The Parsees of India 



553 



is a circular platform, about 270 feet in 

 circumference, and entirely paved with 

 large stone slabs, and divided into three 

 rows, called "pavis," for the bodies of 

 the dead. As there are the same num- 

 ber of pavis in each concentric row, 

 they diminish in size from the outer to 

 the inner ring. 



THE DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD 



The outside row is used for the bodies 

 of males, the next for those of females, 

 and the third or inner row for those of 

 children. These receptacles or 1 ' pavis ' ' 

 are separated from each other by ridges 

 called "dandas," which are about an 

 inch in height above the level of the 

 pavis, and channels are cut into the 

 pavis for the purpose of conveying all 

 the liquid matter flowing from the 

 corpses and rainwater into a ' ' bhandar ' ' 

 or a deep hollow, in the form of a pit, 

 the bottom of which is paved with stone 

 slabs. This pit forms the center of the 

 tower. 



When the corpse has been completely 

 stripped of its flesh by the vultures, 

 which is generally accomplished within 

 an hour at the outside, and when the 

 bones of the denuded skeleton are per- 

 fectly dried by the powerful heat of a 

 tropical sun and other atmospheric in- 

 fluences, they are thrown into this pit, 

 where they crumble into dust, the rich 

 and poor thus meeting together after 

 •death in one common level of equality. 



Four drains are constructed leading 

 from the bottom of the pit. They com- 

 mence from the surroundiug wall of the 

 bhandar and pass beyond the outside of 

 the tower into four wells sunk in the 

 ground at equal distances. At the 

 mouth of each drain charcoal and sand- 

 stones are placed for purifying the fluid 

 before it enters the ground, thus ob- 

 serving one of the tenets of the Zoroas- 

 trian religion, that " The mother earth 

 shall not be defiled." The wells have 

 a permeable bottom, which is covered 

 with sand to a height of 5 to 7 feet. 



However distant may be the house of 

 a deceased person, whether rich or poor, 

 high or low in rank, he has always a 

 walking funeral. His body is carried 

 to the Towers of Silence on an iron bier 

 by official corpse-bearers, and is followed 

 in procession by the mourners, male 

 relatives, and friends, dressed in white 

 flowing full-dress robes, walking behind 

 in pairs, and each couple joined hand in 

 hand by holding a white handkerchief 

 between them in sympathetic grief. 



This mode of disposing of the dead, 

 which the Parsees have practiced for 

 countless generations, is repulsive to 

 the sentiment of nations accustomed to 

 bury their dead in the ground ; but it is 

 thoroughly sanitary, and clears away 

 most effectually one of the greatest dif- 

 ficulties encumbering, the path of san- 

 itary reformers in great cities. 



According to their religion, earth, fire, 

 and water are sacred and very useful to 

 man, and to avoid their pollution by 

 contact with putrefying flesh, the faith 

 strictly enjoins that the dead bodies 

 shall not be buried in the ground, burnt, 

 or thrown into the rivers or sea. They 

 further claim that it really carries out 

 the doctrine of the equality of man more 

 satisfactorily than burying or burning, 

 since the bones of the whole community, 

 rich and poor, rest together at last in the 

 well within the Tower of Silence. 



A dismal impression is made at first 

 thought upon the foreigner by these 

 towers, where absolute silence has 

 reigned for centuries, and where, within 

 the last half century, more than fifty- 

 thousand Parsees have been exposed. 



THE VULTURES 



It is estimated that some five hundred 

 vultures make their homes in the lofty 

 tropical palms in the gardens that sur- 

 round the towers, and when a corpse is 

 exposed in one of them they swoop down 

 and do not rise again until all the flesh 

 has been devoured. Within its silent 

 precinct they are secluded and free from 



