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

198 HISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [ CHAP. Iv,

The dog is also thus described by the same writer :—

“Tt is called the ‘four-eyed dog,’ a yellow spot on each side of its eyelids being considered an additional eye. He has yellow ears, and the colour of the rest of his body varies from yellow to white. To his eyes a kind of magnetic influence is ascribed.”

We return to the funeral ceremony. When the corpse-bearers take the body into the “dokhma,” the priests, relatives, and friends who have attended the funeral wash their faces and hands and offer a prayer to the Almighty.

On the death of any person his friends, neighbours, and acquaintances visit the relatives of the deceased every morning and evening for three days consecutively to offer consolation to them, and they sit in long array for a few minutes on benches and chairs placed alongside the house.

The Parsi Scriptures declare that the soul does not leave this world for three days, and therefore a priest prays constantly during that period before a burning fire fed with sandal-wood near the spot where the dead body was laid. On the morning of the fourth day the soul is believed to enter the other world, and therefore a religious ceremony is performed, either at the house of the deceased or at a fire-temple on the afternoon of the third day as well as just before the dawn of the fourth day, in the presence of the priests, friends and relatives of the deceased. ‘This is