The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1894-12-26

there is no darkness at all!
We passed on up through gates into
the garden shat surrounds the place
where the Parsees dispose of their
dead. This garden was given by jam
shidii Jijibhai and is beautiful with |
flowers of all hue and foliage Of all |
styles of vein and notch and stature.
There is on all sides great opulence OF
fern and cypress The garden is 100
feet above the level of the sea. Not
far from the entrance is building
where the mourners of the funeral pro-
cession go in to pray A light is here
kept burning year in and year out.
We ascend the garden by some eight
stone steps The body Of deceased
aged woman was being carried in to-
ward the chief tower of silence"
There are five of these towers. Several
of them have not been used for a long
while. Four persons, whose business it
I it is to do this, carry the corpse. They
are followed by two men with long
boards. The tower of silence to which
they come cost $3.50, 900 and is % feet
high and 9T6 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 the women, the
inside row for the children. The life
less bodies arc leftexposed 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 whitcwashed wall of
the tower of silence. In few minutes
they nave taken the last particle of
flesh from the bones. There had evil
IDENTIFY been other opportunities for
them that day, and some few away, as
though surfeited. They sometimes
carry away with them parts of body,
, and it is no unusual thing for the gen
tlemen in their country seats to have
dropped into their dooryards bone
.
In the center of this tower is a well,
into which the bones are thrown after
they are bleached. The hot sun anc
. the Fainy season and charcoal do theil
work of disintegration and disinfec
ton, and then there are sluices tha'
, carry into the sea what remains of thu
: dead The wealthy people of Malabal
hill have made strenuous efforts t
q have these strange towers removed a
e nuisance, but they remain and vii
4 no doubt for ages remain.
e No such thing as caste among tn
d dead. Philosopher and boor, the affiu
d ent and the destitute must go throug
4 the same '.tower of silence" lie dow
It side by side with other occupants
il have their bodies dropped into tn
a same abyss and be carried out throug
n the same canal and float away on tn
,r same sea. No splendor of Metropolis
e. No sculpturing of mausoleum, N
It pomp of dome or obelisk. Zoroaster
At teaching resulted in these towers {
is silence" He wrote. Naked you can
a into the world, and naked you mu
re go out"
le AS stood at the close of day in tn
III garden on. Malabar hill and heard I'll
AZ flap of the vultures' wings coming fro
is their repast, the funeral custom of IL
ev Parsee seemed horrible beyond cor
n pare, and vet the dissolution of the h
man body by any mode is awful, al
nj the beaks of these fowl are probab
re no more repulsive than the worms
he the body devouring the sacred humi
nd form in cemeteries. Nothing but Il
10. resurrection day can undo the awf
ee work of death, whether it now be p
ad out of sight by cutting spade or flyil
to wing.
,ll Starting homeward we soon were
ce the heart of the city and saw bull
Mt ing all afiash with lights and resoun
es- ing with merry voices. 1t was Pars
ar wedding in building erected especi
ly for the marriage ceremony. We cal
,te to the door and proposed to go in, b
at first were not permitted. They 81
no. we were not Parsees, and that we we
not even natives. So, very politely, tn
in halted us on the doorsteps This tenn
of nuptials was chiefly occupied
Iod women, their ears and neclks and har
afame with jewels or limitations
nd Jewels. BY pantomime and G
ture as we had no use of their vocaI
md larry, we told them we were strang
and were curious to see by what p
| d.. .ol n1r,o
nat cess Farsees were marrieu' urauua
we worked our way inside the do
md The building and the surroundil
,yil were illumined by hundreds of eand
eds in glasses and lanterns, in unique 8
grotesque holdings. Conversation
its. high, and laughter bubbled over {
vii all was gay. Their there was a sol
!, of an advancing band of mu
full but the instruments for
on most part were strange to
ood ears and eyes. Louder and lou
were the outside voices and the W
vou and stringed instruments, until
nos procession halted at the door of
ay. temple and the bridegroom noun
on the steps. Then the music ceases,
all the voices were still. The mot
on of the bridegroom, with platter K
,ei,. ed with aromatics and articles of f
,ees confronted her son and began
AS address him. Then she took f
sun the platter a bottle of peri,
iple and sprinkled his face with the re
wly ence. All the while speaking il
aze droning tone, she took from
ave platter handful Of rice, throw
the some of it on his head, spilling s.
-. of Il ON his shoulder. pourinp som,