The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1876-02-12
THE TOWERS or SILENCE.

Aoa<>-N WIN NV
suddenly into hill of two hundred feet
high, from the top of which the whole /
CITY, and almost the whole island are Wis
ible to the north and cast and tothc west |,
and south the wide sea. 1t Is spot (,
which, without Il doubt, presents the !
finest view of what has been called one
Of the choicest scenes of the world, and
might well, therefore, have been Sc
lected for the gayest villas of the richest
inhabitants but it is a fact that, till
the prince came to India, no European,
except it may have been by stealth, had
set foot upon it. None, certainly, were
privileged to examine this strange place.
and if any came, which may well be
doubted, at most they could but cast
furtive glance around them, and steal
away again.
Two centuries have passed since, in
this then most desolate and savage spot,
a gray tower was raised, no sign of life or
mans habitation, but an abode of death,
and so well called the Tower of 81
lence. As time went on four other tow
ers were raised around the first, the
Parses, to whom these towers belonged,
grew in wealth and influence, the whole
hill became theirs, and high encircling
wall with iron gates barred access to any
hut those of their own nation. Up to
the Prince of Wales visit do not only
ray that no stranger has visited the spot:
say more that no one ever expected 10
see it. The Parses are not a proselytiz-
ing sect; they would not accept prose
Iytes though they came to them volunta-
rily. There is veil of mystery and
mysticism over all that the Parses do,
and they do not love to talk with
strangers about their sacred things. Next
to the strangeness of the princes visit it.
self the strangest thing which has hap
pened during that visit is the easy way
in which the curtain which has so long
been held up by the Parses around their
tombs has been dropped by them.
The prince wished to see the Towers of
Silence. Sir Bartle Frere wrote to the
governing body of the Parses that the
WlSucu dlitl ~ IL uOuc II
may be quite true that the fire worship
ers had found that the detractors had
made use of the mystery in which they
shrouded their funeral rites to invent
many calumnies against them, but still
do not think that desire to set them
selves right with the world would alone
have induced them to raise the veil. 1t
would never have been put aside but for
the princes wish toAiave it removed, and
90, if his visit should have no other re-
suit, it will have in this brought about
one ST the most curious changes that In
dia has witnessed. The thing came
about so suddenly that the secretary of
the Perses found himself, so he told me,
standing under the wall Of the principal
Tower of Silence, close TO the vast stone
slab on which the corpses are deposited,
explaining for model the interior econ
omy of the structure to his royal high
ness and group of his suite before he
had time to prepare his dress or thoughts
for the occasion.
You may ascend the hill of the Towers
of Silence by long succession of ter
races and flights of steps from the south,
or you drive in by a carriage road at the
northern entrance, and read as you pass
the gate the inscription, which tells you
that the costly road was made at the ex-
pense of the son of the first baronet, Sir
Jamshidje, in honor of his fathers MEM
ory. After driving quarter of a mile
you proceed on foot up long, rocky
ascent till you come to a gate with the
warning, None but Perses may enter~
But the prince had unsealed the en-
trance. and, in company with the cour-
teous secretary of the Parse governing |
committee, went in, and found little |
way on my right stone chapel or house
of prayer, where the Parses who attend |
the funerals perform their devotions.
From this spot there is a most en-
chanting and unequalled view over
Bombay, which every European visitor
should zee if he can. While sat here |
model of a Tower Of Silence was brought |
and explained to me; the same identical |
model which had interested the prince,
and the explanation was given by the |
same exposition. AS I listened, two |
corpses, one of which was that of a
mohed, or priest, were brought up the |
rocky ascent, each followed by about one
hundred Parses, in white garments. |
The biers were carried by four men, and
two others followed, who alone are al |
lowed to enter the towers. The Parses |
who walked in the procession had their /
garments linked two-and-two, and this
had a mystic meaning.
The towers arc circular, and are so
well built that the oldest has stood for
300 wears without requiring to be re-
paired. They are formed of huge
stone slabs, well cemented together,
and the largest cost 100000. If it
may be assumed that the four other
towers cost on an average 100000
each, we should have a tenth of
million invested in these buildings alone.
Add that Sir Jamshidje gave 100000
square wards of land and betrayed the
expenses of a road, and some idea NAV
be formed of the cost of the whole GEM
etery. in the circular external wall
there is but one aperture, about five
and half feet square and thirteen feet
from the ground, and to this the car
-iers of the dead ascend by flight of
teps, and there take in the corpse. The
outside wall is from % to 10 feet high,
according to the inequalities of the
ground on which the tower is built. In
tide is a circular platform, depressed
gradually toward the center, where is a
wall of about ten feet in diameter. The
urface of the platform consists of iuted {
grooves laidout in three series, with circu
ar path surrounding each series, to which ,