Z A 1 



Targe difcharge of blood from the reftum, attended witli 

 an evident fenfation of abrafion, or pain in the bowels. 



ZAHNA, in Geography, a town of Saxony ; 8 miles 

 N.E. of Wictenberg. N. lat. 51° 56'. E. long. 12° 54'. 



ZAHRADKA, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of 

 Czaflau; 17 mile:- S.S.W. of Czaflau. 



ZAHRINGEN, an ancient citadel in the Brifgau, 

 which gave the title of duke to a noble family that became 

 extinft in the 13th century ; i mile N. of Friburg. 



ZAIBaC, one of the many names by which the ancient 

 chemifts have called mercury. 



ZAIDIR,a name by which fome of the chemical writers 

 have called verdigrife, or the ruft of copper ; and others, 

 the metal itfelf ; and fome brafs. 



ZAIM and TiMAR, lordfhips granted under thofe names 

 in the Ottorrian empire for life, as military rewards and en- 

 couragements. Thofe who polTefs a zaim, or timar, are 

 honoured with the title of aga ; they are bound to a military 

 perfonal fervice, and obliged to bring with them to war one 

 or more gebelis, horfemen or foot-foldiers, armed and 

 equipped according to the revenue and extent of the lord- 

 fllip. The timar differs in no refpeft from the zaim, except 

 that it is of lefs value, and that the aga who poflefles it does 

 not arm as many horfemen and foot-foldiers as the other. 

 The number of zaims in Turkey in Europeis9l4, and that 

 of the timars is S356. Nearly the fame number is reckoned 

 in Afia, which furnifhes, with the gebelis, a militia of upwards 

 of 60,000 men, better difciplined, and more inured to war 

 than th'j fpahis and the janizaries. This militia for a long 

 time conilituted the principal force of the Ottoman empire : 

 to this principally the firft fultans were indebted for the afto- 

 niflling fuccefs of their arms, and the rapid progrefs which 

 they made in a little time in Aila, in Europe, and even in 

 Africa. 



On the death of a zaimat, or a timariot, the fultan is to 

 draw a year's revenue from the lordrtiip, and neverthelefs, 

 give it up again to thefon of an aga, a fpahis, or any other 

 military man, efpecially to him who, by a brilliant a<ftion, has 

 diftingu'(hed himfelf in battle, who has firft mounted to the 

 aflault, penetrated into the enemy's intrenchments, killed a 

 great number of infidels, or contributed to put them to the 

 TOUt. But fince the fultans prefer to the fatigues of war 

 and the dangers of battle the tranquility of their feraglio, 

 and the pleafures of their harems ; and more efpecially fince 

 avarice and a love of gain have caufed to be put up to auc- 

 tion th** places intended for the recompence of valour and 

 merit, the lord/hips are become the patrimony of the rich 

 and of intriguers. Thus the beft inftitutions degenerate ; 

 thus the Muffiilman, formerly intrepid and valiant, becomes 

 merely a vile plunderer, or a ferocious affaffin ; and the Ot- 

 toman armies, fo formidable to their enemies, are become an 

 objeft of contempt or pity, and this vaft empire would no 

 longer exilt, if fome European power were not intereftedin 

 its fupport. 



ZAIN, in Horfes, a term ufed by the French to fignify 

 ahcrfe of a dark colour, neither grey nor white, and with- 

 out any white fpot or mark upon him in any part. See 

 Horse. 



ZAINAH, in Geography, a town of Algiers, in the 

 province of Conftantina ; fuppofed, from fome confiderable 

 ruins, to have been Zama, an ancient and royal city of Nu- 

 inidia; 25 miles S.E. '>f Seteef. 



ZAINE, or Wadel Berber, a river of Africa, which 

 runs into the Mediterranean, N. lat. 36° 54'. E. long. 

 9" 16'. 



Z A I 



ZAIRA Kakongo, an ifland in the Atlantic, at the 

 mouth of the river Zaire. 



ZAIRAGIA, or Zairagiah, a kind of divination in 

 ufe among the Arabs; performed by means of divers 

 wheels, or circles, placed concentric to one another, and 

 noted with feveral letters, which are brought to anfwer 

 to each other, by moving the circles according to certain 

 rules. 



This is alfo called %ar'iah, becaufe the circles of this ma- 

 chine, which are called mufazariat, lafai, &c. are intended to 

 correfpond to the orbs of the planets, and the atmofpheres 

 of the feveral elements. 



?^IRE, or Saire, in Geography, a river of Africa, 

 which rifes in the country of Matamba, about S. lat. 10", 

 and takes a northerly courfe to lat. 3', in the kingdom of 

 Congo ; after which it takes a fouth-wefterly direAion, and 

 runs into the Atlantic, S. lat. 6°. E. long. 12" 20'. 



It has been an important queftion, with regard to which 

 geographers have entertained various opinions, what are the 

 courfe and termination of the Niger. The ingenious geo- 

 grapher, Mr. Rennell, on comparing the various accounts 

 of the progrefs of the Niger beyond Houffa, declared his 

 opinion to be, that its waters had no communication, either 

 with the river Nile, as was thought, or with the fea, as 

 others imagined ; but that they were fpread out into a 

 great lake in Wangara or. Ghana, and evaporated by the 

 heat of the fun. ( See Niger. ) Mr. Park, the late Afri- 

 can traveller, direfted his particular attention to this fub- 

 jeft, and was induced to conclude that the Congo would be 

 found to be the termination of the Niger from the following 

 confiderations : 1. The total ignorance of all the inhabit- 

 ants of North Africa refpedling the termination of that 

 river. If the Niger ended any where in North Africa, it is 

 not eafy to account for this total ignorance, and for their fo 

 generally defcribing it as running to the Nile ; and in faft, 

 to a country with which they had not any acquaintance. 

 A fecond confideration has been already fuggefted under the 

 article Zad. A third is deduced from the general fuppo- 

 fition that the river of Dar-Kulla, mentioned by Mr. 

 Browne in his " Travels," was the Niger, or at leaft that it 

 communicated with that river ; and this, it is faid, would 

 be cxaftly the courfe which the Niger ought to take in 

 order to join the Congo. 4. The quantity of water dif- 

 charged into the Atlantic by the Congo cannot be accounted 

 for on any other principle, but that it is the termination of 

 the Niger. If the Congo derived its waters entirely from ' 

 the S. fide of the mountains, which are fuppofed to form 

 the belt of Africa, one would naturally fuppofe, that when 

 the rains were confined to the N. fide of the mountains, the 

 Congo, like the other rivers of Africa, would be much di- 

 minifhed in fize ; and that its waters would become pure. 

 On the contrary, the waters of the Congo are at all feafons 

 thick and muddy- The breadth of the river, when at its 

 loweft, is one mile, its depth is fifty fathoms, and its velo- 

 city fix. miles per hour. 5. The annual floods of the Congo 

 commence before any rains have fallen fouthof the equator, 

 and agree corretlly with the floods of the Niger, calculating 

 the water to have flowed from Bambarra at the rate of three 

 miles per hour. Mr. Park, during his refidence in Scotland, 

 became acquainted with a Mr. George Maxwell, formerly 

 an African trader, who was well acquainted with the whole 

 weftern coaft of Africa, more efpecially S. of the equator, 

 and had publifiied a chart of the river Congo. Mr. M. had 

 been led by a variety of circumilances to conjecture that 

 the fource of the Congo lay confiderably inland, and far 

 to the cortb ; and horn a perufal of Mr. Park's travels 



be 



