Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/348

 P A 11 S I S fixed, a Parsi priest goes from house to house with a list of the guests to be invited, and delivers the invitations with | much ceremony. The father of the bride waits upon , near relatives and distinguished personages, soliciting the , honour of their attendance. A little before sunset a pro cession is formed at the house of the bridegroom, and j proceeds with a band of music, amid great pomp and cere mony, to the house of the bride s father. Here a number of relatives and friends are collected at the door to receive the bridegroom with due honour. Presents are sent j before, according to the time-honoured customs of the [ East. Upon the arrival of the procession at the house of i the bride, the gentlemen gallantly remain outside, leaving j room for the ladies to enter the house with the bridegroom j as his escort. As he passes the threshold, his future mother-in-law meets him with a tray filled with fruits and j rice, which she strews at his feet. The fathers of the j young couple are seated side by side, and between them , stands the priest ready to perform the magic ceremony. The young couple are seated in two chairs opposite each other, their right hands tied together by a silken cord, which is gradually wound around them as the ceremony progresses, the bride in the meantime being concealed with a veil of silk or muslin. The priest lights a lamp of incense, and repeats the nuptial benediction first in Zand and then in Sanskrit. At the conclusion of the ceremony they each throw upon the other some grains of rice, and the most expeditious in performing this feat is considered to have got the start of the other in the future control of the household, and receives the applause of the male or female part of the congregation as the case may be. The priest now throws some grains of rice upon the heads of the married pair in token of wishing them abundance ; bouquets of flowers are handed to the assembled guests, and rose-water is showered upon them. The bride and bridegroom now break some sweetmeats, and, after they have served each other, the company are invited to partake of refreshments. At the termination of this feast the pro cession forms, and with lanterns and music escorts the bridegroom back to his own house, where they feast until midnight. As midnight approaches, they return to the house of the bride, and escort her, with her dowry, to the house of the bridegroom, and, having delivered her safely to her future lord and master, disperse to their respective homes. Eight days after the bridal ceremony a wedding feast is given by the newly-married couple, to which only near relatives and particular friends are invited. This feast is composed entirely of vegetables, but wine is not forbidden ; at each course the wine is served, and toasts are proposed, as &quot; happiness to the young couple, &quot; &c. The funeral ceremonies of the Parsis are solemn and imposing. When the medical attendant declares the case of a Parsi hopeless, a priest advances to the bed of the dying man, repeats sundry texts of the Zand-Avesta, the substance of which tends to afford consolation to the dyi ig man, and breathes a prayer for the forgiveness of his sir,.;. After life is extinct, a funeral sermon is delivered by tl 3 priest, in which the deceased is made the subject of an exhortation to his relatives and friends to live pure, holy, and righteous lives, so that they may hope to meet again in paradise. The body is then taken to the ground floor where it was born, and, after being washed and perfumed, is dressed in clean white clothes, and laid upon an iron bier. A dog is brought in to take a last look at his inanimate master in order to drive away the evil spirits or NasvA. This ceremony is called sayddd. A number of priests attend and repeat prayers for the repose of the soul of the departed. All the male friends of the deceased go to the door, bow down, and raise their two hands from touching the floor to their heads to indicate their deepest respect for the departed. The body, when put upon the bier, is covered over from head to foot. Two attendants bring it out of the house, holding it low in their hands, and deliver it to four pall-bearers, called nasasalar, all clad in well-washed, clean, white clothes. All the people present stand up as the body is taken out of the house, and bow to it in respect as it passes by. A procession is formed by the male friends of the deceased, headed by a number of priests in full dress, to follow the body to the dakhma, or &quot; tower of silence,&quot; the last resting-place of the departed Parsi. These towers are erected in a beauti ful garden on the highest point of Malabar Hill, amid tropical trees swarming with vultures ; they are constructed of stone, and rise some 25 feet high, with a small door at the side for the entrance of the body. Upon arriving at the &quot; tower of silence &quot; the bier is laid down, and prayers are said in the sagri, or house of prayer, containing a fire- sanctuary, which is erected near the entrance to the garden. The attendants then raise the body to its final resting- place, lay it upon its stony bed, and retire. A round pit about C feet deep is surrounded by an annular stone pavement about 7 feet wide, on which the body is exposed to the vultures, where it is soon denuded of flesh, and the bones fall through an iron grating into a pit beneath, from which they are afterwards removed into a subterranean entrance prepared for their reception. On the third day after death an assemblage of the relatives and friends of the deceased takes place at his late residence, and thence proceed to the Atish-bahrdm, or &quot;temple of fire.&quot; The priests stand before the urns in which the celestial fire is kept burning, and recite prayers for the soul of the departed. The son or adopted son of the deceased kneels before the high-priest, and promises due performance of all the religious duties and obsequies to the dead. The relatives and friends then hand the priest a list of the contributions and charities which have been subscribed in memory of the deceased, which concludes the ceremony of &quot; rising from mourning,&quot; or &quot; the resurrection of the dead.&quot; On each successive anniversary of the death of a Parsi, funeral ceremonies are performed in his memory. An iron framework is erected in the house, in which shrubs are planted and flowers cultivated to bloom in memory of the departed. Before the frame, on iron stands, are placed copper or silver vases, filled with water and covered with flowers. Prayers are said before these iron frames two or three times a day. These ceremonies are called mtiktad, or ceremonies of departed souls. The numerical strength of the followers of Zarathustra at the present day does not exceed 82,000 persons, including the Par.sis of Persia at Kcrman, Yazd, and Teheran. The greater number is found in Bombay, and in some of the cities of Gujarat, as Now- sari, Surat, Bharoch, Ahmeddbful, &c. Parsis have also settled for the purpose of trade in Calcutta, Madras, and in other cities of British India, in Burmali, China, and in other parts of Asia. According to the census of 1881, there are in the Bombay presi dency 72,065 Parsis, and in Persia 8499, according to lloutum- Schindler (see Journal of the Oriental German Society, vol. xxxvi. p. 54). The Parsis of India are divided into two sects, the Shenshais and the Kadmis. They do not differ on any point of faith ; the dispute is solely confined to a quarrel as to the correct chronological date for the computation of the era of Yazdagird, the last king of the Sasanian dynasty, who was dethroned by the caliph Omar about 640 A.I). The difference has been productive of no other inconveni ence than arises from the variation of a month in the celebration of ] the festivals. The Shenshai sect, represented by Sir Jamsetji ! Jijihhai, Bart., greatly outnumbers the Kadmis, formerly headed i by the late famous high-priest Mulla Firoz. The Parsis, as stated above, compute time from the fall of i Yazdagird. Their calendar is divided into twelve months of thirty ! days each; the other five days, being added for holy days, are not 1 counted. Each day is named after some particular angel of bliss, under whose special protection it is passed. On feast days a division of five watches is made under the protection of live different divinities. In midwinter a feast of six days is held in coiumemo-