Gannes, Gurnres, or Gaurs, worshippers of fire, 
is the name of a religious sect which has subsisted in 
Asia from a very ancient period. 
Mankind, in the most rude and barbarous state, are 
unavoidably sensible of the dissemination of light and 
heat by the sun. | His mee announces the day, 
while his absence covers the earth with darkness. is 
emanations are a powerful source of vegetation ; and 
summer, which ‘enables them to provide alike for tran- 
sient wants and future necessities, is denoted by his 
more protracted appearance. Hence it is not surpris- 
ing, if, in-grati for the benefits conferred by this 
luminary, some marks of adoration have followed, Men, 
in most and in most countries, have worshi 
the sun; and fire, in his:absence, has been substituted 
asa , under different characters. Among the 
ancient nations following this practice, the Romans are 
most familiar tous, who preserved sacred fire, which 
was never to be extinguished, and which was guard- 
ed by the vestal virgins. But, anterior to their era, it 
appears that the worship of fire was widely spread over 
rove, i pe rien eras established form, acknow- 
edged and receiv: a roportion of the inha- 
bitants long before the birth of Christ. A celebra- 
ted phil er, Zoroaster, is reported to have either 
founded a ‘sect distinguished from all others by the 
adoration of fire, or, which is more consonant with 
the customs of mankind; to have reduced the practice 
to systematic order. Miraculous events attended his 
origin; his life was, like that of all other lawgivers, 
a tissue of extraordinary occurrences; and, accord- 
. Ing to'some of his followers, he was taken up into 
heaven, instead of dying a natural death. Zoroaster 
was born about 589 years ‘before Christ, and his dis- 
ciples subsisted in Persia until the overthrow of Jez- 
dedjerd, king of that country, by the Mahometan Ca- 
liph Omar ; whence historians date the era of the mo- 
dern Gabres from ‘the ‘first year of the reign 
sovereign. Some months after the death of Jezdedjerd, 
Gabres the persecution of thé M: tans induced many of 
them to withdraw to Kohistan, a mountainous. dis- 
‘trict in the present province of Khorassan, where they 
dwelt for an’-hundred years. They subsequently emi- 
grated to the island of Ormuz, in the Persian Gulf, 
where they remained fifteen years stationary ; and then, 
sailing for’ India,‘ landed ‘at Diu. But, on consulting 
certain oracular declarations in their sacred ‘writings, 
they discovered that their residence was not auspicious 
here ; fi lh apcenne. themselves to the sea, 
réached a fertile part of the ‘coast, having experienced 
a frightful tempest on the voyage. The prince of this 
territory received them favourably ; but observing them 
servance of five s te conditions, before granting 
them permission to land ; namely, that they should ex- 
plain the mysteries of their faith, lay aside their arms, 
a the language of India, and also that their women 
should appear unveiled, and that their nuptials, accord- 
ing to the custom of the country, should be performed 
at night. The Gabres, finding nothing in their books 
adverse to these conditions, gladly assented, and land- 
VOL. X. PART L. 
GABRES. 
of this” 
to be numerous and well armed, he engaged the ob-— 
65 
G. 
ed, professing their desire for peace and tranquillity. ¢, 
On the other hand, the Indians, discovering ‘the om ae 
of some of their principles to their own, permitted Account of 
em to settle where they ose; and a portion of ground ‘heir remo- 
being selected, they built a city on it, which was cal. Y*!* India. 
led jan. Probably, in relation to the place from 
whence they had emigrated, they are more generally 
called Parsees, and have subsisted towards a thousand 
years in Guzerat and other parts of the coast of India. 
Soon after their arrival, they obtained a new grant of 
land, whereon they erected a temple dedi to fire, 
in pursuance of a former vow, if they should escape the 
storm that had assailed them. Here they remained 
united for about three centuries after the death of Jez 
dedjerd, when they di ed to Baroach, Surat, and’ 
other places, while, in the lapse of two more, their city 
was gradually tbat on he ‘sovereign of Guzerat, 
however, being threatened by an invasion of Maho- 
métans, anxiously. recalled them, on which occasion. 
1400 were found capable of bearing arms; but many 
of their number fell in an engagement with the enemy. 
Their city was Bs d, and the survivors fled, carry- 
ing the sacred fire along with them, in quest of another 
establishment, which they successively found and aban- 
doned. The fire was conveyed from place to place 
during several centuries, and at last the Gabres found 
an asylum in Surat, Bombay, and various settlements 
on the coast of Malabar, where they enjoy the full and 
undisturbed exercise of their religion. 
Part of the original stock remained in Persia, their Account of 
native country, where they seem to have experienced the Gabres. 
even a harder fate than those who emigrated. In con- ™ Persia. 
sequence of the oppressions of their conquerors, the 
arts known among them declined, they lost all know- 
ledge of their own origin and history, and became a 
poor and degraded race. At present they are. treated 
with the utmost rigour, and most of them have, in con- 
sequence, been compelled either to emigrate, or to ab- 
jure the religion of their ancestors. In addition to 
other oppressions, they are subjected to a capitation 
tax of twenty piastres by the Persian government. The: 
greater proportion inhabit the shores of the Caspian ; 
and the cities of Ispahan, no longer the capital of the — 
empire, Yezd, and Kerman. The suburb of the first, 
which they occupy, is called Gaurabad, and in the . 
same quarter is a. bri called the Gaurs Bridge. 
About a fourth part of the population of Yezd, which 
contains 20,000 houses, consists of Gabres. But the 
principal resort of old,. though now exhibiting only a 
few scattered Reger Sis was a place in the neighbour- 
hood of the'city of Badku, on the peninsula Abscharon, 
on the Caspian Sea. Here a natural phenomenon has 
seryed to promote their faith, and rivet them in the ado- 
ration of fire. About 10 miles north-east of the city, is 
what is called Atash Kudda, or fire temple of the Ga- 
bres, a remarkable spot, something less than a mile in 
circumference, from the centre of which a bluish lambent 
flame is seen to arise. When the wind blows, it is ele- 
vated to about eight feet in height, but it is lower in 
still weather. All around. this place an‘ invisible va- 
pour escapes on digging up two or three inches of the 
k 
