Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/150

134 PARSIS.

was long the head-quarters of the Parsis, especially so Surat and the adjoining towns; and it can now boast of some "very good "families. But the Parsis of Surat have fallen upon evil days. The Shettia class, that is, the aristocracy, became, by training, lazy, listless, gregarious creatures, grovelling for generations in one and the same groove. They cannot understand patriotism, and though charity is the very basis of their grand old faith, they are utter strangers to that greatest of divine graces. Their notion of charity is the giving away of alms, the distribution of money—their own and anybody else's—to the deserving or undeserving, with some object, often that of earning popularity or official favour. That