History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAPTER IV.

THE ZOROASTRIANS IN INDIA—THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS (continued).

Parsi domestic life—Births and their attendant ceremonies—Present-giving — Seclusion enforced after confinement—Sanitary objections to thisVarious improvements suggested by experience—Attempts to discover the child’s destiny—Mixture of good sense and superstition—‘‘ The book of fate is sealed ”—Choosing a name—Parsi system of giving namesThe “‘joshi”—List of Parsi names—Investiture with the ‘‘sudra” and “Iusti”—Question of making converts—What the Panchayet decidedCeremony of marriage—Early matriages—Usual age of marriage—Custom among the Zoroastrians in Persia—Professional match-makers—The details of the religious ceremony—The social rejoicings—The final shower of rice—The number seven—The closing questions—And prayers—Healths given at the banquet—That of the Queen-Empress—Families not broken up by marriage—All reside together—Separations rare between parents and children on this aceount—Mode of marriage in Persia— Widows permitted to re-marry—Death ceremonies—The last prayers—The funeral procession—Manner of nullifying evil influences—The seven ‘‘ has ”Eatly removal of the body—The ‘‘ dokhma” or tower of silence—Various erroneous suppositions concerning Parsi funerals—Belief as to the soul not quitting the body for three days—Description of a tower of silenceThey vary in size, but are built on one plan—Ceremonies at its consecration —Great merit in building “dokhmas”—Their inviolability preserved—Sir Richard Temple’s opinion—The whole question of Parsi burial reviewed —Objections to it qualified on closer knowledge—Mr. Monier Williams’s opinion— Visit of the Prince of Wales to a “dokhma”—Jn Memoriam services to the dead—Offerings in fruit and flowers—The prayer of repentance.

We now proceed to give an account of the domestic life of the Parsis. We shall begin with the infant. Before it is ushered into the world, the young lady