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

188 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. Iv.

and the chief men of the assembly. We must not omit to mention one toast that is always drunk on such occasions, viz. the health of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen of England and Empress of India, and the Royal family, which is always received with enthusiasm and drunk amidst deafening cheers.

After dinner the ladies retire to their own houses, but the gentlemen sit till a late hour enjoying the pleasures of a “natch” or of the band that follows. A repetition of the nuptial benediction is also performed by the priests after midnight before a few select friends and relatives.

Such are the ceremonies attending a Parsi marriage, but we are glad to notice that the better ideas which prevail in the present day, as well as greater intercourse with Europeans, have considerably modified the nature of the festival, which has lost, in a great measure, the purely Hastern features that formerly characterised it. Possibly it has also lost in consequence much of its splendour; but it has become more in accordance with the enlightened views which the Parsis have displayed under Western influence. The long processions, headed by discordant native music, the gaily-caparisoned steeds, the boys dressed in military uniform, and the little girls in European garb, together with the silver-plated palanguins and other semi-barbarous customs, have almost entirely disappeared owing to increased civil-