Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-02-16
Parsee Towers of Silence.

The Parsee Towers of Silence have
ever excited the curiosity and wonder
of all the other peoples of the world.
It is well known that the Parsee mode
of disposing of their dead is quite diff
ferent from that of the Christians.
Jews, Mohammad1ns, or Hindoos.
The corpse of Parsee, after the per-
Torrance of certain ceremonies, is
taken to the Dokma, or Tower of ST.
lence, which is generally erected upon
an eminence in solitary place. The
best idea that can be given of It's out
| ward appearance is to refer the reader
to the large circular gaSometers at
tached to gas works, the only differ
ence being that the Dokmas are open
at the top, while their circular walls
are built OF the hardest stone, instead
OF iron. and faced with white lime
plaster. The walls are from 20 to so
feet high, and the diameter of the
largest Tower Of Silence in Bombay,
the headquarters of the indian Par
sees, is 80 feet. Inside the tower is a
circular platform about 500 feet in cir
cumfereace. paved with large stone
slabs. and divided into three conceu-
trio rows of exposed receptacles for
the bodies, which diminish in size
from tie outer to the inner ring. The
| innermost row is used for the bodies
Of children, the next for those Of
women, and the one nearest to the
wall for those of men. These recepta-
cles are separated from each other by
ridges about an inch high, and chan
nels are cut into them for the purpose
of carrying all liquid matter into
deep hollow in the form of stone
bottoned pit. This pit forms the cen
| ter Of the tower.
After the corpse has been deposited
| in one of the rows of the Dokma, the
vUltures. which are always in great
numbers in its immediate vicinity,
soon denude it of fesh-an operation
completed in an hour at the outside;
| and, when the bones are perfectly dried
up by the tropical sun and other at
mospheric agencies, they are thrown
into the central pit, where they crum-
BILE into dust. thus leveling together
after death the rich and the poor. EX-
cellent sanitary precautions are adopt
Ell in the construction of Towers of
Silence. Four drains are constructed
leading from the body of the pit. Is
suing from the surrounding wall of
the deep hollow, they pass beyond the
outside of the tower down into four
wells sunk in the ground at equal dis
tances. 1t the mouth of each drain
charcoal and sandstones are placed for
purifying the fluid before it enters the
ground and the wells have permeable
bottom which is covered with sand to
a height of five or seven feet.
Perfect silence is always observed in
the Dokmas, whence their name-the
Towers of Silence. They are all built
upon one plan, though their size may
vary. The laying of the foundation
stone of new Dokma, as we'll as it's
final conservation, is attended with
great ceremony. When a plot of
ground has been selected for the build
| ing of Tower of Silence it is marked
out by large iron nails driven into the
ground at certain intervals, round
which is passed a thread forming
| complete circle. The Parsee script
ures eniOin that Garth, fire, and water
shall, under no circumstances, be de-
filed by contact with putrefying flesh.
Accordingly, in carrying the thread
round the nails care is taken that IL
| does not touch the ground, indicating
that the dead bodies should be placed
on some supcrstructure, and not d.
rectly on the earth. Then, again, iron
nails are used, and not wooden pegs,
because wood, beng more porous than
METALS more likely TO carry cOntagion
10 the earth. London Graphic.