Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1874 — Locusts and Witches. [ARTICLE]

Locusts and Witches.

The little island of Ayios Strati, situated to the south of the island of Lemnos, has for. some years past been troubled by an annual invasion /of locusts. The plague of these’insects has become so intolerable that the local authorities of the island lately, instituted an investigation of the matter, and discovered that the nuisance was attributable to sorcery. A council was immediately held, and • presided over by the Turkish Governor, at Which it was decided to make an example of the guilty parties. Seven women, suspected of witchcraft were at once taken into custody, and, failing to produce any satisfactory proofs of their innocence, were condemned to be cast into a deep pit in an ancient building. The witches, one of them being an old woman of ninety and another a young girl of sixteen, were kept alive during a month with provisions which their relatives were allowed to lower to them by means of ropes. Two of the women were married, and thejr husbands were imprisoned and heavily fined for being united to witches, In the meantime Emin Bey, the Caimakam of Lemnos, who has jurisdiction over Ayios Strati, hearing of these measures, and also hearing that, notwithstanding the imprisonment of the witches, the locusts were as numerous and troublesome as ever, gave . orders for the release of the captives. One of the women died shortly after h'6r release, and the affair has, according to the Dardanelles correspondent of the Levant Herald, led to legal proceedings. The released witches and the two husbands who were imprisoned and fined cited their persecutors to appear before the Medjliss of Lemnos. As, however, the parties cited are all primates, and consequently influential people, it was impossible to obtain redress. The plaintiffs then appealed to the Vali of the Archipelago, Ibrahim Pasha; but, as three months have elapsed without any notice being taken of the application, it is considered improbable that the primates of Ayios Strati will be taken to task for their unsuccessful crusade against locusts and witches.— Pall Mall Gazette.