or Sion, a very famous mountain, standing on the north side of the city of Jerusalem (Psalm xlvii. 2), containing the upper city, built by King David, where stood the royal palace (Josephus, Psalm xlviii. 2). A part of Zion, situated at its extremity, was called Millo, or in the city of David (2 Chron. xxxvii. 5). Modern travellers who have examined the spot say that Zion is the whole of the mountain on which Jerusalem stands at this day, though not to the extent in which it anciently stood on the same mountain, as appears Psal. ix. 12, 15; lxv. 1; lxxvi. 2, 3; Is. lii. 1. It is swelled into several eminences or tops, as Moriah, Acra Bezetha, and Zion, a particular eminence or mount, and Zion proper, &c., encompassed on three sides, east, west, and south, with one continued deep and steep valley; by means of which it was impregnable on these three sides, and always attacked and taken, according to Josephus, by the enemy on the north side, where Mount Zion became level, and the vales of Gibon and Jehoshaphat gradually lose themselves. This deep and steep valley incontestably constitutes the compass of the old Jerusalem on those three sides, as plainly appears to any person who has been upon the spot. In opposition to the opinion of former travellers, Dr Clarke thinks that the proper Mount Zion is an eminence entirely without the city, on the south side; and in the valley between this and the city he places the holy sepulchre. That part of the valley which lay to the east was called Jehoshaphat, having Mount Olivet lying beyond it; that to the south Gihon, and that to the west Gihon, from cognominal mountains lying beyond them. At the west end of Gibon, without the city, stood Golgotha or Calvary. The same traveller thinks that very little credit is due to the names given to the different places and objects by the monks. There is another Zion, the same with Hermon.

ISKA, JOHN, a famous general of the forces of the Hussites, was born in Bohemia about the year 1380. His proper name was Trocznow; but he entered very young in the army, and after distinguishing himself on several occasions, lost an eye in a battle, whence he was called Zisk, or One-eyed. At length the reformation, begun by Jan Huss, spreading throughout almost all Bohemia, Ziska placed himself at the head of the Hussites, and had soon under his command a body of 40,000 men. With this army he gained several victories over those of the Romish region, who carried on a kind of crusade against them; and but a town in an advantageous situation, to which he gave the name of Tabor, whence the Hussites were afterwards called Taborites. Ziska lost his other eye by an arrow at the siege of the city of Rubi; but this did not prevent his continuing the war, his fighting battles, and gaining several great victories, among which was that of Ausig on the Elbe, in which 9000 of the enemy were left dead on the field. The emperor Sigismund, alarmed at his progress, caused very advantageous proposals to be made to him, which he readily accepted, and set out to meet Sigismund, but died of the road, on the 11th of October 1424. He ordered that his body should be left a prey to the birds and wild beasts, and that a drum should be made of his skin, being persuaded that the enemy would fly as soon as they heard its sound. It is added that the Hussites executed his will; and that the news of this order made such an impres- sion on the disturbed imaginations of the German papists, that in many battles they actually fled at the beat of the drum with the utmost precipitation, leaving their baggage and artillery behind them.