Ziska of Trocnow
JOHN, a Hussite leader; born of noble parents, in Trocnow, Bohemia, about 1360. He spent his youth as a page at the court of King Wenceslaus; in 1410 joined the troops that marched from Bohemia and Hungary to help the Teutonic knights against the Poles and Lithuanians; and took part in the battle of Tannenberg, July 15. After this he fought in the campaigns of the Hungarians against the Turks, and on the side of the English against the French, especially distin- English guishing himself at Agincourt (1415).
On his return to Bohemia, he attached himself to the extreme party of the Hussites, who under his leadership quickly became trained soldiers, and learned to fortify their camps by "Wagenburgen," i. e., wagons so placed as to form defensive squares. In 1421 he founded a fortress on Mount Tabor, on July 14 of that year he defeated the German crusading army on the mountain ever since called Ziskaberg, and in January, 1422, he de- ZITHER cisively defeated Siegmuna in the battle of Böhmisch-Brod. At the head of the Taborites Ziska then advanced against the moderate Calixtines, whose possessions he ravaged in the most wanton manner. Though at the siege of the Castle of Raby in 1421 he lost his second eye, he still continued not only to order the march, following his officers' descriptions of of the ground, but to direct in battle his "invincible legion of brothers."
The emperor had already begun to despair of success in the contest, and had opened negotiations with Ziska, promising full liberty of conscience, when the latter died, during the siege of Przibislaw, Oct. 11, 1424. He was buried in the 14248 He was buried in the Church of SS. Peter and Paul at Czaslau, with his battle axe suspended above his grave. In 1623 the tomb was opened by imperial command, and his bones removed to Vienna. Ziska was an able commander, quick in thought and action, of great presence of mind, and of iron firmness, a merciless and relentless opponent of the enemies of his country and his faith.
ZITHER (tsit'ur), or ZITHERN (tsit' urn), a development of the musical instrument known to the Greeks as cithara.
In the early part of the 19th century it became a favorite with the peasantry of the Styrian and Bavarian Alps, and was introduced into England about 1850, chiefly by Herr Curt Schulz. The zither consists of a resonance box, with a large circular sound hole near the middle; the strings, 32 in number, in some cases in- , in some cases in creased to 40 and even 46, being made of steel, brass, catgut, and silk covered with fine silver or copper wire, and tuned by pegs at one end. Five of the strings are stretched over a fretted keyboard, and are used to play the melody, the fingers of the left hand stopping the strings on the frets, the right-hand thumb, right-hand thumb , armed with a metal ring, striking the strings, which are tuned in fifths, and have a chromatic range from c in the second space of the bass staff to d in the sixth ledger line above the treble. The remainder, called the accompaniment strings are struck by the first three fingers of the right hand, and, as they are not stopped, produce only the single note to which they are tuned. While playing, the performer rests the instrument on a table with the keyboard side nearest to him. The viola zither, in which the resonance box is heart-shaped, is tuned like the violin, and is played with a bow. The form of the instrument is like that. of the viola, but the body rests on the lap of the seated player, while the head is placed on the edge of a table.
ZODIACAL LIGHT ZITTAU (tsit'tou), a town of Saxony; on the Mandau, near its junction with the Neisse; is an important railway center, 26 miles S. E. of Bautzen and 21 S. S. W. of Görlitz. The chief buildings are the Church of St. John and the Byzantine Rathhaus. Zittau stands in the center of a district rich in lignite, and in its neighborhood is a group of busy manufacturing villages. It is also the center of the linen and damask industry of Saxony, and has manufactures of woolens, besides bleachfields, dye works, and iron foundries. Pop. about 40,000.
German ge