18S9-90.] A Journey from Bombay to Jeypore. 313 



to private families, while the two large circular towers are for 

 the general use of the Parsee community. 



The arrangements connected with the construction of these 

 buildings are with a view to the prevention of mother earth 

 being contaminated by dead humanity : thus sound sanitary 

 laws have been kept in view. The towers are built of the 

 hardest black granite, plastered over with white cincnam. 

 There are no roofs upon the towers, which are thus quite 

 open above. There is a pit in the centre of the building to 

 receive the bones of the bodies, which have been in the first 

 instance laid upon one or other of the circular tiers of the 

 sloping gallery above the sides of the pit which are separately 

 provided for men, women, and children. From the bottom of 

 the central pit are drains which carry off any rain-water into 

 wells filled with charcoal, through which it is filtered and puri- 

 fied. When a funeral approaches the enclosure in which these 

 buildings are situated, there is immediately a stir created 

 among the multitude of vultures sitting round the top of 

 the walls. They seem to waken up from their lethargy in 

 anticipation of the sickening feast in store for them. We 

 shall suppose a funeral has arrived at the gateway of the 

 sacred enclosure. It is there met by the priests who per- 

 form the sacred rites, and then the company, preceded by the 

 nasasalar or corpse-bearers, proceed to within a prescribed 

 distance of the door of the tower in which the body is to be 

 placed. The mourners then stop while the corpse-bearers go 

 on to the buildings, and, having unlocked the door, go inside, 

 taking the body with them. After a few minutes of suspense 

 they return without the body, and by this time the vultures 

 are holding high revelry behind the wall of the tower. A 

 Parsee believes that if the right eye of the body is plucked 

 out first by the vultures, the soul goes to heaven ; but if the 

 left is taken out first, the soul goes to the place of woe. Con- 

 sequently a good deal depends upon the amount paid to the 

 corpse-bearers as to where the soul of the deceased is sup- 

 posed to go. The corpse-bearers are highly paid, as they are 

 supposed to contract impurity in the discharge of their duties, 

 and are compelled to live apart from the rest of the community. 

 It is said that these peculiar funeral rites are observed by no 

 other people than the Parsees, and this makes the Towers of 



VOL. II. Y 



