YARROW. ] PARSEE BURIAL. 105 
No one is allowed to enter the towers except the corpse-bearers, nor 
is any one permitted within thirty feet of the immediate precincts. A 
model was shown Mr. Williams, and from it he drew up this description: 
Imagine a round column or massive cylinder, 12 or 14 feet high and at least 40 feet 
in diameter, built throughout of solid stone except in the center, where a well, 5 or 6 
feet across, leads down to an excavation under the masonry, containing four drains 
at right angles to each other, terminated by holes filled with charcoal. Round the 
upper surface of this solid circular cylinder, and completely hiding the interior from 
view, is a stone parapet, 10 or 12 feet in height. This it is which, when viewed from 
the outside, appears to form one piece with the solid stone-work, and being, like it, 
covered with chunam, gives the whole the appearance of a low tower. The upper 
surface of the solid stone column is divided into 72 compartments, or open receptacles, 
radiating like the spokes of a wheel from the central well, and arranged in three con- 
centric rings, separated from each other by narrow ridges of stone, which are grooved 
to act as channels for conveying all moisture from the receptacles into the well and 
into the lower drains. It should be noted that the number “3” is emblematical of 
Zoroaster’s three precepts, and the number ‘‘72” of the chapters of his Yasna, a por- 
tion of the Zend-Avesta. 
Each circle of open stone coffins is divided from the next by a pathway, so that 
there are three circular pathways, the last encircling the central well, and these three 
pathways are crossed by another pathway conducting from the solitary door which 
admits the corpse-bearers from the exterior. In the outermost circle of the stone 
coffins are placed the bodies of males, in the middle those of the females, and in the 
inner and smallest circle nearest the well those of children. 
While I was engaged with the secretary in examining the model, a sudden stir 
among the vultures made us raise our heads. At least a hundred birds collected 
round one of the towers began to show symptoms of excitement, while others swooped 
down from neighboring trees. The cause of this sudden abandonment of their pre- 
vious apathy soon revealed itself. A funeral was seen to be approaching. However 
distant the house of a deceased person, and whether he be rich or poor, high or low 
in rank, his body is always carried to the towers by the official corpse-bearers, called 
Nasasaldr, who form a distinct class, the mourners walking behind. 
Before they remove the body from the house where the relatives are assembled, 
funeral prayers are recited, and the corpse is exposed to the gaze of a dog, regarded 
by the Parsees as a sacred animal. This latter ceremony is called sagdid. 
Then the body, swathed in a white sheet, is placed in a curved metal trough, open 
at both ends, and the corpse-bearers, dressed in pure white garments, proceed with it 
towards the towers. They are followed by the mourners at a distance of at least 30 
feet, in pairs, also dressed in white, and each couple joined by holding a white hand- 
kerchief betweenthem. The particular funeral I witnessed was that of achild. When 
the two corpse-bearers reached the path leading by a steep incline to the door of the 
tower, the mourners, about eight in number, turned back and entered one of the 
prayer-houses. ‘ There,” said the secretary, ‘‘they repeat certain gdthds, and pray 
that the spirit of the deceased may be safely transported, on the fourth day after death, 
to its final resting-place.” 
The tower selected for the present funeral was one in which other members of the 
same family had before been laid. The two bearers speedily unlocked the door, rey- 
erently conveyed the body of the child into the interior, and, unseen by any one, laid 
it uncovered in one of the open stone receptacles nearest the central well. In two 
minutes they reappeared with the empty bier and white cloth, and scarcely had they 
closed the door when a dozen vultures swooped down upon the body and were rapidly 
followed by others. In five minutes more we saw the satiated birds fly back and lazily 
settle down again upon the parapet. They had left nothing behind but a skeleton. 
Meanwhile, the bearers were seen to enter a building shaped like a high barrel. There, 
