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

200 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. IV.

twenty to thirty feet high, and the diameter of the largest “dokhma” in Bombay is ninety feet.

We give in this work a plan of the interior of a tower of silence. Inside the tower is a circular platform about three hundred feet in circumference, and entirely paved with large stone slabs, and divided into three rows of exposed receptacles called “pavis” for the bodies of the dead. As there are the same number of “payis” in each concentric row they diminish in size from the outer to the inner ring, and that by the side of the wall is used for the bodies of males, the next for those of females, and the third for those of children. These receptacles or “ pavis” are separated from each other by ridges called “dandas,” which are about an inch in height above the level of the ‘‘payis,” and channels are cut into the “pavis” for the purpose of conveying all the liquid matter flowmg from the corpses, and rainwater, into a “bhandar,” or a deep hollow in the form of a pit, the bottom of which is paved with stone slabs. This pit forms the centre of the tower. When the corpse has been completely stripped of its flesh by the vultures, which is generally accomplished within one hour at the outside, and when the bones of the denuded skeleton are perfectly dried up by the powerful heat of a tropical sun, and other atmospheric influences, they are thrown into this pit, where they crumble into dust—the rich and the poor thus meet-