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 reverence paid by the fire-worshippers, so-called, of Yezd to the memory of the last monarch of their ancient faith, and to that of his immediate descendants. They have adopted the date of the death of Yezdigird as an epoch from which to count their periods of time. They now, as did their ancestors of old, date the commencement of their solar year from the 21st of March, when the sun enters the sign of Aries. Their months are of thirty days, and the five extra days of each year are distinguished by each day having its distinct name. They have no division of time corresponding to a week. Five days of each month are sacred, and the months are for the most part called after the names of angels. The Guebres of our day do not bury their dead, but it has been observed that this custom would seem to have been departed from in ancient times in the case of their sovereigns, whose tombs, hewn in the rocks, are found at Nakhsh-i-Rustem and at Persepolis. The places at which the bodies of the dead are laid out to be decomposed by the action of the atmosphere are simply walled enclosures, without roof or covering, on the summit of mountains or rocks. The Guebres no longer make use amongst each other of the language handed down to them by their ancestors. Their children learn the Persian tongue alone, and a knowledge of the Zend is confined to the priesthood.

In the city of Yezd there dwelt, in the earlier part of the reign of Fetteh Ali Shah, the chief of a sect of Mahomedans who hold that the lawful succession to the Imam Jaffer belonged to his son Ismail, and who are therefore denominated Ismailites. These sectaries were