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ployed in digging in the mines. The third began in the 
third year of Trajan, in the year ioo, and was carried on 
with great violence for feveral years. The fourth was 
under Antoninus the Philofopher, when the Chridians 
were baniflied from their houfes, forbidden to (how their 
heads,reproached,beaten, hurried from place to place, plun¬ 
dered, imprifoned, and (toned. The fifth began in the 
year j97, under the emperor Severus. The fixth began 
with the reign of the emperor Maximinus in 235. The 
feventh. which was the mod dreadful perfecution that 
had ever been known in the church, began in the year 
250, in the reign of the emperor Decius, when the Chrif- 
tians were in all places driven from their habitations, 
dripped of their edates, tormented with racks, &c. The 
eighth began in the year 257, in the fourth year of the 
reign of the emperor Valerian. The ninth was under the 
emperor Aurelian, A. D. 274; but this was very incon- 
liderable ; and the tenth began in the 19th year of Dio- 
clefian, A. D. 303. In this dreadful perfecution, which 
laded ten years, houfes filled with Chridians were fet on 
fire, and whole droves were tied together with ropes and 
thrown into the fea. But, as to the difpute whether there 
were more or fewer of thefe perfecutions, fee the article 
Martyr, vol. xiv. p. 451, 2. 
PER'SECUTOR, f. One who harafles others with con¬ 
tinued malignity.—Henry rejedfed the pope’s fupremacy, 
but retained every corruption befides, and became a cruel 
perfecutor. Swift. 
What man can do againd them, not afraid. 
Though- to the death ; againd fuch cruelties 
With inward confolations recompens’d ; 
And oft fupported fo, aslhall amaze 
Their prouded perfecutors. Milton's P. L. 
PER'SEES, or Parsees, the defeendants of a colony of 
ancient Perfians, who took refuge at Bombay, Surat, and 
in the vicinity of thofe cities, when their own country was 
conquered 1100 years ago by the Mahometan Arabs. 
They are a gentle, quiet, and indudrious, people, loved 
by the Hindoos, and living in great harmony among 
themfelves. The confequence is, that they multiply 
exceedingly, whild their countrymen in the province of 
Keman are vifibly diminilhing under the yoke of the 
Mahometan Perfians. 
The Perfees were till lately but very little known : the 
ancients fpeak of them but feldom, and what they fay 
feems to be dictated by prejudice. On this account Dr. 
Hyde, who thought the lubjedt both curious and intered- 
ing, about the end of the 17th century attempted a deeper 
invedigation of a fubject which till then had been but 
very little attended to. He applied to the works of Ara¬ 
bian and Perfian authors, from whom, and from the rela¬ 
tions of travellers, together with a variety of letters from 
perfonsin India, he compiled his celebrated work on the 
religion of the Perfees. Other accounts have been given 
by diderent men, as accident put information in their 
way. But the molt didinguilhed is by M- Anquetil du 
Perron, who undertook a voyage to difeover and tranflate 
the works attributed to Zoroader. Of this voyage he 
drew up an account himfelf, and read it before the Royal 
Academy of Sciences at Paris in May 1761. A tranfla- 
tion of it was made and publidied in the Gentleman’s 
Magazine for 1762, to which we refer our readers. The 
account begins at page 373, and is concluded at page 614. 
Remarks were afterwards made on du Perron’s account 
by a Mr. Yates. See the fame Magazine for 1766, p. 529. 
We learn from Mr. Hanway, that the Perfees worlhip 
the everlading fire as an emblem of Ormuzd, or the fu- 
preme ineffable Creator; while the evil principle, believed 
to have fprung from matter, was dyled Ahriman . Subor¬ 
dinate to Ormuzd, the forijhta, or angels, are charged 
with the prefervation of the material world. The fun, 
the moon, and the dars, the years, the months, and the 
days, have each their prefiding angel ; angels attend on 
every human foul, and an angel receives it when it 
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leaves the body. Mitlira is the ferifhta to whom this im¬ 
portant charge is affigned, as well as that of judging the 
dead; he is alfo the guardian of the Sun, and prefides 
over the fixth month, and the fixth day of the month. 
The good ferifhta have correfponding evil genii, who en¬ 
deavour to counteraft them in all their functions : they 
particularly encourage witchcraft, and willingly hold 
converfe with enchanters of both fexes, fometimes re¬ 
vealing the fecrets of futurity for malicious purpofes. 
As in other countries, the old, the ugly, and the mifera- 
ble, are digmatized as witches, and the Indian Bramins 
are regarded by the Guebres as powerful magicians. 
The mod recent account we have of this lingular 
people is that of Mrs. Maria Graham, who went to India 
in 1809, and publilhed the “Journal of her Refulence" 
there (for die was not a dying traveller) in 1812. Some 
extracts from her ufeful and authentic work we (hall in¬ 
terweave with our felediions from Stavorinus, Niebuhr, 
Hanway, Du Perron, and others. 
“ When the Guebres were driven from their own 
country by the MulTulmans, a confiderable body of them 
refolved to feek a new land, and accordingly put to lea, 
where they differed great hardfiiips. After attempting 
to fettle in various places, they at length reached Sun- 
jum in Guzerat, and lent their chief dujioor , or pried, on- 
diore to alk an afylum. This was granted by the rajah 
on certain conditions, and a treaty to the following effedt 
was drawn up: The Guebres (hall have a place allotted 
to them for the performance of their religious and burial 
rites ; they diall have lands for the maintenance of them¬ 
felves and their families; they diall codform to the 
Hindoo cudoms with regard to marriages, and in their 
drefs; they diall not carry arms; they diall fpeak the 
language of Guzerat, that they may become as one 
people with the original inhabitants; and they (hall ab- 
llain from killing and eating the cow. To thefe condi¬ 
tions the Perfees have fcrupuloudy adhered, and they 
have always been faithful to their protestors. 
“ Fire is the chief object of external worlhip among the 
Perfees. In each atjh-khaneh, or fire-houfe, there are two 
fires ; one of which it is lawful for the vulgar to behold, 
but the other, atjh-baharam , is kept in the mod fecret and 
holy part of the temple, and is approached only by the 
chief dudoor; it mud not be vifited by the light of the 
fun, and the chimneys for carrying oft’ the fmoke are fo 
condrudled as to exclude his rays. The atlh-baharam 
mud be compofed of five diderent kinds of fire, among 
which I was furprifed to hear the dudoor mention that of 
a funeral pile, as the Geubres expofe their dead ; but he 
told me that it war formerly lawful to return the body 
to any of the four elements ; that is, to bury it in the 
earth or in the water, to burn or to expofe it, but that 
the latter only is now pradtifed ; confequently, if the 
atlh-baharint goes out, they mud travel to fuch nations 
as burn their dead, to procure the necedary ingredient to 
rekindle it. When the lad atfli-khaneh was built in 
Bombay, a portion of the facred fire was brought from 
the altar at Yezd, in a golden cenfer, by land, that it 
might not be expofed to the perils of the fea. The death 
of a father is obferved as an annual fedival. The body 
mud not touch wood after death ; it is accordingly laid 
upon an iron bier, to be conveyed to the repofitory for 
the dead, where it is left expofed to the air till it is con- 
fumed. In Bombay thefe repofitories are fquare inclo- 
fures, furrounded by high walls : the vulgar Parfees fu- 
perditioully watch the corpfe, to fee which eye is fird de¬ 
voured by the birds, and thence augur the happinefs or 
mifery of the foul.” 
By marrying wives of their own nation, their race has 
been preferved pure and unmixed to the prefent day. 
Adultery and fornication they punilh among themfelves, 
and even by death, giving cognizance of any capital pu- 
nilhment to the Moorilh government: the execution is 
performed in fecret, either by lapidation, drowning in 
the river, cadigation, or beating to death, and fometimes 
by 
