The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1890-01-31

parchment.skinned old = NeoAhees
hair as white and, stu 40 the bfiStlcs
Of . Chester white pig, ind yhos
smiles at you through her toothreSa
gums. and with long, withersd fingers
beckons you in. I remem6er her we'll.
lures by the hundreds sit upon the trees
over her, and as you 60 In you hear the
enarling Of dogs. You looktoward them,
they are fighting over the h~alf.eaten
bodies Of men, aud, the vultures swoop.
ing down, flap their wings aud attempt
to seize q part of the prey. Beside the
bloody corpscs are a mass OF half-drted
skulls and the odd legs and arms OF tho
day Eefore, and the old woman laughs
through her toothless gums as she points
you to them. Someof the Buddhists be.
lieve that their chance Of Nirvana. or
heaven, is better In case they give their
bodies TO the vultures, and some Of these
bodies have been dedicated in this way.
Others are, as ! have said, those OF very
poor people, who can not afford the cost
Of cremation.
There il at Bombay q colony Of about
20, 900 Parsees, and the men, women, and
children give their bodies to the vultures.
They are fire worshipers, and they say
that fire is o sacred to be deAled with .
dead body, and they believe the work Of
Tue worms ~ CoV SLOW u0u ScO Staes- =
visited the Towers Of Silence at Bombay,
on the top Of which all dend Pursees are
laid, and where their bodies are left for
the vnltures. These towers are great,
white buildings Of block granite, twenty
five feet high and 1900 feet in diameter.
Each is built around . central we'll, and
the bodies are laid on the top walls,
which incline inward, 20 that tho rain
will wash the bones and juices down into
the we'll. Each we'll hss drains running
OFF into the sea, and each is half filled
with charcoal. On the top Of each Of
these towers there is a sort of grating net
whether they are intended to hold men,
women, or children. Surrounding the
towers is a beautiful garden of sixty acres
Of trees and flowers, and when I visited
this everything was in blossom, and the
surroundings were as beautiful az the
garden of Eden. As 1 looked at the
towers it seemed that ench had . coping
or friezs of gray about it, and this friezs
represented great birds. As I got nearer
l noticed that the birds were alive. and
they craned their necks ut us, evidently
was in the garden . Parsee funeral came,
and these birds rose in the air. aud
swooped down upon tho tower upon
which the naked Parsee baby was laid.
There were 600 of them, and they live
entirely off the flesh Of dead Parsess.
They will strip a skeleton of every shred
of flesh in two hours, and the bones are
left under the sun to dry. Aday or two
later they are pushed down into the well,
where they decompose under the purify.
ing influence of the charcoal. The Par.
sees always walk to their funerals. They
are the richest and brightest merchants
Of the East, but there is no difference
shown Us to their condition at funerals.
The corpses of the rich as we'll as the
poor lie naked on those towers of silence.
the bones of oil going to tho same reser.
voir, and the vultures who to-day feed ON
the fesh of Dives make their morrow's
meal of of Lazarus.
] saw many cremations among the Hin.
docs, and I attended not q few funerals
in India. The bodies were generally
carried on the shoulders of men, without
collins and covered with cloth. In some
cases o band accompanied the procession,
and the burnings were in general very
simple. At Calcutta they took place in
unroofed sheds on the banks of the Hoog-'
~, but the fires were built on the
ground and q little hole was scooped out
below them to make a draught. At
Benares the cremations took place in the
open air, and, after the body had burned
to ashes, the ashes and bones remaining
were dragged down into the river. The
undertakers of India belong to the dome
or chief caste. These preside over the