16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.61. 



which were removed from the body are thrown into a deep pit outside 

 the tower, which is purposel}^ made to receive them, and left to decom- 

 pose by heat, air, and rain. All the participants recite a last prayer, 

 undergo a religious purification, washing their faces, hands, and feet 

 with nirang and water, and perform the kusti ceremony. The nasa- 

 salars have to remain in segregation and pass through the Navshaheh 

 Barashnum purification which lasts nine days and nine nights. 



Eeligious services for the benefit of the deceased are kept up for 

 three days, during which, in the Parsee belief, the soul remains in 

 this world (see above, p. 7). The prayers, recited by a priest before 

 a burning fire fed with fragrant substance, are especially directed 

 to Sraosha, the guide and protector of the souls. On the fourth 

 day, on which the soul confronts the judgment at the chinvat bridge, 

 the ZJthama ceremony is performed, when after the service the rela- 

 tives of the deceased, if rich, give sums of money for charitable pur- 

 poses, feed the poor, and give presents to the priests. During this 

 time the mourners are required to abstain from every kind of flesh. 

 The female relatives sit on a carpet spread on the floor near the spot 

 where the dead body had lain and receive visits from their female 

 friends and connections. No food is prepared in the house before 

 the removal of the corpse, in some families not for the three subse- 

 quent days, it being provided for them by relatives and friends.^* 



The principal towers of silence in use at piesent by the Parsees are 

 on Malabar Hill, at Bombay, India. Height, 17^ inches; diameter, 

 28 inches; length of the platform, 48 inches; width, 40 inches. — 

 Bombay, India. (Plate 7, Cat. No.' 215412, U.S.N.M.) 



11. Toivcr of silence {Dakhma). — Model of wood, painted. Sim- 

 ilar to the preceding, No. 10. Height, lOf inches; diameter, 29 

 inches; length of base, 40 inches; width, 39^ inches. — Bombay, India. 

 (Cat. No. 301554, U.S.N.M.) Presented to the Library of Congress 

 in Washington, D. C, by Romonjee Dinshaw Petit in March, 1892, 

 and transferred by the Library of Congress to the United States 

 National Museum. 



" Among orthodox Jews a mourner, both male and female, for a near relative — father 

 or mother, son or daughter, brother or sister, wife or husband — is confined to the house 

 for seven days (hence the mourning is called Shih' ah, that is, seven), in which he sits on 

 the floor in stocking feet and has to refrain from manual labor or business transactions. 

 The first meal after the funeral is prepared by a neighbor. 



