The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1909-09-30

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The pillars an ceilings ov this temple
air ov pure white marble an every
inch ov surface liz covered with fig
/ ures Of heather gods, human bein's,
animals, an flowers. In one great
hall maidens danced; in another war
riors fought; In a third flowers
bloomed, awl bein. chiseled out o!
marble In the best ov workmanship.
| When the Mohammedans conquered
and invaded India they destroyed
some ov the beautiful things found In
this temple. Lord Curzon, the Eng
lish Viceroy in India, attempted to
restore the temple to hits former
beauty. But he found that hit wuz
not possible to nnd marble to match
that in the temple, hence hit liz still
mystery whar that marble cum
from.
With awl hits riches India liz not
happy. The plague" still exists
This disease heZ killed countless
thousands in that country. It IL es-
timated that ten thousand people
VIC dd1Ay III Ii Oll tndL 0I5SdSC
alone. The best medical talent haz
bin employed fer years tryin' ter find
Ia preventive an remedy. but with
with only partial success.
Bombay IL the leadin' manufactur-
ing city in India. Here air many
large cotton mills. These mills air
owned and operated by natives to a
large extent. But English capital
and energy introduced the industry.
The Parsees air a peculiar religious
sect found in India, bein' especially
strong in an near Bombay. The He
brews claim to have been the first
believers in one God. But the Par
sees dispute the claim. Their sacred
books give history dating back az
much az three thousand years before
Christ, that IL, history ov the Par
sees. The members ov this religious
order, an they seem ter be religious,
dress in a neat but peculiar style,
both men and women, known az the
Parsee costume. The original mem
bers ov the denomination wuz most
ly Persians. When the Moslems
swept over Persia, conquerin' the
country, they tried to force the Par
sees to adopt the Moslem faith, the
Moslems bein' very much like the
members ov certain well-known
political party in the United States,
not religious, but arrogant an in
tolerant. The Parsees, or a portion
ov them, left Persia an located at an
near Bombay, India. For more than
nine hundred years they hev pre-
served their identity in heather India
an hev made gains, probably havin'
world. They hev made Hindu con-
verts. They use fire az a symbol be-
cause fire liz the purest thing on
earth an fire liz kept burnin' in their
temples day an mite.
The Parsees hes a peculiar form
ov burial ov their dead. Just out
side ov Bombay, near the sea, they
hev. in the midst ov beautiful gar
den, their flowers of Silence" These
are large circular buildin's without
roof. Within the wall liz a circular
platform slopin' downward to a deep
well in the center. When a Parsee
dies he or she liz prepared for burial
an the body liz carried to this garden
or buildin'. an IL placed naked upon
the platform which slants in the d.
rection ov the well. Az soon az the
friends ov the departed leave the vul-
lures which stay in an about the
flowers of Silence" swoop down up
on the corpse an do not rise until
the bones air bare. The skeletons
finally fall into the we'll in the CEN
ter, where rich an poor, good an
bad, mingle their bones together
awaitin' eternity. A fixed rate ov five
rupees liz charged if the relatives air
able to pay hit; if not, hit comes from
a common burial fund. Hit liz indeed
strange that people who seem to be
so intelligent. so religious, should