Connecticut western news., 1894-12-27

are followed by two men with long boards. The tower of silence to which they come cost S150, 900 and is 90 feet high and 276 feet around and without and the two bearded men come to the door of the tower, enter and leave the dead. There are three rows of places for the dead-the outer row for the men, the middle row for the women, the inside row for the children. The life less bodies are left exposed as far down as the waist. As soon as the employees retire from the tower of silence the vultures, now one, now two, now many, swoop upon the lifeless form. These vultures fill the air with their discord- ant voices. We saw them in long rows on the top of the whitewashed wall of the tower of silence. In few minutes they have taken the last particle of flesh from the bones There had evil dently been other opportunities for them that day, and some flew away, as though surfeited. They sometimes carry away with them parts of body, and it is no unusual thing for the gentlemen in their country seats to have dropped into their dooryards a bone from the tower of silence.
 In the center of this tower is we'll, into which the bones are thrown after they are bleached The hot sun and the rainy season and charcoal do their work of disintegration and disinfection, and then there are sluices that carry into the sea what remains of the dead. The wealthy people of Malabar hill have made strenuous efforts to have these strange towers removed as nuisance, but they remain and will no doubt for ages remain.
 Food For vultures.
 talked with learned Parsee about these mortuary customs He said: 1T suppose you consider them very pecul- far, but the fact is we Parsees reyer ence the clements of nature and cannot consent to defile them. We reverence the fire, and therefore will not ask it to burn our dead. We reverence the water and do not ask it to submerge our dead We reverence the earth and will not ask it to bury our dead. And so we let the vultures take them away. ]" He confirmed me ill the theory that the Parsees act on the principle that the dead are unclean. No one must touch such body. The carriers of this tomb of silence must not put their hands on the form of the departed. They wear gloves lest somehow they should be con- taminated. When the bones are to be re- moved from the sides of the tower and put in the we'll at the center, they are touched carefully by tongs Then these people besides have very decided theo- ries about the democracy of the tomb. No such thing as caste among the dead. Philosopher and boor, the affluent and the destitute must go through the same 'tower of silence" lie down side by bodies dropped into the same abyss and be carried out through the same canal and float away on the same sea. No splendor of Metropolis. No sculpturing of mausoleum. No pomp of dome or obelisk. Zoroaster's teaching resulted in these towers of silence" He wrote, "Naked you came into the world, and naked you must go out. ;"
 As I stood at the close of day in this garden on Malabar hill and heard the flap of the vultures' wings coming from their repast, the funeral custom of the Parsee seemed horrible beyond compare, and yet the dissolution of the human body by any mode is awful and the beaks of these fowl are probably no more repulsive than the worms of the body devouring the sacred human form in cemeteries. Nothing but the resur- rection day can undo the awful work of death, whether it now be put out of sight by cutting spade or flying wing.
 A Parsee Wedding.
 Starting homewar6, we soon were in the heart of the city and saw building all aflash with lights and resounding with merry voices. It was a Parsee wedding in a building erected especial ly for the marriage ceremony. We came to the door and proposed to go in, but at first were not permitted. They saw we were not Parsees, and that we were not even natives. So, very politely, they halted us on the doorsteps. This temple of nuptials was chiefly occupied by women, their ears and necks and hands afiame with jewels or limitations of jewels By pantomime and ges- ture, as we had no use of their vo- cabulary, we told them we were stran- gers and were curious to see by what process Parsees were married. Gradual ly we worked our way inside the door. The building and the surroundings were illumined by hundreds of candles in glasses and lanterns, in unique and grotesque holdings Conversation ran high, and laughter bubbled over, and all was gay. Then there was a sound of an advancing band of music, but the in- struments for the most part were strange to our ears and eyes. Louder and louder were the outside voices and the wind and stringed instruments, until the pro- cession halted at the door of the temple and the bridegroom mounted the steps. Then the music ceased, and all the voices were still. The mother of the bridegroom, with a platter loaded with aromatics and articles of food. confront Then she took from the platter bottle of perfume and sprinkled his face with the redolence. All the while speaking in droning tone. she took from the platter handful of rice, throwing some of it on his head, spilling some of it on his shoulder, pouring some of it on his hands She took from the plat ter cocoanut and waved 1t about his head. She lifted garland of flowers and threw it over his neck and bou- quet of flowers and put it in his hand. Her part of the ceremony completed, the band resumed its music, and through another door the bridegroom was conducted into the center of the building. The bride was in the room, but there was nothing to designate her.
 Where is the bride?" said. Where is the bride?' After awhile she was made evident. The bride and groom were seated on chairs opposfte each oth- CT. A white curtain was dropped be-