The Lamoille news. (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1877-1881, 1878-05-08

name) and settled in India nearly 200
years ago; Bombay Is their chief abid-
ing place at present, and 1 am told that
they number nearly $4,000 in this city
alone. Some Of them possess enormous
wealth, and sayeral houses, among the
finest in Bombay, have been pointed out
to me as the property and homes of Par
sees. Generally they are liberal with
their money, so far as public benevo-
lence goes, but they are by no means
the prey OF street-beggars or OF any
other person who would impose on them.
Hospitals, fountains, gardens, schools,
and the like owe their origin 10 Pstsees,
and some of their names have become
honored out of India as well as in it. The
Parsees are worshipers of fire as the
symbol of divinity, and when they came
from Persia they brought the sacred
embers with them and keep the fires
burning perpetually on their affairs. Fire
being sacred, they naturally worship the
sun as the great representative Of divine
power, but the superstition that they
worship the sun as that power is incor-
rect. They will not use fire for any ig
noble purpose, and consequently it is
not polite to offer cigar to Parsee;
they do not take offense if a stranger
smokes in their presence, but any gentle
man who lives here and understands
them would quietly remove his cigar
from his mouth while conversing with a
Parsee of his acquaintance. They neither
burn nor bury their bed; their corpses
are exposed where they can be eaten by
the birds and their bones are swept into
deep pit where they remain until des-
troyed by the action OF the elements.
On one of the highest hills of Bombay
are the so-called "Towers of Silence"
where the bodies are thus exposed; the
name is free translation of the Persian
one, which literally rendered into English
means nothing more nor less than
"tomb." Strangers are rarely admitted
to the inclosure, and no Parsee except
the few employed about the place may
enter the towers. Through the kindness
of Mr.. Cana, wealthy and prominent
Parsee, was enabled to see the towers,
and had the advantage of his personal
guidance and explanation.
We entered by strong gateway and
over paved path, which is the route of
the funeral professions. The Enclosure
has high wall, over which it is impos-
sible to look without a scaling ladder.
The yard is perhaps two acres in extent,
and contains near the entrance build
ing, where is an altar with the sacred
fire and temple where funeral parties
come to pray and the priests to change
their apparel after the services are over.
There is a neatly-kept garden here,
which is tended by the employees of the
place, and from the windows of the
temple there is fine view of the city,
the bay, and the surrounding country.
The other structures in the inclosure
are the famous towers, nine in all, sim
pie circular structures of plastered ma
sonry about twelve feet high and perhaps
thirty in diameter. In the side of each
hye.kephle door of iron, where the bear
ers enter '~omS, the bodies of the dead;
in this door no Visitor, whether Chris.
tian, Hindoo, or Parsee may enter or
even look, save, as before stated, the
priests aud attendants. We were not
allowed to go nearer than within twenty
yards of the towers, and Mr.. Cana ex-
planned that the prohibition extended to
him as we'll as to us, and should he vio-
late it he would be compelled to purify
himself by careful additions and change
of apparel. This lleasure was adopted,
he said, toprevent the spread of disease,
and 80 great is the precaution that the
priests and bearers must perform their
ablution and change after each funeral
ceremony.
AS we approached the towers theil
uses were pointed out. One was fol
murderers and suicides, and was con
sidered unconsecrated; the rest wer,
alike, or so nearly 80 that the difference
were not essential. On the tops o
two or three towers, the ones most il
use, vultures were roosting and evident
ly waiting eagerly for the arrival of
procession. There were, perhaps, fit.
or more-I did not count them and Mr.
Cana said there were others that wer
so fat and heavy as to be unable to fly q
all, SO that they remained constantl
within the towers. When q body
brought there is stir among the birds
and frequently they attack the bearer
in their eagerness to get at corpse. s
violent are they at times that the beal
ers are armed with sticks, and use the1
vigorously. An hour after body ha
: been placed on the iron grating, and th
bearers have retired and closed the dool
-. nothing but bones remains, and til
birds resume their places to wait for I'll
3 next arrival. The funerals general
take place in the morning just after SUI
: rise, or in the afternoon before sunse
never at night, and rarely in the midd
of the day.