534 The National Geographic Magazine 



plans, and they are well ventilated. 

 Their villas or garden houses are some 

 of the best in Bombay. The drawing- 

 rooms are richly furnished and deco- 

 rated and the walls adorned with land- 

 scapes and historical pictures, while the 

 particular boast of a Parsee is to have 

 his house brilliantly lighted with many 

 lamps and chandeliers of every descrip- 

 tion. 



A great improvement has taken place 

 among the Parsees in their mode of 

 taking meals. Years ago they used, 

 like the Hindoos, to eat them squatting 

 on the ground, and the viands were 

 served to them in a brass dish, on which 

 they were all spread out at the same time, 

 a practice still in vogue among the poorer 

 classes. The better classes have for a 

 long time past adopted the table and 

 chair, with all the usual accompaniments 

 of a European dinner. At large parties 

 the table is spread out in En glish fashion , 

 instead of as formerly, when hundreds 

 sat in a line in rows upon an oblong 

 sheet of cotton cloth laid upon the floor, 

 each eating his food off a plantain leaf 

 upon which it was laid out. 



The public and private schools of 

 Bombay are largely attended by their 

 children, and every effort is made to pro- 

 cure translations of standard English 

 books. As a matter of fact it may be 

 said that the Parsees are very progress- 

 ive, and that it is only necessary for 

 them to understand the value and ad- 

 vantage of whatevermay be offered them 

 to induce them to accept it with eager- 

 ness. 



PUBLIC-SPIRITED GENEROSITY 



At present they seem to have lost all 

 their military spirit. Many follow com- 

 mercial and mercantile pursuits, some 

 of them being the wealthiest merchants 

 in India, while others have obtained 

 high favor in government offices or have 

 won distinction by reason of their char- 

 itable gifts. Four Parsees have been 

 especially honored by the late Queen 



Victoria. The heads of two families 

 have been made baronets — Jamsetjee 

 Jeejeebhai and Dinshaw Maneckjee 

 Petit — and knighthood has been con- 

 ferred upon the late Kavasjee Jehangir 

 Ready money and M. M. Bhownagree, 

 at present representing the district of 

 Bethnal Green in the British House of 

 Commons. 



They provide for their own poor and 

 infirm. Strikingly strange, one never 

 sees in Bombay a Parsee soldier, servant, 

 or beggar. 



But their faultless generosity is 

 broader than their race, and many of 

 the fine public buildings, colleges, and 

 hospitals, of which Bombay is justly 

 proud, owe their origin and maintenance 

 to the liberality, wealth, public spirit, 

 and genius of the Parsees. Indeed, it is 

 a most significant fact that the one hun- 

 dred thousand followers of Zoroaster 

 who still tend the sacred flame, in spite 

 of their numerical insignificance, play 

 so large a part in the development of 

 India. 



A comparison of the political stand- 

 ing and social surroundings of the Parsee 

 community in Bombay with that of their 

 sister community in Persia furnishes 

 one of the most remarkable examples in 

 the whole range of English history of 

 the beneficence of British rule. 



It is interesting to relate that the 

 Parsees of Persia have been helped by 

 their wealthy kinsmen in Bombay, espe- 

 cially as regards their education and the 

 lightening of their political burdens. 

 The rupees which the Parsee commu- 

 nity has spent till now for the allevia- 

 tion of the sufferings of their followmen, 

 irrespective of caste or creed, are to be 

 counted in crores, and one of the hap- 

 piest and most remarkable features of it 

 is that this spirit of catholic charity 

 burns not only at home — that is, in the 

 country which they have adopted as 

 their own — but wherever they take 

 themselves, either for the pursuit of 

 business or pleasure. 



