The Progress. (Shreveport, La.) 1892-1900, 1894-12-29

and swine are better off than most of
the women of India.
This Parsee on the roadside on our
wav to Mala bar Hill was the only one
Of that religion l had ever seen en-
ragged in worship. Who knows but
that beyond the light OF the sun on
which he gazes he may catch glimpse
Of the God who is light, and "in whom
there is no darkness at alp
We passed up through gates into
the garden that surrounds the place
where the Parsees dispose of their
dead, This garden was given by
Jamshidii Jijibhal, and is beautiful
with flowers of all hue, and foliage OF
all STYLES of vein, and notch and
,t,ture There is on all sides great
on,,1ence of fern and cypress. The
Garden is 100 feet above the level OF
,ha sea Not far from the entrance IS
q huilding where the mourners OF the
funeral procession go in to pray. A
1ioht is here kept burning year IN and
war ont We assend the garden
NV some eight stone steps. The body
/ Of deceased aged woman was
being carried in toward the chief
..Tower of Silence" There are tive OF
these towers. Several of these have
not been used for / ng while. -Four
persons, whose business it is to do
this carry in the corpse. They are
followed by two men with long Boards
The Tower of Silence, to which they
come cost $50, 900, and tits twenty-five
feet high, and 2TG feet around, and
| without roof. The four carriers OF
! the dead 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
women: the inside row for the children.
The lifeless 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 hfe~
less form. These vultures fill the
air with their discordant 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 bodies There had,
evidently 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 10
have dropped into their dooryards
! 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 dislntec
ton, and then there are slulces that
carry into the sea what remains OF the
dead The wealthy people OF OF Mala-
bar Hill have made strenuous efforts
to have these strange towers removed
as q nuisance, but they remain, ana
will no doubt for ages remain.
Thus | have set before you the best
of all the religions of the heather
world, and have done so in order
that you might come to higher appre-
citation Of the glorious religion which
has put its benedictiou over us and
over Christendom.
Compare the absurdities and mum
meries of heather marriage with the
plain, Il will" of Christian marriage,
the hands joined in pledge It'll death
do you part" Compare the doctrine
that the dead may not be touched,
with as sacred, and tender and loving
kiss as is ever given, the last kiss Of
lips that never again will speak to us.
Compare the narrow Bridge Chinvat
over which the departing Parsee soul
must tremblingly cross, to the
wide open gate of heaven through
which the departing Christian soul
may triumphantly enter Compare
the twenty-one books of the Zend
| Avesta of the Parsee which even the
scholars of the earth despair Of under
standing, with our Bible, so much Of
it as is necessary for our salvation in
language so plain that "a wayfaring
man, though fool need not err there
in." Compare the Glover of Silence"
J with it's vultures of Bombay with the
Greenwood of Brooklyn" with its
sculptured angels of resurrection. And
bow yourselves in thanksgiving and
prayer as you realize that it at the
battles of Marathon and Saiamis,
Persia had triumphed over Greece, in.
stead of Greece triumphing over Persia,
Parseeism, which was the national re.
ligion of Persia, might have covered
the earth, and you and instead OF
sitting in the MONDAY light OF our
glorious Christianity might have been
cropping in the depressing shadows OF
Parseeism, religion which is rs in
ferior to that which is our inspiration
| in life, and our hope in death, rs
Zoraster of Persia was inferior to our
radiant and superhuman Christ, to
whom be honor and glory and domin'
| ion and victory and song, world With
out end Amen.
Children Like Snakes.
There is said to be a samilyin Gray