Italian serious drama was before infected. His letters, which were published in 1752 (3 vols., 8vo.), contain much sound criticism, and many notices of the literary history of his time.

ZENOBIA, queen of Palmyra, claimed

That

her descent from the Macedonian kings of Egypt. She was instructed in the sciences by the celebrated Longinus, and made such progress that, besides her native tongue, she spoke the Latin, Greek and Syrian languages. She also patronised learned men, and herself formed an epitome of Egyptian history. She was married to Odenatus, king of Palmyra, and accompanied him both in the war and the chase; and the success of his military expedition against the Persians is, in a great degree, attributed to her prudence and courage. Gallienus, in return for services which tended to preserve the East to the Romans after the capture of Valerian by Sapor, king of Persia, declared Odenatus emperor; on whose death, in 267, she assumed the sovereignty, under the title of queen of the East. She preserved the provinces which had been ruled by Odenatus, and was preparing to make other conquests, when the succession of Aurelian to the purple led to a remarkable change of fortune. martial prince, disgusted at the usurpation of the richest provinces of the East by a female, determined to make war upon her; and, having gained two battles, besieged her in Palmyra, where she defended herself with great bravery. At length, finding that the city would be obliged to surrender, she quitted it privately; but the emperor, having notice of her escape, caused her to be pursued with such diligence that she was overtaken just as she got into a boat to cross the Euphrates. Aurelian spared her life, but made her serve to grace his triumph. The Roman soldiers demanded her life; and, according to Zosimus, she purchased her safety by sacrificing her ministers, among whom was the distinguished Longinus. She was allowed to pass the remainder of her life as a Roman matron; and her daughters were married, by Aurelian, into families of distinction. Her only surviving son retired into Armenia, where the emperor bestowed on him a small principality.

ZENTNER, George Frederic, baron von, Bavarian minister of justice, was born in 1752, in humble life, at Strassenheim, in the Palatinate, studied at Metz, Göttingen and Wetzlar, and was made professor of law in the university of Heidelberg, where he began to lecture, in 1779, with much success. At a later period, he was attached to the legation of the Bavarian Palatinate, at the congress of Rastadt (q. v.), and, in 1799, was invited to Munich as privy counsellor. From him originat

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ed the two ordinances of 1799 and 1802, for the improvement of education in Bavaria, which have had such success that the Bavarian system makes an epoch in the history of education. In 1819, he was raised to the rank of nobility. In 1820, he was made minister, and, in 1823, minister of justice. The Bavarian constitution is almost entirely his work.

ZEOLITE (mesotype, natrolite, skolezite) occurs in delicate crystals, whose primary form is the right rhombic prism of 91° 20'; hardness about that of apatite; specific gravity 2.2; cleavage parallel to the lateral planes of the primary form; color white, or grayish-white; crystals translucent or transparent. It is also found massive, in radiating masses. Before the blow-pipe, on charcoal, it becomes opaque, and then vitrifies without intumescence. It is composed, according to Vauquelin, of Silex,. Alumine, Lime,. Water, Analysis by Gehlen :Silex,.

Alumine,.

Lime, Soda, Water,

50.34

29.30

9.46

10.00

54.46

19.70

1.61

15.09

9.83

Zeolite is found in trap and lava. The finest specimens occur in Iceland, Tyrol, and the Faroe islands. It has also been met with, in small quantity, at several places in the U. States.

ZEPHYR; a soft, cool, agreeable wind; in Greece, the west, or rather west-southwest wind. The Greek name, according to the etymology, signifies life-bringing, because, at the time when this wind begins to blow, the plants are restored to life by the balmy spring air.-Zephyrus, according to the Grecian mythology, as well as that of the Romans, was one of the inferior deities--a son of Eolus, or of Astræus and of Aurora, a lover of Chloris or Flora. By the harpy Podarge, he was the sire of the swift horses of Achilles, Xanthos and Balios. His love being rejected by Hyacinthus, he was the cause of his death by blowing Apollo's quoit against his head. Some make him the husband of one of the Hours. Flowers and fruits are under his protection. He is represented as a gentle, beautiful youth, naked, with a wreath on his head, or flowers in the fold of his mantle.

ZERBST, or ANHALT-ZERBST, formerly

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