ceremony is called sagdād. 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 the floor to their heads to indicate their 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 nasasalār, clad in well-washed, white clothes. 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 “tower of silence.” In Bombay these towers are erected in a beautiful garden on the highest point of Malabar Hill, amid trees swarming with vultures; they are constructed of stone, and rise some 25 ft. high, with a small door at the side for the entrance of the body. Upon arriving at the “tower of silence” the bier is laid down, and prayers are said in the sagrī, 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 6 ft. deep is surrounded by an annular stone pavement about 7 ft. 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-bahrām, or “fire temple.” 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 “rising from mourning,” or “the resurrection of the dead.” On each successive anniversary of the death of a Parsee 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 mūktad, or “ceremonies of departed souls.”
The Parsees of India are divided into two sects, the Shenshahis and the Kadmīs. They do not differ on any point of faith; the dispute is confined to a quarrel as to the correct chronological date for the computation of the era of Yazdegerd, the last king of the Sassanian dynasty, who was dethroned by the caliph Omar about A.D. 640. The difference has been productive of no other inconvenience than arises from the variation of a month in the celebration of the festivals. The Parsees compute time from the fall of Yazdegerd. Their calendar is divided into twelve months of thirty days each; the other five days, being added for holy days, are not 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 five different divinities. In midwinter a feast of six days is held in commemoration of the six periods of creation. About the 21st of March, the vernal equinox, a festival is held in honour of agriculture, when planting begins. In the middle of April a feast is held to celebrate the creation of trees, shrubs and flowers. On the fourth day of the sixth month a feast is held in honour of Sahrēvar, the deity presiding over mountains and mines. On the sixteenth day of the seventh month a feast is held in honour of Mithra, the deity presiding over and directing the course of the sun, and also a festival to celebrate truth and friendship. On the tenth day of the eighth month a festival is held in honour of Farvardin, the deity who presides over the departed souls of men. This day is especially set apart for the performance of ceremonies for the dead. The people attend on the hills where the “towers of silence” are situated, and perform in the sagrīs prayers for the departed souls. The Parsee scriptures require the last ten days of the year to be spent in doing deeds of charity, and in prayers of thanksgiving to Ahurā-Mazdā. On the day of Yazdegerd, or New Year's Day, the Parsees emulate the western world in rejoicing and social intercourse. They rise early, and after having performed their prayers and ablutions dress themselves in a new suit of clothes, and sally forth to the “fire-temples,” to worship the emblem of their divinity, the sacred fire, which is perpetually burning on the altar. Unless they duly perform this ceremony they believe their souls will not be allowed to pass the bridge “Chinvad,” leading to heaven. After they have performed their religious services they visit their relations and friends, when the ceremony of hamijur, or joining hands, is performed. The ceremony is a kind of greeting by which they wish each other “a happy new year.” Their relatives and friends are invited to dinner, and they spend the rest of the day in feasting and rejoicing; alms are given to the poor, and new suits of clothes are presented to servants and dependants.
There are only two distinct classes among the Parsees—the priests (dastūrs, or high priests; mobeds, or the middle order; and herbads, or the lowest order) and the people (behadīn, behdīn, or “followers of the best religion”). The priestly office is hereditary, and no one can become a priest who was not born such; but the son of a priest may become a layman.
The secular affairs of the Parsees are managed by an elective committee, or panchāyat, composed of six dastūrs and twelve mobeds, making a council of eighteen. Its functions resemble the Venetian council of ten, and its objects are to preserve unity, peace and justice amongst the followers of Zoroaster. One law of the panchāyat is singular in its difference from the custom of any other native community in Asia; nobody who has a wife living shall marry another, except under peculiar circumstances, such as the barrenness of the living wife, or her immoral conduct. Recently a serious difference arose among the Parsees of Bombay on the question of proselytism. A Parsee had married a French lady, who took the necessary steps to adopt the religion of her husband. But it was decided by the High Court, after prolonged argument, that, though the creed of Zoroaster theoretically admitted proselytes, their admission was not consistent with the practice of the Parsees in India.
Their religion teaches them benevolence as the first principle, and no people practise it with more liberality. A beggar among the Parsees is unknown, and would be a scandal to the society. The sagacity, activity and commercial enterprise of the Parsees are proverbial in the East, and their credit as merchants is almost unlimited. In this connexion may be mentioned the well-known names of Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy and Sir Dinshaw Petit, both baronets, and also of J. N. Tata, founder of the Institute of Scientific Research at Bangalore.
The Parsees have shown themselves most desirous of receiving the benefits of an English education; and their eagerness to embrace the science and literature of the West has been conspicuous in the wide spread of female education, and in the activity shown in studying their sacred writings in critical texts. In recent years many have taken to the professions of law and medicine, and a Parsee barrister was appointed a judge of the High Court at Bombay in 1906. Two Parsees have also been the only natives of India elected to the House of Commons.
See Menant, Les Parsis (Paris, 1898); Dosabhai Framji Karaka, History of the Parsees (London, 1884); Seervai and Patel, Gujarat Parsees from the Earliest Times (Bombay, 1898).
PARSIFAL BELL-INSTRUMENT (Ger. Parsifal Klavier Instrument), a stringed instrument ingeniously constructed by Schweisgut, of Carlsruhe, from Dr Mottl's design, as a substitute for the church bells in Wagner's Parsifal. This instrument has been constructed somewhat on the principle of the grand piano; the massive frame is shaped like a billiard table. There are five notes, each with six strings, three in unison giving the fundamental note and three an octave higher. The strings are struck by large hammers, covered with cotton-wool, which the performer sets in motion by a strong elastic blow from his fist. The hammers are attached to arms 22 in. long, screwed to a
