z Z, z, the last letter of the English alphabet, a sibilant consonant, and mere vocal or sonant s, having exactly the same sound as s in please, ease, wise, etc. The virords in modern English which begin with z are all derived from other languages, principally from Greek. It was not known in the oldest English. When not initial, it frequently repre- sents an older s, as dizzy = Anglo-Saxon dysig, freeze = Anglo-Saxon freosan, etc. It also stands for a French c or s, as in nazard, lizard, buzzard, seize. Z has in- truded into citizen^French citoyen; and it has changed into g in ginger = Latin zingiberi. As a final it occurs in some onomatopoetic words, as in buzz, whizz, etc. In German it is very common, being a double consonant with the sound of ts; and similarly in Greek it was also a double consonant, representing the sound of ds or sd. In Great Britain it is called zed; in the United States zed, or zee. ZAANDAM, or ZAARDAM, a town in the province of North Holland; on the Zaan, at its entrance into the Y, 5 miles N. W. of Amsterdam. Many of its wooden houses, mostly painted white or green, are separated by canals, and with their gardens round them they look like little islands. It has many corn, oil, and saw mills, in whose prod- ucts an active trade is maintained with the Baltic, Black, and White Seas; and also manufactures of paper, dyes, starch, tobacco, and glue, rope spinning, iron founding, and still a little ship- building. Most of the 60 wharves it had in the 17th century have disappeared, and its famous whale fishery is also a thing of the past. Here in 1697 Peter the Great worked in one of the ship- building yards as a carpenter, and the hut in which he lived is carefully pre- served. It was visited in 1814 by the Czar Alexander. Pop. about 25,000. ZABEEN, the name of three German towns. (1) Elsass-Zabern (French. 490 Saverne) , a town of Elsass, on the Zom, 27 miles N. W. of Strassburg. A Gothic Hauptkirche of the 15th century, a castle built in 1667, but now a barrack, and a museum with a collection of local antiquities, are the principal buildings. The Rhine and Marne canal passes through the town. Tanneries, potteries, and woolen mills are the chief indus- rial establishments, and there is con- siderable timber trade. The town stands at the mouth of the Zabern Pass, lead- ing across the Vosges Mountains. The Roman Tabernas, this town still contains traces of Roman occupation. It was long an ecclesiastical city belonging to the bishops of Metz, and an episcopal palace occupied the site of its present castle. Always a German town, though held for a time by France, it receded to Germany in 1871, and the castle, for- merly occupied by the widows of mem- bers of the Legion of Honor, was em- ployed as a barrack. (2) Brog-Zabern, a town of Rhine Bavaria, on the Erlen- bach, 8 miles S. of Landau. (3) Rhein- Zabern. a town of Bavaria, on the Er- lenbach. The French here defeated the Austrians, July 29, 1793. ZACATECAS, capital of a State of the same name in Mexico; is a famous silver mining town, in a deep ravine; 440 miles N. W. of Mexico City. The streets are narrow and irregular, but there are numerous squares, and the market _ place, where the cathedral stands, is fine and handsome. It con- tains a college, gunpowder mill, and mint. Three miles to the E. is the Franciscan college, where the fathers of the old Californian missions were trained. Zacatecas is the great silver producing State of Mexico. The mines since 1540 have yielded over $1,000,000.- 000. Pop. of the city about 25,000; of the State, about 475,000. ZACHARIAS, father of St. John the Baptist, and husband of St. Elizabeth. He was a priest of the temple of Jeru-
