14 PKOCEEDIiSrOS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.61. 



9. Suit of a Parsee schoolgirl. — It consists of the sudra and kusti 

 (for which see under No. 7) ; trousers of blue silk, richly embroidered; 

 white silk waist, embroidered in various colors; skullcap of cotton; " 

 and a flat, rimless hat, adorned all over with silver embroidery. — 

 Bombay, India. (Plate 6. showing a Parsee family. Cat. No. 4009, 

 U.S.N.k) 



10. Toiver of silence (Dakhma) . — Model of wood, painted. The 

 rules of clean and unclean and the purifications necessary to repair 

 witting or unwitting infractions of them constitute a large part of 

 practical religion of Zoroastrianism. It is the outcome of the belief 

 that the elements, fire, water, earth, and air are the creations and 

 sublime gifts of Ahura-Mazda, and that on the preservation of their 

 purity depended the weal and welfare of the world. Uncleanliness 

 in the religious sense is considered a demonic contagion, and the 

 sphere in which the presence and agency of demons is most clearly 

 seen is death, and here the greatest precautions must be taken. In- 

 expiable is the sin that one commits by bringing a corps, a carcass, 

 or any impure object in contact with the elements. If a corpse be 

 found in the water of a well, a pond, or running stream, the water is 

 not fit to drink until the corpse is removed and a great part of the 

 vrell or stream is dravrn off. A field in which a dead body is found 

 lying must remain fallow for a year. The ground in which a body 

 has been buried is unfit for agriculture for fifty years. Even if a 

 man lets fall and remain on earth a bone, a nail, hair, or any like 

 thing he commits a grievous sin. The Parsees, accordingl}^, neither 

 burn or bury their dead nor consign them to water, but expose them 

 on mountain heights upon the so-called toAvers of silence (dakhmas) 

 to be consumed by vultures. 



The dakhma is a circular structure of stone, from 60 to 90 feet in 

 diameter and from 20 to 30 feet in height, open at the top and re- 

 sembling a gasometer. Inside is a circular platform paved with large 

 stone slabs, called pavis, upon which the dead bodies are laid. The 

 pavis are ranged in three concentric rows, the outer being for men, 

 the middle for women, and the inner for children. The pavis are 

 separate from each other by ridges, called dandas, which are about 

 an inch in height above the level of the pavis, and channels are cuit 

 into the pavis for the purpose of conveying all the liquid matter flow- 

 ing from the corpse and rainwater into the pit. The "heaven-sent 

 birds," which are always in the vicinity, swoop down upon the corpse 

 as soon as it is exposed, and it is said that it is quite stripped of flesh 

 in an hour or two. In the center of the platform is a pit {hhandar) 

 about 30 feet in diameter, from which four drains lead into four 

 wells sunk in the ground outside of the tower. Into this pit the 



13 The Parsees consider it sinful to leave the head uncovered either by day or night 

 hence neither a man nor a female is ever without some head covering. 



