48 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



nating country. For I know of no land that can com- 

 pare with it in point of architectural, historic, and 

 human interest, and no country that repays so well 

 a trip of sight-seeing and study. 



As one looks back at Bombay, one remembers 

 first of all that splendid seaside drive out to Mala- 

 bar Point, through the hot, spice-laden atmosphere, 

 where the fashionable carriages of Bombay society 

 dodge in and out among the lazy, swaying bullock- 

 carts, and the rich Parsee dashes in state past his 

 toiling low-caste brethren. One remembers it first 

 of all because it leads one past the Towers of 

 Silence; and gruesome as is their character, the 

 Towers of Silence, with their surrounding woods, 

 lawns, and gardens, have no counterpart. The 

 system which goes on within those ivy-covered 

 walls, which from their aspect suggest to the visitor 

 some grim mediaeval fortress, is as admirable as it 

 is startling. One of the chief tenets of the Parsee 

 religion is that fire, earth, and water, being sacred, 

 must not be polluted by contact with putrifying 

 flesh, so that their mortal remains may not be 

 burned, buried, or thrown into the sea. Hence the 

 bodies of their dead are taken and placed reverently 

 upon marble slabs within these circular battlements 

 there being three concentric circles, for the bod- 

 ies of men, women, and children respectively. 



