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

ii . INTRODUCTION.

intact their religion and traditions—in short, their individuality. More than a thousand years have elapsed since they were a self-governing people, and in that period they have existed under Governments of different creeds and characters, Hindu, Mahomedan, and Christian. They have been compared for this reason to the Jews, but, unlike that people, they have never known persecution. Until a recent period the Jews laboured in Europe under many disadvantages, and were regarded as an inferior race; and even in the East their position was often far from being enviable. But the Parsis may be said to have never known persecution in India, and they have lived side by side with their Hindu neighbours during all these centuries without any occurrence that has been remembered as sufficient to rankle in the mind. The Variay tragedy, described in the first chapter of this volume, and the anniversary of which is still commemorated at Surat, is the exception which proves the rule.

If some proof be asked of the homogeneity of the Parsis, I do not know that stronger could be furnished than is given by the sustaimed interest they have taken in those of their own kith and kin, who, remaining in Persia under the sway of the Mahomedan conquerors, have preserved their faith notwithstanding the persecution and ill-treatment to which they

have in consequence been subjected. That interest