The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1886-12-07
TOWERS OF SILENCE"
Malabar Hill and Parsee Homes of
the Dead.
The Five Cylinders of Black Granite
Used For Those Worthy of Sacred
Burial-A Square Tower Set
Apart for Criminals.

One must be born Parsee, for, like
the Brahmin, his sacred faith admits OF
no PROSECUTING. On purity as the found
ation-stone is built the superstructure
of his belief, and Zoroaster's three
Precepts, good thoughts good
words, ''good deeds" are his rule
Of life. That he may bc constantly re-
minded of his duty TO move within the
circle of these prccepts, he wears his
girdle triply coiled. A Parsee child
should be born on the ground floor of
the house. that by humility at the be-
ginning and correctness of after-life he
may merit advancement, not only i'm
this world, but in that which is to
come.
When seven days old an astrologer is
called upon TO cast his nativity. He
first gives list of names that the child
may bear, and allows the parents to
choose one of them; then drawing a set
OF hieroglyphics with chalk on a wooden
tablet, he predicts the future of the
infant, which the relatives receive with
implicit faith and admiring reverence.
This document is carefully preserved
among the family records, and often
has marked influence on the after
hfe. Having attained the age of about
seven years, the first religious cere-
mony is performed. which makes the
child an accountable being, and brings
him into full fellowship of the faith of
&c 70 Nha L. Al.
an ablution for publication. The priest
then invests him with the sacred girdle,
and tying the cord around the waist,
he pronounces a benedictiOn, and
throws slices of fruit, seeds, perfumes
and spices upon the head. This kusti,
or sacred cord, is woven only by women
of the priestly class. and is composed
OF seventy-two white cotton threads,
the number emblematic of the seventy
two chapters of the Yasna. 4 portion
Of the ZendAvesta. Should the child
die before the performance of this cere-
mony his soul is supposed TO return to
Ahura Mazda, from whom it came, as
pure as when il entered the world.
not having vet reached the age of moral
accountability.
Childhood is the usual time of mar
riage, though it is sometimes con-
tracted beetwen grOwn-up people.
TO the parents of the bride and groom,
who make all arrangements, the event
is one of absorbing interest, and is at
tended with much ceremony and dis
play. The Parsee women hold an hon.
0rable position; they are allowed To |
appear in public, to mingle in society |
and to them is given full charge of |
household affairs.
Running out into the sea from the |
western part of Bombay Island rises
Malabar hill, picturesque ridge, ter
raced TO the top, and covered with trop- |
ical trees and shrubs and flowers, |
among which are scattered the luxuri- |
Gus homes of the more wealthy resi- /
dents OF the city, both Indian and Euro
pean. The summit of this hill COM /
mands a view of surprising beauty.
AT its foot, on the right, lies the sea-
side village of Breach Candy: on the |
left the city of Bombay, with its beau
tiful bay and harbOr studded with rocky
islands, the blue water of the Arabian
Sea widening ont in the distance on one
side and the range of the Western
Ghauts rising on the other, towering
grandly TO the height of six thousand
feet ard stretching along the line of the
coast as far as the eve can
reach.
There, in the midst of a garden of
lOvelineSs, where the silence seems sa-
cred and every suggestion is one of
peaceful rest, the Parsees have erected
their Sagris, or Houses of PRAYER, and
the Towers of Silence i'm which they Law
their dead. I'm the largest Sagr1, with
religious ceremony, they kindled wears
ago the sacred fire. which. being con-
stantly fed with incense and fragrant
wood. is never allowed 10 go out
The Parsees emphatically DENY the
imputation that they worship
hire, declaring that they hold il sacred.
not as God, but only as a symbol of
deity. Zoroaster taught t hat ''earth.
air and wafer should never be defiled
by contact with putrefying flesh, but
shat the decaying particles of our bod
les should be dissipated as rapidly as
possible IN such +? way that neither
Mother Earth nor the beings she nour-
lshes should be in the slightest degree
F" To the Dokhmas scarce
~ belongs the name of towers. so pecu- {
liar are their proportions. Built of
black granite and' covered with white
chunam "a stucco- made of calcined
shells), they CLEAN among the luxuri-
ant foliage like huge white cylinders of
solid masonry. The largest of the five
is about forty feet in diameter. and not
more than twenty-five in height The
and oldest was built by an an
cestoro the Modi family more than two
hundred years ago, when the Parsees :
irst settled in Bombay, and has been
used only by his descendants. The Sec
ond was erected in 1856. and the re-