El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-07-30
FRANK G.. lCARPENTER's LETTER.
THE FIRE NORSH|PERS Of INDIA

of publication. They use sacred fire
in their domestic rites today, and at
their weddings a fire is lighted by a
priest and the bride and groom walk
around it. Akbar, the great MOham-
medan emperor of northern India
made his own sacred fire by lighting
piece of cotton through a crystal
lens with the rays of the sun. He used
this burning glass several times every
year, and all the fires of his household
were started that way.
ZorOaster the Prophet.
The Parsees are often called disci-
pies Of ZOroaster- This man belonged
to the Magi; he held the same faith
as the wise men who followed the star
to the stable when Christ was born
at Bethlehem. 1t IS one of the oldest
of religions and was worshiped by Cy
rus the Great Zoroaster was a boy of
II at the time Jerusalem was taken
by NebuchadnezZar. He lived in north
ern Persia and the old Persian writings
chronicle many miracles as TO his birth
and life. He went through a period
of religious preparation and at 80 re-
ceiyed a revelation and came forth to
reform the old creed of the Magi. He
had many visions. He saw the one
God, and was tempted again and again
| by the spirit of darkness but always
came off triumphant. During his life
he converted Vishtaspa, one of the great
kings of that time, and his religion
spread all over Persia. 1t was the
| chief religion there for many years. but
is now beloved alone by the Parsees.
A white haired, silver bearded old
! follower of this faith tells me that
| one of the chief elements of the re-
ligion is belief that the soul is i'm
mortal, and that all human beings are
| free moral agents, and therefore re-
! sponsible. They believe in rewards and
punishments. and that in this life we
settle our future existence. AS to the
! Parsee God, he Is called the Doer, the
! Creator and the Governor of the
| World. He is the emblem of glory and
light, and for this reason the Parsee
when he worships stands before the
| fire or turns his face to the son as
the symbol of the Almighty.
The Towers of Silence.
| 1t seems strange to think of a beau
tiful, well bred, Intelligent woman, the
wife of a millionaire, fighting in the
courts OF India for her right to Parsee
burial. This means that at death she
will be laid naked upon one of the
Towers of Silence, and have the flesh
picked from her bones by a flock of
yultures which have always fed upon
human flesh. This is the universal
Parsee disposition OF the dead. They
do not bury the body in the earth nor
burn it, Fire is too holy and sacred
| to be defiled with corpse and the
work Of the worms is too slow and too
vile. Instead they lay their bodies out
in the open on an iron grating under
the sky and the birds pick the bones
The place where the towers of the
dead stand is a beautiful one. II is on
Malabar hill, an elevation rising al
most straight up from the sea, and
washed by the winds from the ocean
The hill is covered with a beautiful
garden You walk up to it over well
paved roads shaded by tropical trees
and bordered with flowers and shrubs
Winding your way through this lux
sriant vegetation, you at last reach a
point from whence you can see far out
over the Indian ocean, and turning land
ward view the whole of Bombay. Here
among the trees at one side. shut off
by an iron railing so that none but the
priests may enter, stand five great cir
cular towers white as the bones
which lie on their top
Laid Upon a GridirOn.
Each tower is about 25 feet in height
and 80 feet in diameter. 1t is crown
ed with a grating or great circular
gridiron which slopes toward the cen
ter, where we'll five feet in width
runs down to the sea-
The gridiron grating is cast in sec
tons and so formed that there are foot
paths here and there through ii. in
each tower there are certain divisions
for the classes of the dead One sec
ton is devoted TO the bodies of men.
another to those of women and third
TO the children, the last part nearest |
the well. The bodies are stripped
naked before they are placed upon the
towers, and after the flesh has been
h.
tons are left TO bleach and dry in the
sun.
The bodies are taken into the towers
by Two bearded men dressed all in
white These are the carriers of the
dead AT every funeral they take the
corpse and, entering the tower
through an opening about eight feet
from the ground, walk up a flight of
steps and place il upon its proper loca-
tion- After it has been stripped bv the
birds, and has become perfectly dry
they take tongs and throw the bones
into the well, where they are left 70
crumble to dust
These towers are we'll drained. The
heavy rains of the tropics fall upon
them and the water goes off into the
sea and there are filters below them
filled with charcoal so that all is kept
clean. Indeed. the bone dust accumu-
lates so slowly that it takes 40 years
TO make it rise to five feet.
Look at the VuItures.
shall never forget my visit to
these towers of silence. None but the
Parsees can go close to them, and it
was through a Parsee of high rank
that I gained admittance. Climbing
the hill with one of the sections, I made
my way about through the paths of
a garden comprising perhaps so acres
of trees and flowers. 1 was shown
the Parsee temple and then taken to
a place where 1 could overlook the
great towers.
At first each seemed to me huge
cylinder of white with a frieze or
coping OF mighty black birds As I
continued TO look the birds sprang into
life. They raised their heads and
craned their necks, and I thought they
imagined us corpse bearers. 4 moment
later a funeral made its way up the
hill, and I saw that they were gazing
at it. In front came the two carriers