536 The National Geographic Magazine 



Interior of Fire Temple 



There are some thirty fire temples in Bombay. The picture shows the sacred fire and 

 attending priests in the Aujuman, or Community, fire temple at Dhobie Talao, Girguam 

 Road, Bombay. 



HIGHLY EDUCATED AND PROGRESS- 

 IVE PEOPLE 



It will be of interest to note the per 

 cent of literacy of this people in com- 

 parison with the principal races of the 

 Bombay presidency, as obtained by the 

 last government census. The popula- 

 tion of the presidency of Bombay, in- 

 cluding the native states, is given at 

 25,435,000 of people. The literacy 

 of the inhabitants of the entire presi- 

 dency is given at 6.4 per cent. The 

 literacy of the Hindoos is given as 60 ; 

 the Mohammedans as 41 ; the Jains as 

 270 ; the Brahmins at 320 ; the Parsees 



at 650 per 1,000 of their respective 

 people. In point of intelligence, edu- 

 cation, wealth, refinement, and public 

 charity, the Parsee stands preeminently 

 at the head of all the races of Western 

 India. 



There are perhaps few, if any, large 

 cities where the death rate approaches 

 that of Bombay, yet it speaks well for 

 the sanitation and vitality of the Parsee 

 community, on observing the compara- 

 tive death rate of the different races in 

 Bombay, that the Parsees are next low- 

 est to the Europeans. It might be fur- 

 ther stated that the European in India 



