Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/172

PAESEES 128 PARSNIP each took their due places in the Parsee [pantheon ere long and Parsism became a characteristic dualism. The Zoroastrian creed flourished up to the time of Alexander the Great, throughout ancient Irania, including Up- per Tibet, Sogdiana, Bachtriana, Media, Persia, etc. On the establishment of the Sassanians (a, D. 212), a native Persian dynasty, by Ardashir (Artaxerxes), the first act of the new king was the general and complete restoration of the partly lost, partly forgotten books of Zerdusht, which he effected, it is related, chiefly through the inspiration of a Magian sage, chosen out of 40,000 Magi. The sacred volumes were translated out of th3 original Zend into the vernacular and disseminated among the people at large, and fire temples were reared throughout the length and breadth of the land. The Magi or priests were all- powerful, and their hatred was directed principally against the Greeks. The fanaticism of the priests often also found vent against Christians and Jews. In return the Magi were cordially hated by the Jews ; but later we frequently find Jewish sages on terms of friendship and confidence with some of the Sassanian kings. From the period of its re-estab- lishment the Zoroastrian religion flour- ished uninterruptedly for about 400 years, till in A. D. 651, at the great bat- tle of Nahavand (near Ecbatana), the Persian army under Yezdejird was routed by the Caliph Omar. The great mass of the population was converted to the Mohammedan faith; the small rem- nant fled to the wilderness of Khorasan. Some 9,000 Guebres are still found in Persia, mainly in Yezd, Kerman, and at Teheran. Others found a resting place along the W. coast of India, chiefly at Bombay, Surat, Ahmedabad, and the vicinity, where they now live under Eng- lish rule, being for the most part mer- chants and landed proprietors. Parsee traders have also settled at Calcutta, Madras, Aden, Zanzibar, in Burma, and in China. They bear equally with their poorer brethren in Persia the highest character for honesty, industry, and peacefulness, while their benevolence, in- telligence, and magnificence outvie that of most of their European fellow-sub- jects. In all civil matters they are sub- ject to the laws of the country they inhabit; and its language is also theirs, except in the ritual of their religion, when Zend, the holy language, is used by the priests. They are forward to em- brace the advantages of English educa- tion, and not a few have studied law in England. Conspicuous among Parsee merchant-princes was Sir Jamsetjee Je- jeebhoy. In 1918 there were at)out 100,- 000 Parsees in British India, five-sixths of them in Bombay city. Parsees do not eat anything cooked by a person of another religion; they also object to beef and pork, especially to ham. Marriages can only be contracted with persons of their own caste and creed. Polygamy, except after nine years of sterility and consequent divorce, is forbidden. Fornication and adultery are punishable with death. Their dead are not buried, but exposed on an iron grating in the Dakhma, or Tower of Si- lence, till the flesh has disappeared, and the bones fall through into a pit beneath. Ahura-Mazdao being the origin of light, his symbol is the sun, with the moon and the planets, and in default of them the fire. Temples and altars must for ever be fed with the holy fire, brought down, according to tradition, from heaven, and the sullying of whose flame is punishable with death. The priests themselves approach it only with a half mask over the face, and never touch it but with holy instruments. The fires are of five kinds. There are also five kinds of "sacrifice," which term, how- ever, is rather to be understood in the sense of a sacred action — including the slaughtering of animals; prayer; the sacrifice of expiation, consisting eithe* (1) in flagellation or (2) in gifts to the priests; and, lastly, the sacrifice for the souls of the dead. The purification of physical and moral impurities is effected, in the first place, by cleansing with holy water, earth, etc.; next, by prayers and the recitation of the divine word; but other self-castigations, fasting, celibacy, etc., are considered hateful to the Divin- ity. The ethical code may be summed up in the three words — purity of thought, of word, and of deed. PARSLEY, carum petroselinum or Petroselinum sativum. The leaves are tripinnate, the flowers yellow. Found on walls, and in waste places, as a garden escape. There are three leading vari- eties of the plant, the common or plain- leaved, the curled, and the Hamburg sage or carrot-rooted parsley. The sec- ond is that more generally cultivated as a culinary vegetable; sheep feeding on it are said to be less liable than others to the rot. PARSNIP, peucedaniim sativum, or pastinaca sativa. Leaves pinnate, leaf- lets sessile, ovate, inciso-serrate, flowers bright yellow. The boiled root is eaten as a vegetable; sheep and oxen fatten rapidly upon it; a kind of wine may be made from it; its seeds are aromatic and contain an essential oil.