8^0 The Wilson Bulletin — Xo. 90 



attained the age of three years. In this river were hundreds 

 of pious HindH.is taking their sacred baths, energetically scour- 

 ing their teeth, or drinking the water dipped up by the hand. 

 The immense numbe-r of tombs to be seen outside of some 

 of the cities tends to create the feeling that India is one vast 

 graveyard, but these are Mohammedan tombs, showing the 

 fruits of death's harvest for a few hundred years only. An- 

 other religious sect, the Parsee, holds that the elements are 

 too sacred to be polluted by the dead, hence their bodies can- 

 not be burned nor cast into the water as are the Hindu's, 

 neither must they desecrate the earth by burial therein. To 

 obviate these things Towers of Silence are provided on which 

 the bodies of dead Parsees are exposed to the Vultures — 

 the White-backed and the Long-billed are the species in Bom- 

 ba}'' that are said to frequent these towers, there being about 

 three hundred birds that divide their time between the towers 

 and the slaughter-houses. In Bombay the stated hours 

 for funerals are nine o'clock in the morning and five in 

 the afternoon. The Vultures begin to assemble regularly 

 an hour or two before funeral time. When I was there 

 at three p. m. from twenty to thirty birds had arrived 

 and were waiting on the walls. They are said tO' complete 

 their task within the space of two hours. There are five of 

 the towers ; some have p-rivate ownership, one is for crimi- 

 nals, suicides, and for the bodies of the unfortunate Parsees 

 that chance after death to be touched by some one outside 

 the caste. The principal tower is tweniy-five feet high and 

 nearly ninety feet in diameter. The approach to this strange 

 place is up a hill, through a little park made beautiful by trees 

 and flowers and the songs of bi-rds. 



Notwithstanding some unpleasant impressions the mem- 

 ories of India are mainly agreeable ones, and it appears to 

 be a prime favorite with most travelers. To one spot es- 

 pecially I longed daily to return. That was the natural his- 

 tory museum in Lucknow. It is my purpose to speak of it 

 mcwe fully in a chapter devoted to the museums that were 



