Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-01-01

ated from it, runs another broader one
that is, | believe, for the funeral c0rtege
This gateway checked our progress, and
we could not have passed it had not
Mr.. Jehangir Rustumjee showed our
permission, when instantly the barrier
was opened and We entered the COM
pound. The whole place blooms with
flowers, and the air is redolent with
their sweet perfume jasmine, the glo-
rious crimson HIBISCUS, and hundreds
of roses make the garden lovely with
their color, so that this pathway to the
tomb is bright and beautiful.
An old and venerable Parsee received
us and conducted us the whole time
| that we staid within the grounds. He
| led us first along wel-kept pathway
to an old stone-vaulted building with
open collonades all round this is the
house of prayer where the friends of the
deceased remain whilst the body is
placed upon the tower. The whole
place is shaded and dim, and the still
| cool air heavy with the scent of sandal
| wood, for here the sacred fire forever
burns, tended day and night by watch
| full priest whose mission is to feed the
holy flame with perfumed precious
woods. Near by, in somewhat similar
buildings, dwell the custodians of the
place, and the bearers of the dead, who
| live apart. There, too, is the bathing
house where, at each funeral, the corpse
| bearers change their clothes and wash
| themselves clean from the deflement of
having touched the dead. In front and
round these buildings is a garden of
flowers as luxuriant and beautiful as
constant care and attention can make
them; the beds have strange and mys-
tic forms, some of them are sun-shaped,
spoked round with rays, and others,
symbolic doubtless, that had no mean
ing for me- From this garden we enter
wild ond uncultivated part, where the
heritage is rank and bushes grow, and
tall palm trees whose fair crests are
crushed and draggled by the weight
of the crows and vrltures that rest and
perch upon them. Here the towers are
placed. There are six in all, five placed
together, some of which are very old
and closed, and one, that stands apart,
where the bones of notorious criminals
of their faith lie crumbling in eternal
separation from those of pure living
and good repute.
1t is somewhat misguiding to call
these buildings towers, for they are not
high, though how else to describe them
is difficult. [ had always imagined them
as being lofty towers on whose wind
swept SUBMITS the bodies of the dead
were exposed until the bones of them
selves fell through the grating that they
lay on. No such thing. The buildings
| H. o,,I ~ IF Oh
thirty yards in diameter but not more
than five or six in height. They are
built of most carefully-joined blocks of
granite, and then plastered all over
with white cement so that none of the
water that falls upon the tower can pos
sibly defle the earth by oozing out
except at the proper outlets for it,
where are placed a sort of filters of
sandstone and charcoal for its puritica-
ton. The tower stands in a shallow,
dry moat, and there is one narrow stone
bridge or causeway which leads from
the ground to the small square door
through which the body is taken. The
top of the tower, which is the platform
where are laid the bodies, is quite hid
den by a parapet that completely sur
rounds it, on which, in one close,
unbroken rank, the vultures perch, mo-
tionless themselves as stone, with their
bare heads half-sunk in their bodies.
Facing inwards, there they rest, silent
and still as is all around them, till fhe
lYwhite-robed bearers of the dead place
| the corpse upon the floor beneath them.
Then all swoop down.
The arrangement of the platform is
curious. The surface is divided into
three concentric circles of shallow re-
ceptacles for the dead between each
circle and between each receptacle is
narrow pathway for the bearers, and in
the center is the grated opening to the
well, down which are thrust the dry
bones of the dead-men, women, and
children, great and small, and rich and
poor, all in this one place mingle their
dust. | was told afterwards by my
| friend, Mr.. Hormazdii Maki-Dalal, with
whom I talked much on this interest
ing subject, that these three rings rep
/ resent the three maxims of IorOaster ::
! Good acts, good words, good thoughts. "
/ The outer ring that lies next the para
pet is for the bodies of men which repre-
sent good acts ;" the next, that of
women, good words :" and the last,
/ the smallest circle round the well itself,
is for the little children, who represent
good thoughts
All the Parsees | have ever talked
with upon this subject have expressed
a strongly affectionate feeling for their
mode of sculpture, and for these grim
towers where all at last will rest to-
gether, great and simple, with their an
cestors and descendants, in the one
grand equality that death alone bestows.
Nor is there really anything more pain
full to the feelings of the survivors in
this manner of burial than in ours.
They do not see the sudden downright
of the birds upon the corpse, for they
are then devoutly bowed in prayer in
the fire-temple near at hand, and there
they remain until the work is ended
and nothing but skeleton lies bleach
ing on the sunny summit of the tower
But half an hour elapses from the time
the corpse is laid reverently upon the
platform till these winged assistants
have ended the work that takes, may
be, months with US a fortnight later
the same men that carried in the corpse
visit, once more, the tower and, with a
kind of tongs, place the dry and separ-
ated bones in the central well. No
other person than the duly appointed
bearers ever enter the building neither
priest nor layman may approach nearer
than a distance of ten or fifteen yards.
The impression that the whole place
gives is very far from repulsive there
is little to shock one, and much to ad-
mire in this, the Parsee mode of burial
and in the place of their sepulture
The air is sweet and pure thus high
up ON the hill, the constant sun, archie
type of their deity, shines bright and
clear, and the hame-rayed bed of Grim
son roses in their garden is a promise
as well as present Joy and as the
calm white-robed old Parsee said, as he
gave me a bunch of tho glowing bios
SONS when l left, "This life is not the
end of all things "-CorHhjU Nagazine.
A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE.
When the electric telegraph was first
proposed to the Government it was re-
/ jected, for the exhaustive reason that
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