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

CHAP. IT. ] A PEACEMAKER, 131

devoted every day a good portion of his time to adjudicating civil and domestic disputes among the Parsis. The impartiality of his decisions made his home a court for all sorts of disputes among his own people. It is said that when parties went to his house in the morning, he went without his meals rather than leave his good work of mediation unfinished. Most of the quarrels which arose between Pars} Wives and husbands originated in the latter not fulfilling the promises made before marriage of bestowing upon their wives ornaments to the amount agreed upon, or through their appropriating them to their own use after marriage, or on account of their parents doing so.

Occasions have occurred in former times where the wife’s parents, in whose custody the ornaments were left, appropriated them to their own use, and these cases often resulted in a breach between the husband and wife and their respective parents, If the misappropriation took place by the act of the husband, the parents of the wife would not send her to his house until the ornaments were restored to her. In the latter case the husband or his parents would turn the wife out of doors and refuse to receive her back until her parents made good the loss of the ornaments, The difference, though trivial, always ended in inveterate hatred of each other, and required much tact and patience in reconciling’ the parties. Kharshedji Manakji was highly gifted with