ZIZANION (Z4-cipeop). This word occurs in Matt. xiii. 25, and several of the following verses, and is translated weeds by Luther, and tares in the A. V.; among Greek authors it is found only in the Geoponica. lt is therefore supposed that, as the Gospel of Matthew was (as some think) first writ ten in Syro-Chaldaic, the vernacular name of some particular plant was adopted, and thus introduced into the Greek version. This seems to be con firmed by the existence of a plant which is suitable to the above passage, and of which the Arabic name is very similar to zizanion. Thus, in the parable of the man who sowed good seed in his field, it is said : But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat : when the blade sprung up and brought forth fruit, then ap peared the tares also.' From this it is evident that the wheat and the zizanion must have had consi derable resemblance to each other in the herba ceous parts, which could hardly be the case unless they were both of the family of the grasses. That such, however, is the case, is evident from what Volney says, that the peasants of Palestine and Syria do not cleanse away the seeds of weeds from their corn, but even leave that called Siwan by the Arabs, which stuns people and makes them giddy, as he himself experienced. This no doubt is the • Zawan, or Ziwan, of Avicenna, and which Buxtorf, in his Rabbinnical Lexicon, says was by the later Hebrews called p'11' Zonin. Avicenna describes two kinds of Ziwan ; one quidpiam tritico non absimile,' of which bread is made ; the other res ebrietatem inducens, pravae naturx, atque inter fruges provenit.' The Ziwan of the Arabs is concluded to be our Darnel, the ivraie of the French, the Zolium temulentum of botanists, and is well suited to tbe palate. It is a grass often found in corn-fields, resembling the wheat until both are in ear, and remarkable as one of the very few of the numerous family of grasses possessed of deleterious properties. These have long been known, and it is to this plant that Virg,i1 alludes (Georg-. i. 1540:— Interque nitentia culta Infelbc /ollunz et steriles dominantur avenx.' J. K.
ZOA.N (ipv ; Sept. Tdins), an ancient city of Lower Egypt, situated on the eastern side of the Tanitic branch of the Nile, called in Egyptian xasui or ZASII, Gime or Gani—i.e. low region'—whence both the Hebrew name Zoan, and the Greek Tanis are derived ; as is also the Arabic San, by which name the site is still known. Zoan is of considemble Scriptural interest. It was one of the oldest cities in Egypt, having been built seven years after Hebron, which already existed in the time of Abraham (Num. xiii. 22 ;
comp. Gen. xxii. 2). It seems also to have been one of the principal capitals, or royal abodes, of the Pharaohs (Is. xix. r, 1,3 ; xxx. 4) : and accord ingly the field of Zoan,' or the fine alluvial plain around the city, is described as the scene of the marvellous works which God wrought in the time of Moses (Ps. boiviii. 12, 33). The destruction predicted in Ezek. xxx. 14 has long since befallen Zoan. The field' is now a barren waste; a canal passes through it without being able to fertilise the soil ; fire has been set in Zoan ;' and the royal city is now the habitation of fishermen, the resort of vvild beasts and infested by reptiles and malig nant fevers. 'The locality is covered with mounds of unusual height and extent, full of the fragments of pottery which such sites usually exhibit. These extend for about a mile from north to south, by about three-quarters of a mile. The area in which the sacred enclosure of the temple stood, is about soo feet by 125o, surrounded by the mounds of fallen houses, as at Bubastis [PI-BEsETH], whose increased elevation above the site of the temple is doubtless attributable to the same cause—the fre quent change in the level of the houses to protect them from the inundation, and the unaltered posi tion of the sacred buildings. There is a gateway of granite and fine gritstone to the enclosure of this temple, bearing the name of Rameses the Great. Though in a very ruinous condition, the fragments of walls, columns, and fallen obelisks, sufficiently attest the former splendour of the building to which they belonged. The obelisks are all of the time of Rameses the Great (B. c. 1355), and their number, evidently ten, if not twelve, is unparalleled in any Egyptian temple. The name of this king most frequently occurs ; but the ovals of his successor Pthamen," of Osirtasen III., and of Tirhakah, have also been found. The time of Osirtasen III. ascends nearly to that of Joseph, and his name, therefore, corroborates the Scriptural account of the antiquity of the town. Two black statues, and a granite sphinx, with blocks of hewn and occasionally sculptured granite, are among the objects which engage the attention of the few travellers who visit this desolate place. The modern village of San consists of mere huts, with the exception of a ruined kasr of modern date (Wilkinson's Modern Egypt, i. 449-452 ; Narra tive of the Scottish Deputation, pp. 72-76).—J. K.