The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-02-09
AMONG THE PARSEES.
An Instructive Chapter of Life
in Persia.
Tho Most Respectable and Pious of the
shah's Suhjects-Only Seven Thou
sand sun Worshipers Left in
the Land of Zoroaster.
Especial Letter.

Especial Letter
During my stay in Persia, some years
ago, | made some investigations con-
corning that interesting fragment of
the Persian people variously known as
the ParSees, Guebres, fire or sun wor-
shippers. The inducement had been
found by sundry facts that had come to
my knowledge. had been told, for in
stance, by every European resident
with whom had conversed on the sub
ject that this remnant of a once DOW
erful race was by all odds the most re-
spectacle of the whole nation. that
these men were truthful, industrious.
very cleanly in their habits abstemi-
Gus and chaste, honest in their dealings.
etc. In short, the general opinion of
these intelligent and impartial observ-
ers was that the Parsees are, in nearly
every respect, the exact opposite of the
modern Persians. In personal inter-
course l found this opinion fully cor
roborated saw that everybody who
had Parsee, male or female. in his en-
ploy, was satisfied, whereas the con-
trary was invariably true in eases where
an ordinary Persian was the employee
| also learned incidentally so much
that struck me as extraordinary about
these Parsees that ! concluded they
would well repay the trouble of a
special study. / was fortunate enough,
too, to make the acquaintance of the
high priest of the ParseeS, and subse-
quently paid him long visit at his
home in Teheran, the Persian capital,
he receiving me both kindly and hos
pitably. The name of this venerable
dignitary is Manikjee Limjee Harteria.
He is an octogenarian, and of very i'm
pressive appearance, with long, sweep
ing beard of snowy white, noble head
with a broad brow, ruddy cheeks and
complexion as fair as that of the aver
age American.
His appearance alone, in fact, showed
him to be of pure Aryan stock, while
the vast majority of the Persian Mos
lens have goodly percentage of Arab,
Turcoman and Tartar blood in their
veins. will skip the first portion of
the interview | had with this ancient
sage and merely repeat his statements
as to the precise nature of his belief and
that of his co-religionists
There are" he said, ''some 100, 600
Parsees in India, especially Bombay
and Calcutta, but in the cradle of our
creed. at Persia, there are barely 1000
of us left. The congregation at Tehe-
ran is small, merely 500, and the bulk
of our people are to be found in the
south, in Yczd in Herman. in Sendjan.
We believe in God. whom we in our
language call Hormazd, the ever-wise
And we believe in the sun, the fire, wa
ter, moon and stars as types and eman-
ations of the living God. As such we
worship them. We adore the sun when
he rises, and to see him in all his sunny
glory, and to be free from annoyance
and interference on the part of the
fanatic Mohammedans, we go on the
house tops, kneel down and pray to the
kind symbol of our God with out
stretched hands.
LAS to the distinctive features Of our
religion, they are very simple TO live
an upright life-that is the sum total of
all our teachings. The liar, the thief, the
oppressor is an enemy of God as well
as of his race; and, though our God is
good, He is not to be trified with. We
take but one woman for wife, and we
do not bury our dead-these are the
two most marked differences between
us and the Moslems.
eve do not inter the lifeless body be-
cause we believe that that which gave
the body value, the soul, has fed and
hence the sooner fire and water, sun
and rain dissolve the body again into
its original elements the better. We
divide the month into four parts and
the beginning of each of these is holy
day. The days of the month have each
separate names with us. The first day
is called after God, for it is named
Hormazd. The other twenty-seven
days are each called after some Divine
attribute. Thus the second day of the
month is Bammun, the third Ardibez,
the fourth Zerivas, the fifth Sarpen-
dar, the sixth Kordad. the seventh
Amordad. The eighth day is again
I'm