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

196 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. IV.

and physical good results from pious thoughts, words, and actions.

When this recital is finished the dead body is taken out of the house’ on the bier, and carried on the shoulders of “nasesalars” or corpse-bearers to the “dokhma” or tower of silence, which is generally erected in a solitary place and upon an eminence. The relatives of the departed one naturally give way to cries and lamentations. The male relatives and friends of the deceased follow the dead body in funeral procession on foot. After the dead body is removed from the house cow’s urine is thrown as a disinfectant on the spot where it had lain, as well as on the path by which the corpse was taken out. Arrived at its resting-place, the iron bier is put upon the ground, the face of the deceased is uncovered for a few minutes in order that a last look may be taken of it, and the whole assembly bow before it. After a few minutes the body is carried by the bearers into the ‘‘dokhma,” and the vultures which are always in its immediate vicinity soon denude it of flesh.

There is one point in connection with the ceremonies performed over a dead body about which

1 In Persia the Zoroastrians do not keep the body after life is extinct in the dwelling-house. It is removed to a building which may be called the morgue, and the recitation of the “has” is made there, after which the body is taken direct to the “ dokhma.”