The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-14

They do not worship fire, but regard It
aS embamatic of divinty-hence the pop
uIar error OF terming them fire worship
pers. To the Parsis. ever impending death
is state of corruption, and the act of
stunning OFT this mortal coil is attended
by practices that seem to us nothing short
OF heartless and CHASTITY But a little uu-
pre1udiced reflection on the subject may
ROB II of some of its horrors. The APP
proach OF that transition we call death
IS signal for the relatives 20 leave the
presence of the dying one the priest
alone remaining to whisper the lend
AVesta precepts into his ear He in
turn, passes out of the room and admits
a dog, who is trained to gaze steadily
into the face of the dying one. A dog
can terrorize the evil spirits. so the "sas-
did" or dog stare" is the last night
the Parsi has on earth. No human shadow
must intervene, otherwise the guardian
virtue of the dogs gaze is annulled.
The body is removed In an iron caskot,
which is used for rich and poor alike. and
conveyed to the dakhma by the nassesa-
lars The life of these nassesalars, or
bearers of the dead, is peculiarly horri-
BILE one. They are worse off than the pa
rahs. for they live apart like lepers and
are deemed loathsome and polluted all the
time. They are born, marry, and die
strangers to all except those of their own
calling. They are not allowed in the mar
kets, and pass through the streets only on
their errands and from the dakhmas and
the houses of the dead. So loathsome is
the contamination of death to the Parsi
person recover consciousness after having
been brought TO the towers, the nassesa-
lars were instructed to kill him; but be-
lieVe law has been passed which permits
such cases to rejoin their families.
1t is curious fact that the Vultures are
said TO discriminate between real death
and the semblance, and refrain from
touching a body in which life is not ex-
tinct, flying away with such shrieks as
to attract attention, for silence usually
reigns supreme here. In Bombay there
are six towers of varying size. The word
tower is misleading, as the round build
ings are from tixty to eighty feet I'm diam
eter and twenty feet high There is no
roof or window and only one small door,
opening toward the east. 1t is not per-
mitted to approach within fifty feet of
the towers, but a model Is shown in an
adjoining building. The interior Is ar
ranged in three broad circles. divided into
365 partitions and sloping towards CEN
trail well. The outermost row Is for men,
the middle one for women, and the in
terror one for children, the three-fold cir
Gle being symbolical OF the Zoroastrian
virtues-pure thoughts, kind words, good
deeds.
The mourners of the dead remain in the
prayer-houSe while the body Is conveyed
to the dakhma. final prayer Is pro-
nounced by the priest from a distance. the
dogs stare is repeated. and the nassesalars
silently pass their burden through the
small iron door, deposit II i'm its appointed
place remove the covering of white rags
which are the regulation shrouds for all
ranks and ages, and as silently close the
door ana DIOCetu 10 DuIH AuG uedIn
clothes The vultures that line the wall
of the dakhmas are imported from Persia,
as the Indian variety failed to perform
their duty with the necessary dispatch,
which is accomplished in from fifteen to
thirty minutes. A week or two la
ter the tropical sun has bleached the bones
10 the point Of disintegration, when the
nassesalers remove them with tOngs to
the central well, which il lined with gran
tie and furnished with beds of sand and
charcoal. The Pausi religion forbids the
pollution OF the elements, and after this
filtration Of any fluid there may be land
there Is much at the time of the monsoon,
IT passes through drain pipes far into the
sea.
The Idea of the vultures is. upon first
contemplation, a truly horrible dispOsi-
ton Of mortal remains, but we must ad-
mite that this terrible half hour Is far
surpassed by the horrors OF months OF de-
cay and mOldering I'm damp graveyards to
which we for centuries have condemned
the dead to the peril of the living.
on the whole, the Parss are by far the
most enlightened, the most progressive
aud tolerant OF all the races in India. And
this does not apply 10 the men alone as
Is countenanced by other eastern nations.
They minglc TO some extent with Euro
ropeans, and take a higher form Of educa-
ton than IL common here. I remember
with genuine pleasure meeting two Parsls
ladies who had just been graduated from
the Bombay Medical College where they
had taken the two years course for the
purpose Of alleviating 10 some extent the
sufferlngs Of Indian women. who on ac-
count OF their religious gcruples arc de-
barred from male medical ATTENDANCE.