Z E I Z E N 775 contemporaries of that catastrophe. This passage is indeed a stronger argument for a date in the Assyrian period than anything cited from chaps, ix.-xi. If, notwithstanding this, no commentator dates chap. xiv. less than 150 years after Uzziah, it is illegitimate to protest against the view that in chaps, ix. sq. Ephraim is an archaizing name for the Diaspora (1 Mac. v. 23, 45, 53). How so late a piece was admitted among the prophetic writings, while Daniel, written about the same time, is placed only among the hagiographa, is a question not yet answered. We know too little about the history of the canon. A similar case is that of Isa. xxiv.-xxvii. But it is not less difficult to explain how a prophecy of the 8th century could have turned up in post-exile times and been appended to the book of Zechariah. The literature of the book is cited by C. H. H. Wright, Zechariah and his Prophecies, 2d ed., London, 1879. See also Stade, " Deu- terozacliarja," in Zeitschr. f. AT. Wiss., 1881, p. 1 sq. ; 1882, pp. l;>Isq.,275sq. (J.WE.) ZEITZ, an ancient manufacturing town in the extreme south of the province of Saxony, Prussia, is pleasantly situated on a hill on the White Elster, 22 miles south- south-west of Leipsic and 29 south-south-east of Halle. The river is here crossed by two iron bridges, and one stone and one timber bridge. The Gothic abbey church dates from the 15th century, but its Romanesque crypt from the 12th. The old Franciscan monastery, now occupied by a seminary, contains a library of 20,000 volumes. Just outside the town rises the Moritzburg, built in 1564 by the dukes of Saxe-Zeitz, on the site of the bishop s palace ; it is now a reformatory and poorhouse. Zeitz has manufactures of cottons and woollens, machinery, wax cloth, musical instruments, vinegar, cigars, &c. ; and wood- carving, dyeing, and calico-printing are carried on. In the neighbourhood there are considerable deposits of lignite, and mineral -oil works. In 1885 the population was 21,261 (18,265 in 1880); in 1816 it was 6640. Zeitz is an ancient place of Slavonic origin. From 968 till 1028 it was the seat of a bishopric, afterwards removed to Naumburg, 15| miles to the north-west, and styled Naumburg-Zcitz. In 1564 the last Koman Catholic bishop died, and his dominions were thenceforward administered by princes of Saxony. From 1653 till 1718 Zeitz was the capital of the dukes of Saxe-Zeitz or Sachsen- Zeitz. It thereafter remained in the possession of the electors of Saxony until 1815, when it passed to Prussia. ZELLE, or more usually CELLE, an industrial and com mercial town in the district of Liineburg in Prussia, is situated on the left bank of the navigable Aller, near its junction with the Fuse and the Lachte, 23 miles to the north-east of Hanover. The town, with which three suburbs were incorporated in 1869, is well built. It is the legal and official centre of a "circle," and contains the usual tribunals and bureaux, besides several schools, benevolent institutions, and a prison. The library of the appeal court-house consists of 60,000 vols. The principal church contains a ducal burial vault, in which is buried Sophia Dorothea, first wife of the elector George of Hanover, afterwards George I. of England. The town-house dates from the 14th century. The most interesting building in Zclle is the former ducal castle, begun in 1485 in the Late ( Jothic style, but with extensive Renaissance additions of the close of the 17th century. Caroline Matilda, the divorced wife of Christian VII. of Denmark and sister of George III. of England, resided here from 1772 till her death in 1775; she is buried in the above-mentioned church, and a memorial tablet has been erected to her in the " French garden " outside the town. The industries of the place include the manufacture of woollen yarn, < igars, glue, printers ink, philosophical instruments, stoves, bricks, &c. ; and it carries on trade in wood, wool, honey, wax, cranberries, and other articles. Nursery-gardening flourishes in the fertile environs, where there are also a large paper-mill and a Government stud farm. The popula tion in 1885 was 18,782, almost entirely Protestant. Zelle received town-rights in 1292. From about 1369 it was the residence of the ducal family of Brunswick -Liineburg -Zelle, which became extinct in 1705. In the 17th century Zelle was the most strongly-fortified town in Liineburg. In 1757 it was besieged and partly laid in ashes by Richelieu. At the peace of Zelle (5th February 1679) Sweden gave in her adhesion to the peace of Kime- guen. Zelle is the birthplace of Thaer (1752-1828), the eminent agriculturist, and of Ernst K. F. Schulze (1789-1817), the poet. ZEND-AVESTA, the original document of the religion of ZOROASTER (q.v.), and still used by the PARSEES (q.v.) as their bible and prayer book. The name " Zend-Avesta " has been current in Europe since the time of Anquetil Duperron (c. 1771), but the Parsees themselves call it simply Avesta, Zend (i.e., "interpretation") being specially employed to denote the translation and exposition of a great part of the Avesta which exists in PAHLAVI (q.v.). Text and transla tion are often spoken of together in Pahlavi books as Avistdk va Zand ("Avesta and Zend "), whence (through a misunderstanding) our word Zend-Avesta. The origin and meaning of the word "Avesta" (or in its older form Avistdk) are alike obscure ; it cannot be traced further back than the Sasanian period. The language of the Avesta is still frequently called Zend ; but, as already implied, this is a mistake. We possess no other document written in it, and on this account modern Parsee scholars, as well as the older Pahlavi books, speak of the language and the writing indifferently as Avesta. As the original home of the lan guage can only be very doubtfully conjectured, we shall do well to follow the usage sanctioned by old custom and apply the word to both. Although the Avesta is a work of but moderate compass (comparable, say, to the Iliad and Odysxey taken together), there nevertheless exists no single MS. which gives it in its entirety. This circum stance alone is enough to reveal the true nature of the book : it is a composite whole, a collection of writings as the Old Testament is. It consists, as we shall afterwards see, of the last remains of the extensive sacred literature in which the Zoroastrian faith was formerly set forth. Contents and Character. As Ave now have it, the Avesta consists of four parts, the Yasna, the Vispered, the Vendidad, and the Khordah Avesta. 1. The Yasna, the principal liturgical book of the Parsees, in 72 chapters (hditi, hd), contains the texts that are read by the priest at the solemn Yasna (Izeshne) ceremony. The arrangement of the chapters is purely liturgical, although their matter in many cases has nothing to do with the liturgical action. The kernel of the whole book, around which the remaining portions are grouped, consists of the Gdthdx or "hymns" of ZOROASTKR (q. v.}, the oldest and most sacred portion of the entire canon. The Yasna accordingly falls into three sections of about equal length, (a) The introduc tion (chaps. 1-27) for the most part is made up of long-winded, monotonous, reiterated invocations, (b) The Gathus (chs. 28-54) contain the discourses, exhortations, and revelations of the prophet, written in a metrical style and an archaic language, different in many respects from that ordinarily used in the Avesta. As to the authenticity of these hymns, see ZOKOA.STEK. The Gathas proper, arranged according to the metres in which they are written, fall into five subdivisions (28-37, 43-46, 47-50, 51, 53). Between chap. 37 and chap. 43 is inserted the so-called Seven -Chapter Yasna (hapfanghdUi), a number of small prose pieces not far behind the Gathas in antiquity, (f) The so-called Later Yasna (Aparti Yasnti) (chaps. 54-72) has contents of considerable variety, but consists mainly of invocations. 2. The Vixpcrcd, a minor liturgical work in 24 chapters (karde), is alike in form and substance completely dependent on the Yasna ; it is based upon the arrangement of the Yasna in its present form, a circumstance proving its much later date as a whole. The name Yispered, meaning "all the chiefs" (vi.yrf ratavti), has reference to the spiritual heads of the religion of Ormuzd, invocations to whom form the main contents of the book. 3. The Vcndidad ( Vidaevo Ddtcm], i.e., the law for the "enemies of the devil," contains in 22 chapters (fargard) a kind of dualistic account of creation (chap. 1), the legend of Yinia and the golden age (chap. 2), the praises of agriculture (chap. 3), and in the bulk of
the remaining chapters the circumstantial precepts of the religion