216 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
members of the alpine churches of Piedmont, main- 
tained inviolable the tenets and institutions of their 
ancestors. They are subject to a prelatical hierarchy. 
The Parsees possess a considerable portion of the 
island, many among them being persons of great 
wealth and engaged in extensive commerce. In al- 
most every European house there is a Parsee part- 
ner, who supplies the principal portion of the ca- 
pital. These people are a quiet, inoffensive commu- 
nity, admirable men of business, universally shrewd 
and intelligent, and partial to the society of Eu- 
ropeans. They are a fine race, with handsome fea- 
tures, black, lively eyes, bushy beards, which they 
shave, except on the upper lip, light brown com- 
plexions, and remarkably expressive countenances. 
Their women, when young, are pretty; but they 
soon grow coarse, and their habits in general are 
filthy : there are indeed exceptions, but such are com- 
paratively rare. 
These people worship the elements, especially fire ; 
and numbers of them may be seen every morning at 
sunrise on the esplanade prostrating themselves before 
the great prototype of fire as he rises from the ocean, 
in the fresh and genial glory of his brightness, to fruc- 
tify and gladden the earth. The women are never 
seen among them during their devotions, in which they 
are not allowed to participate. 
The Parsees adhere rigidly to their ancient cus- 
toms. Their mode of burial is peculiar. Near Ma- 
labar point, and close by the shore, is their chief 
cemetery, a circular, uncovered building, from fifty 
to sixty feet in diameter, and near thirty feet high. 
