BOMBAY 49 



Upon these battlements are perched some five hun- 

 dred vultures, waiting only for the pall-bearers or 

 Nasr Salars to withdraw ; a few minutes suffice ; the 

 bones of the dead, cleansed of mortal flesh, are then 

 allowed to remain until thoroughly bleached by sun 

 and rain, when they are reverently dropped into 

 the well which forms the centre of the circles. Here 

 they crumble into ashes, and are borne by covered 

 drains to four deep wells placed at equal distances 

 outside the towers, where, by passing through sand 

 and charcoal, they are purified before entering the 

 ground. Rich and poor thus meet together on a final 

 level of equality, and observe the injunction of their 

 religion, that " Mother earth shall not be defiled." 



The surrounding gardens form a cemetery, the 

 beauty, solemnity, and peacefulness of which bear 

 fitting tribute to the memory of the dead, and 

 cause the sight-seeking visitor to forget, in his 

 admiration of the reverence with which this admir- 

 able and most sanitary system is carried out, his 

 first feeling of repulsion and the sight of the grue- 

 some birds perched above him in attitudes of con- 

 tinual expectancy. 



Among all the various races in the world the 

 Parsees stand unique. Somewhere back in the dim 

 prehistoric ages, their ancestors formed one of the 

 greatest of Asiatic nations, having their home in 



