MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



467 



conditions, and a treaty to the fol- 

 lowing effect was drawn up. The 

 Cuebres shall have a place allotted 

 to them for the performance of 

 their religious and burial rites ; 

 they shall have lands for the main- 

 tenance of themselves and their 

 families ; they shall conform to the 

 Hindoo customs with regard to 

 marriages, and in their dress ; they 

 shall not carry arms ; they shall 

 speak the language of Guzerat, 

 that they may become as one peo- 

 ple with the original inhabitants ; 

 and the}'' shall abstain from killing 

 and eating the cow. To these 

 conditions the Parsees have scru- 

 pulously adhered, and they have 

 always been faithful to their pro- 

 tectors. 



The Parsees in British India en- 

 joy every privilege, civil and reli- 

 gious. They are governed by their 

 own panchait, or village council. 

 Tlie word pancha'it literally means 

 a council of five, but that of the 

 Guebres in Bombay consists of 

 thirteen of the principal merchants 

 of the sect ; these were chosen 

 originally by the people, confirmed 

 by the government, and have con- 

 tinued hereditary. This little coun- 

 cil decides all questions of property, 

 subject, however, to an appeal to 

 the recorder's court ; but an appeal 

 seldom happens, as the panchait is 

 jealous of its authority, and is 

 consequently cautious in its deci- 

 sions. It superintends all mar- 

 riages and adoptions, and inquires 

 into the state of every individual 

 in the community ; its members 

 vi^ould think themselves disgraced 

 if any Parsce were to receive as- 

 sistance from a person of a diffe- 

 rent faith ; accordingly, as soon as 

 the children of a poor roan arc old 



enough to marry, which, in con- 

 formity to the Hindoo custom, is 

 at five or six years of age, the 

 chief merchants subscribe a suffi- 

 cient sum to portion the child ; in 

 cases of sickness, they support the 

 individual or the family, and main- 

 tain all the widows and fatherless. 



The pancha'it consists both of 

 dustoors and lajmnen ; all religious 

 ceremonies and festivals come un- 

 der its cognizance, together with 

 the care of the temples, the adjust- 

 ing the almanack, and the subsist- 

 ence and life of the dogs. I could 

 not learn with certainty the origin 

 oftheextreme veneration ofthePar- 

 sees for this animal ; every morning 

 the rich merchants employ koolis 

 to go round the streets with bas- 

 kets of provision for the wild dogs ; 

 and, when a Parsee is dying, he 

 must have a dog in his chamber 

 to fix his closing eyes upon. Some 

 believe that the dog guards the 

 soul, at the moment of its separa- 

 tion from the bodv, from the evil 

 spirits ; others say that the venera- 

 tion for the dogs is peculiar to the 

 Indian Guebres, and that it arose 

 from their having been saved froru 

 shipwreck in their emigration to 

 India, by the barking of the dogs 

 announcing their approach to the 

 land in a dark night. 



The Parsees use some solemni- 

 ties when they name their chil- 

 dren, which is done at five or six 

 months old ; when the niuslia 

 shirt is put on the first time, a 

 sacred fire is lighted, prayers are 

 repeated, and the name is given. 

 Since their intercourse with Eu- 

 ropeans, they persist in calling this 

 ceremony christening, because it 

 is performed when the first or 

 proper name is given ; the second 



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