Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1879-10-30
The "TOwer of silence"

Within the last half century or more old
! gossips have delighted in telling shrilling
| stories OF the l'arsi dead occasionally return
ing in their own bodies and flesh among the
! living after their last remains had been con-
! signed to the Towers of Silence. An in
stance il related in which male member
of an old Parsi family, known in Bombay
as the Dhunna Patill family, reappeared
before female member of ID several years
after his death and claimed her as his own
sister. Not many months ago complaints
were made in the local Gujarati journals of
u corpse-beaTer who was suspected of haV-
ing with a large iron shovel like those kept
in the Towers of Silence, Drained man
who, having come TO life some hours after
being laid in the Tower, was seen setting
up on the stone slab whereon his dead body
bad Leen placed. 1t was stated that had
not the man been killed mercilessly he
might have scaled the Tower vail and, es-
Gaping with his life, might have been re-
stored to his family and friends Disguise
is said to be necessary pPecaution for per-
sons ''come from the dead, ," for deep
rooted superstition associates their presence
among the living with sure sign of an inn
pending public calamity or an epidemic
Such stories of visits from the dead do not,
however, find general credence among the
ParsI Of Bombay. In the Mofussil towns
where the walls of the Towers of Silence
are low and therefore easily scaled, where
the towers themselves are situated at con
siderable distances from the habitation of
men and favor the escape of any one who
might come to life after being laid among
the dead, old gossips find free scope for
their tongues in the narration fIstories sim
liar to those mentioned above. We now
hear of a case the particulars of which
might be sufficient for writer Of the ''sen-
sational school" To weave a chapter of
blood-curdling romance. Eleven years ago
ShapuTjee Cahanieebho was a well-to-do
resident Of Dehegaum, village situated at
a sholt distance from Gandevi. \ faithful,
-obedieAt wife managed his household af-
fairs. and the ''even tenor of their ways
was enlivened by the presence of two prom
ising sons. In the course. of time the sons
were betrothed and married, and their circle
of relations widened. While on visit TO
Gandevi on business, Shapurlee was attack
ed'with fever and died suddenly after an
illness of two days His wife and relations
NCIt pICSGuJ AT Ills ucdttlbc(l, lilc proper
religious ceremonies were hurriedly gone
through, and his last remains were in the
manner Of Zoroastrians, consigned to a
Tower of Silence. His relations mourned
their loss and went 10 their own village.
Some hours after being laid in the Tower,
Shapurjeeis said TO have recovered from a
comatose state. He saw the awful position |
assigned him among the dead bones Of his
ancestors. Being a man of ready resources,
he looked through small hole usually kept |
iRthe wall of Tower of Silence and saw
some Village people passing at distance. |
He raised cry of distress, which drew the |
men nearer to him. Understanding what
he said, they assisted him in scaling the |
walls of the Tower. They went their way
and connived at his escape from an awful |
doom. He procured a disguise and wand |
cred from village to village as though pur-
sued by u terrible foe. BY turns he became
a beggar, a hdkiDI, l. C., a quack. Wan |
dering far and wide, he has at present turn
ed up in Bombay in the disguise of bair-
dghee, 1. e., religious beggar, and dis
penses native drugs and nostrums. He has |
or pretendS to recognise, certain |
Parsi residing at Mazgaon, and claims
kinship with them. His family and rela- |
tions at Dehegaum have been apprised of |
his Teappearance in the land of the living, |
and are probably on their way to Bombay |
in the hope of again greeting one along lost |
mourned Truth and falschood |
will soon be seen in their own colors.