[Zig], a giant cock in the [Talmud] (q. v.), which stands with its foot on the earth, touches heaven with its head, and when it spreads its wings causes a total eclipse of the sun.
[Zillerthal], a valley in the Tyrol, watered by the Ziller, an affluent of the Inn, some 400 of the inhabitants of which were in 1837 obliged to seek a home elsewhere because of their opposition to the practice of auricular confession, and which they found near Liegnitz, in Prussian Silesia.
[Zimbabye], a remarkable ruin in Mashonaland, the remains apparently of some enterprising colony of nature-worshippers that settled there in ancient times, in the interest of trade presumably.
[Zimmermann, Johan Georg von], Swiss physician, born at Brugg, in the canton of Bern; studied at Göttingen, became the friend of [Haller] (q. v.), and settled down to practice in his native town, where he continued 16 years, very successful both in medicine and literature, but "tormented with hypochondria," and wrote his book on "Solitude," which was translated into every European language; wrote also on "Medical Experiences," a famed book in its day too, also on "National Pride," and became "famed throughout the universe"; attended Frederick the Great on his deathbed, and wrote an unwise book about him, "a poor puddle of calumnies and credulities" (1728-1795). For insight into the man and his ways see [Carlyle's "Frederick,"] a curious record.
[Zindikites], a Mohammedan heretical sect, who disbelieve in Allah, and deny the resurrection and a future life.
[Zinzendorf], a German count, born in Dresden; studied at Wittenberg, came under the influence of the Pietist Spener, gave himself up to evangelical labours, and established a religious community on his estate at Herrnhut, in Saxony, consisting chiefly of a body of Moravian Brethren, who had been driven out of Bohemia and Moravia on account of their religious opinions, and were called Herrnhuters, of which he became one of the leaders and chief apostles, labouring far and wide in the propagation of their doctrines and suffering no small persecution by the way; he was an earnest man, the author of religious writings, controversial and devotional; wrote a number of hymns, and died at Herrnhut, from which he was driven forth, but to which he was allowed to return before the end (1700-1760).
[Zion], that one of the four hills on which Jerusalem is built, on the SW. of the city, and the site of the palace of King David and his successors.
[Zionism], the name given a movement on the part of the Jews to re-establish themselves in Palestine as a nation.
[Zirconia Light], an intensely brilliant light, similar to the Drummond light, but differing from it chiefly in the employment of cones of zirconium instead of cylinders of lime; it has been superseded by the electric light.
[Zirconium], a metallic element often found in connection with silica, commonly in the form of a black powder.