readily catch the eye. Parenzo is the seat of the Provincial Diet of Istria, and is also an episcopal see.
Parenzo (Lat. Parentium), conquered by the Romans in 178 B.C., was made a colony probably by Augustus after the battle of Actium, for its title in inscriptions is Colonia Julia and not, as it has often been given, Colonia Ulpia. It grew to be a place of some note with about 6000 inhabitants within its walls and 10,000 in its suburbs. The bishopric, founded in 524, gradually acquired ecclesiastical authority over a large number of abbeys and other foundations in the surrounding country. The city, which had long been under the influence of Venice, formally recognized Venetian supremacy in 1267, and as a Venetian town it was in 1354 attacked and plundered by Paganino Doria of Genoa. The bishoprics of Pola and Parenzo were united in 1827.
See John Mason Neale, Notes on Dalmatia, Istria, &c. (London, 1861), with ground plan of cathedral; E. A. Freeman, Sketches from the Subject and Neighbour Lands of Venice (London, 1881); and Neumann, Der Dom von Parenzo (Vienna, 1902).
PARGA, a seaport of Albania, European Turkey, in the
vilayet of Iannina, and on the Ionian Sea. Pop. (1905), about
5000, of whom the majority are Greeks. Parga has a rock-built
citadel and a harbour formed by a mole which the Venetians
constructed in 1572. It exports citrons, wool, oak, bark and
skins. Originally occupying the site of the ancient Toryne
(or Palaeo-Parga), a short distance to the west, Parga was
removed to its present position after the Turkish invasion in the
15th century. Under Venetian protection, freely accepted in
1401, the inhabitants maintained their municipal independence
and commercial prosperity down to the destruction of the
Venetian republic in 1797, though on two occasions, in 1500 and
1560, their city was burned by the Turks. The attempts of Ali
Pasha of Iannina to make himself master of the place were
thwarted partly by the presence of a French garrison in the
citadel and partly by the heroic attitude of the Pargiotes themselves,
who were anxious to have their city incorporated with the
Ionian Republic. To secure their purpose they in 1814 expelled
the French garrison and accepted British protection; but the
British Government in 1815 determined to go back to the
convention of 1800 by which Parga was to be surrendered to
Turkey, though no mosque was to be built or Mussulman to
settle within its territory. Rather than subject themselves to
the tyranny of Ali Pasha, the Pargiotes decided to forsake their
country; and accordingly in 1819, having previously exhumed
and burned the remains of their ancestors, they migrated to the
Ionian Islands. The Turkish government was constrained to
pay them £142,425 by way of compensation.
PARGETTING (from O. Fr. pargeter or parjeter; par, all over, and jeter, to throw, i.e. “rough cast”; other derivations suggested have been from Lat. spargere, to sprinkle, and from paries, a wall, the last due to writing the parjet in the form pariet), a term applied to the decoration in relief of the plastering between the studwork on the outside of half-timber houses, or sometimes covering the whole wall. The devices were stamped on the wet plaster. This seems generally to have been done by sticking a number of pins in a board in certain lines or curves, and then pressing on the wet plaster in various directions, so as to form geometrical figures. Sometimes these devices are in relief, and in the time of Elizabeth represent figures, birds, foliages, &c.; fine examples are to be seen at Ipswich, Maidstone, Newark, &c. (See Plaster-work.) The term is also applied to the lining of the inside of smoke flues to form an even surface for the passage of the smoke.
PARIAH, a name long adopted in European usage for the “outcastes” of India. Strictly speaking the Paraiyans are the agricultural labourer caste of the Tamil country in Madras, and are by no means the lowest of the low. The majority are ploughmen, formerly adscripti glebae, but some of them are weavers, and no less than 350 subdivisions have been distinguished. The name can be traced back to inscriptions of the 11th century, and the “Pariah poet,” Tiruvalluvar, author of the famous Tamil poem, the Kurral, probably lived at about that time. The accepted derivation of the word is from the Tamil parai, the large drum of which the Paraiyans are the hereditary beaters at festivals, &c. In 1901 the total number of Paraiyans in all India was 214 millions, almost confined to the south of Madras. In the Telugu country their place is taken by the Malas, in the Kanarese country by the Holeyas and in the Deccan by the Mahars. Some of their privileges and duties seem to show that they represent the original owners of the land, subjected by a conquering race. The Pariahs supplied a notable proportion of Clive’s sepoys, and are still enlisted in the Madras sappers and miners. They have always acted as domestic servants to Europeans. That they are not deficient in intelligence is proved by the high position which some of them, when converted to Christianity, have occupied in the professions. In modern official usage the “outcastes” generally are termed Panchamas in Madras, and special efforts are made for their education.
See Caldwell, Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages (pp. 540–554), and the Madras Census Reports for 1891 and 1901.
PARIAH DOG, a dog of a domesticated breed that has
reverted, in a greater or less degree, to a half-wild condition.
Troops of such dogs are found in the towns and villages of
Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa; and they probably interbreed
with wolves, jackals and wild dogs. The Indian breed is near
akin to the Australian dingo.
PARIAN CHRONICLE (Chronicon or Marmor Parium), a marble tablet found in the island of Paros in 1627, now among the Arundel Marbles at Oxford. It originally embraced an outline of Greek history from the reign of Cecrops, legendary king of Athens, down to the archonship of Diognetus at Athens (264 B.C.). The Chronicle seems to have been set up by a private person, but, as the opening of the inscription has perished, we do not know the occasion or motives which prompted the step. The author of the Chronicle has given much attention to the festivals, and to poetry and music; thus he has recorded the dates of the establishment of festivals, of the introduction of various kinds of poetry, the births and deaths of the poets, and their victories in contests of poetical skill. On the other hand, important political and military events are often entirely omitted; thus the return of the Heraclidae, Lycurgus, the wars of Messene, Draco, Solon, Cleisthenes, Pericles, the Peloponnesian War and the Thirty Tyrants are not even mentioned. The years are reckoned backwards from the archonship of Diognetus, and the dates are further specified by the kings and archons of Athens. The reckoning by Olympiads is not employed. The Chronicle consists of 93 lines, written chiefly in the Attic dialect.
The Parian Chronicle (first published by Selden in 1628) is printed by A. Böckh in the Corpus inscriptionum graecarum, vol. ii., No. 2374, and by C. W. Müller in the Fragmenta historicorum graecorum, vol. i.; there are separate editions by J. Flach (1883) and F. Jacoby (1904). A New fragment was discovered in 1897, bringing the Chronicle down to the year 299 (ed. Crispi and Wilhelm in Mittheilungen des archaeologischen Instituts, athenische Abtheilung, vol. xxii., 1897). See also “Notes on the Text of the Parian Marble” and review of Jacoby’s edition by J. A. R. Munro in Classical Review (March and October 1901 and June 1905).
PARINI, GIUSEPPE (1729–1709), Italian poet, was born at
Bosio in the Milanese, on the 22nd of May 1729. His parents,
who possessed a small farm on the shore of Lake Pusiano, sent
him to Milan, where he studied under the Barnabites in the
Academy Arcimboldi, maintaining himself latterly by copying
manuscripts. In 1752 he published at Lugano, under the
pseudonym of Ripano Eupilino, a small volume of sciolto
verse which secured his election to the Accademia dei
Trasformati at Milan and to that of the Arcadi at Rome. His
poem, Il Mattino, which was published in 1763, and which
marked a distinct advance in Italian blank verse, consisted of
ironical instructions to a young nobleman as to the best method
of spending his mornings. It at once established Parini’s
popularity and influence, and two years later a continuation of
the same theme was published under the title of Il Mezzogiorno.
The Austrian plenipotentiary, Count Firmian, interested himself
in procuring the poet’s advancement, appointing him, in the
