AN INCIDENT OF THE EARTHQUAKE IN SCIO.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3233, 10 November 1881, Page 4

AN INCIDENT OF THE EARTHQUAKE IN SCIO.

The Greek peasantry are exceedingly superstitious, and they appear to have looked upon the earthquake as a judgment for their sins; and later on a circumstance connected with this idea roused them to action, where their own necessities and that of their suffering brethren had failed to do so. It would seem that a hermit, by the name of Parthenio, some few days previous to the earthquake, had been loud in his denunciations of the loose manner in which thejislanders in general were keeping Lent, and of their sinful practice in working on feast days. Threats of God's anger were freely used, so that when the fearful calamity came it seemed merely the fulfilment of the monk's prophetic warnings. Parthenio's exhortations had given rise to much adverse criticism of the bishop's conduct. The people tried to excuse themselves by referring to supposed shortcomings of their spiritual chief, and the bishop had come to be regarded as the " Jonah" who hnd brought upon them such a fearful trial. To calm the growing excitement, the bishop had the monk arrested by the authorities and shipped off to Smyrna: but this measure only served to bring matters to a head. The bishop's life was only saved by the timely despatch of a Turkish guard, which succeeded in getting him off to the man-of-war which the governor-general had made his temporary residence. The excitement was intense, and, hut for the return of the monk, might have led to proceedings that would have added much to the suffering caused by the earthquake, for a message had been sent to Sadyk Pasha by the exasperated population to the effect that, unless Parthenio was brought back to the island within twenty-four hours, they would no longer recognise the Turkish authorities. —All the Year Round.