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ZITTAUZODIACAL LIGHT. 



fate of actions. He defeated a considerable army 

 which the emperor Sigismond sent against him, at 

 Deutschbrod (Jan. 18, 1422), and even penetrated, 

 in 14-2-2, into .Moravia and Austria. The citizens 

 of Prague refusing to obey his orders, he humbled 

 them by several defeats. Only once, at Kremsir, 

 in Moravia, he was obliged to retreat. This was 

 the only time that he was ever beaten in the open 

 field. Sigismond offered him, at lust, the govern- 

 ment of Bohemia, with great privileges, if he would 

 declare for him. Hut during the negociations, 

 while he was occupied with the siege of Przibis- 

 law, in the circle of Czaslau, a pestilential disorder 

 carried him off (Oct. 12, 1424). The Taborites, 

 infuriated at his death, stormed the town, and killed 

 every living being, and burnt every dwelling. Zisca 

 had won thirteen pitched battles, and been victori- 

 ous in more than a hundred fights, notwithstanding 

 his blindness and age. He considered himself an 

 instrument of God's wrath, and called the cries of 

 the monks and priests whom he sent to the stake, 

 his sister's bridal song. He was buried in the church 

 of Czasluu ; atid his favourite weapon (an iron 

 battle-axe) was hung up over his tomb. It is 

 related that, the emperor Ferdinand I., more than a 

 hundred and thirty years after, when on a journey 

 to Prague, happening to visit the church of Czas- 

 lau, and being told that Zisca was buried there, 

 immediately left the church, and even -the town. 

 The tomb was overturned in 1627, by order of the 

 emperor, and Ziscu's bones removed. The story of 

 his having ordered his skin to be used as a drum, is 

 a fable. See Max. Millauer's Diplomatic Historical 

 Essay on John Zisca of Trocnow (Prague, 1824, in 

 German) ; see also the article Huss and Hussites. 



ZITTAU ; a town eighteen leagues from Dres- 

 den, in the Saxon province of Upper Lusatia, on the 

 river Mandau, which empties into the Neisse, in the 

 vicinity; population, 8100; lat. 50 49' north. 

 Zittau is the centre of an active transit trade, owing 

 to its situation near the Bohemian frontier, and in 

 the midst of some industrious manufacturing vil- 

 lages. Here are a gymnasium, fire churches, a 

 theatre, &c. 



ZISANIA. See Wild Rice. 

 ZNAYM ; a town in Moraria, capital of a circle 

 of the same name, near the river Teya, thirty-eight 

 miles north-west of Vienna, and sixty-eight south- 

 west of Olmiitz; Ion. 16 2' east; lat. 48 31' 

 north ; population, 6000. It contains a citadel, a 

 Catholic gymnasium, a Carthusian monastery, and 

 some good houses, but is generally ill-built. Popu- 

 lation of the circle, 135,567 ; houses, 24,298 ; fami- 

 lies, 33,578; square miles, 1260. It is generally 

 hilly, but tolerably fertile. In the neighbourhood 

 of this town, the armistice between the French and 

 Austrians was concluded, July 12, 1809, which was 

 followed by the peace of Vienna. 



ZOBEIDE, OR ZEBD-EL-KHEWATIN (the 

 flower of women), was the cousin and wife of the 

 celebrated caliph Haroun al Rashid. History re- 

 cords her piety and generosity, and the Persian 

 writers speak of her as the founder of Tauris, one 

 of the chief cities of Persia ; but she performs a 

 more important part in the Arabian Nights, in which 

 she is a more conspicuous character than in history. 

 She died in 831, after having survived her illustri- 

 ous husband twenty years. 



ZOBTENBERG; a mountain in Silesia, about 

 eighteen miles from Breslau, near the small town 

 of Zobt'en, 2318 feet above the level of the sea, 

 xvith a fine extensive view from the top. Accord- 



ing to Biisching, the ancient Asciburg, or Asen 

 castle (Asgard), stood here, corresponding to the 

 mons Asciburgius of Ptolemy. The mountain is <>i 

 a primary character. A block of from 7000 to 8000 

 cwt. was taken from this mountain, which, accord- 

 ing to the wish of marshal Bliicher, is to cover his 

 tomb in the shape of a cube. 



ZODIAC (from the Greek $<*, animals, bo- 

 cause the constellations composing it are repie- 

 sented under the figures of animals), in astronomy ; 

 an imaginary ring or broad circle in the heavens, in 

 the form of a belt or girdle, within which the fjhui- 

 ets all make their revolutions. In the middle of 

 it runs the ecliptic, or path of the sun in his annual 

 course ; and its breadth, comprehending the devia- 

 tions or latitudes of the earlier known planets, is, 

 by some authors, accounted sixteen, some eighteen, 

 and others twenty degrees. The zodiac, cutting 

 the equator obliquely, makes with it the same 

 angle as the ecliptic, which is its middle line ; which 

 angle, continually varying, is now nearly equal to 

 23 28', which is called the obliquity of the ecliptic, 

 and constantly varies between certain limits which 

 it can never exceed. (See Ecliptic.') The zodiac 

 is divided into twelve equal parts, of thirty degrees 

 each, called the signs of the zodiac, being so named 

 from the constellations which anciently occupied 

 them. But the stars having a motion from west to 

 east, those constellations do not now correspond to 

 their proper signs ; from whence arises what is 

 called the precession of the equinoxes. And, there- 

 fore, when a star is said to be in such a sign of the 

 zodiac, it is not to be understood of that constella- 

 tion, but only of that dodecatemory, or twelfth part 

 of it. See Constellations, Precession of the Equinox, 

 and Denderah. 



ZODIACAL LIGHT; a triangular beata of light, 

 rounded a little at the vertex, which is seen at 

 certain seasons of the year, before the rising and 

 after the setting of the sun. It resembles the faint 

 light of the Milky Way, and has its base always 

 turned towards the sun, and its axis inclined to the 

 horizon. The length of this pyramidal light, 

 reckoning from the sun as its base, is sometimes 

 45, and at others, 150 ; and the vertical angle is 

 sometimes 26, and sometimes 10. It is gene- 

 rally supposed to arise from an atmosphere sur- 

 rounding the sun, and appears to have been first 

 observed by Descartes, and by Childrey in 1659 ; 

 but it did not attract general attention till it was 

 noticed by Dominique Cassini, who gave it its pre- 

 sent name. If we suppose the: sun to have an 

 atmosphere, as there is every reason to believe from 

 the luminous aurora which appears to surround his 

 disc in total eclipses (see Sun,) it must be very 

 much flattened at its poles, and swelled out at the 

 equator, by the centrifugal force of his equatorial 

 parts. (See Atmosphere. ) When the sun, then, 

 is below the horizon, a portion of this luminous 

 atmosphere will appear like a pyramid of light above 

 the horizon. The obliquity of the zodiacal light 

 will evidently vary with the obliquity of the sun's 

 equator to the horizon ; and in the months of 

 February and March, about the time of the vernal 

 equinox, it will form a very great angle with the 

 horizon, and ought, therefore, to be seen most dis- 

 tinctly at that season of the year. But when the 

 sun is in the summer solstice, he is in the part of 

 the ecliptic which is parallel to the equator, and, 

 therefore, his equator, and consequently the zodia- 

 cal light, is more oblique to the horizon. Laplace, 

 however, has made some objections to this theory 



