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

cHAP. IV.| ZTHE QUESTION OF CON. VERSION. 169

must have been received into the Zoroastrian faith after having performed the ceremony just described. The records of the old Parsi Panchayet contain an instance of a Parsi having, in the year 1818, sought to obtain its sanction to bring up in the Zoroastrian religion his illegitimate daughter by a Hindu concubine. This caused great commotion in the community ; but, after considerable discussion, the Panchayet sanctioned the applicant’s request. At the same time, however, it resolved that, without its sanction, none other than those begotten of Parsi parents should be invested with the sacred “ sudra” and ‘“kusti.” Many similar recruits were stealthily admitted into the Zoroastrian religion in after years ; but in all these cases the Parsi priest had to be first bought over with gold.

Within the last three years a number of illegitimate Parsi children, begotten of other than Parsi mothers, have been invested with the ‘“‘sudra” and “kusti” under the auspices of some respectable Parsis, as well as of one of the “dasturs;” but the general voice of the Parsi community being unfavourable to the admission of aliens as members of the Zoroastrian faith, the trustees of the chief fire-temple in Bombay have prohibited these persons from coming within its sacred precincts.

We now come to the most important event in the life of any person, and particularly of the Parsi,—we