Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-03-03
PAkSEES ARE ANCIENT.
THEIR ANCESTRY APPEARED AT
THE VERY DAWN OF HISTORY
THEY OCCUPIED PERSIA.
FIRST ASIATIC RACE.
God, According to Parsee Faith, Is the
Creator, Preserver and Ruler
of the Universe.

An interesting article on The Parsees
and the Towers of Silence at Bombay,
India" is the leading contribution in
the December issue of The National
Geographic Magazine 1t is from the
pen of William Thomas Fee United
States consul general at Bombay, who
says in foreword that it was written
during hours in the night time lat sea-
sons when the excessive heat of India
prevented Dame Nature from perform
ing her part of the sweet restorer.
Mr.. Fee says the Parsees. although
few in number comparatively. occupy
one of the foremost places among In
dian natiOnalities. Their ancestry ap-
pcared at the very dawn of history and
they occupied Persia when Abraham
was . nomadic wandcrer. The Parsees
claim that their ancestral race was the
foremost Asiatic nation of their time
Followers of Zoroaster.
In religion, the Parsees are followers
of Ioroaster, the scripture of whose
faith. the Parsee Bible, is the ''Zend-
Ayesta," or "Avesta and Its Zend."
God, according to the Parsee faith, is
the creator, preserver and ruler of the
universe IOroaster, the Parsee Moses.
appears as being of supernatural en-
dOwments and as receiving from the SUI
preme divinity, by personal interviews,
by questions and answers, the truths
which he is to communicate to man.
The doctrine of the resurrection of the
b0rE at the time of the last judgment is
claimed as a genuine Zoroastrian dogma,
without the slightest trace of its being
borrowed from a foreign source.
When the Persian empire of Sas-
Sanides was destroyed by the Saracens
i'll COL A. d., the great mass of the ma
ton was forced to adopt the faith of
Islamism, the religion of their Moham-
medan conquerorS, but small number
chung to the old Zoroastrian faith and
took refuge in the wilderness of the Per
Sian province of khoraSan. After many
wanderings and much persecution, in the
Eighth century they emigrated to India
and settled at Sanjan, in the neighbor-
hood of Surat Here they lived for some
seven hundred years, in tranquility and
the full enjoyment of their religious
rites. About the time of TIE discovery of
America, the government of the Hindoo
rajah under whom they lived was over
thrown by Il Northumberland Afghan con-
rverer. The Parsees were loyal to the
Indian kings who had given their an
cestors refuge, and rallied to the stand
ard of the rajahs. But disaster was
new homes in other parts of the Guzerat.
1t was probably some time after this
when the ParseeS arrived in Bombay.
AS sect in Persia they have disap-
peared under religious prosecutions, and
have sunk in ignorance and poverty.
Intermarriage Observed.
The custom of intcrmarriage among
their own people is rcligiously observed
by the Parsees. Tradition has ii that
after the exodus to India there was a
paucity of females among them and con-
sequent intermarriage with 1lndooS, but
this intimation of racial mixture is not
acknowledged by the Parsees OF today.
For some 1900 years the Parsees have
lived a mere handful of people among
the allabsorbent Hindoos, and have not
been absorbed. During the last 300
wears the tranSmiSsiVc influence of an
Anglo-Saxon civilization has been re-
Elected upon them. Yet they remain
Parsees still; they have substantially
and transmitted the mann
of their ancestral race.
Physically. the parsees are tall and
Greet, having remarkably small hands
and feet. with facial features resembling
the Europeans. They have quickneSs
of action bordering on nervousness.
Their haiv x Jet black and their eyes
are dark In their manners they are
exceedingly polite, kind. and hospitah,e.
often putting themselves to great incon-
ypnieuce to accommodate Il stranger.
They are religiously abstemious. and
are exceedingly temperate in the use of
tobacco aud intoxicantS Excepting, per-
hans. fish. fowl and mutton. the 'HrSeos
are not II meat-eating people. Like most
Oriental nations, their principal food is
rice, which is served in cdrrieS and in
Hundred different ways.
Women Treated Well.
The parSeeS were never known to have
the barbarous custom of the
'Suttee," the burning of the widow nn
the funeral pyre with the corpse of her
husband. They are also free from the
caste system SO rigidly maintained by the
Hindoos Their women are treated
with respectful consideration.
As separate community the parSepS
have not only their peculiar religion. but
n lSO their own moral code, and rs y civil
body they are not only permitted. but
also aided 10y the state, in enforcing their
own laws % marriage and divorce. They
are inhued with q spirit of federation
and are most respectful toward the re-
ligionS of others.
There is now marked desire ON the
part of the rarSeeS To adapt themselves
- the manners and customs of the Flu.
ropeanS. The educated and influential
classes have already adopted in their do
nestle life the comforts convenieuces.
ciegancieS. and coStlneSS OF the Euro
pean style. great Improvement has
taken place among the parseeS also in
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