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214,
Story of an Emigrant.
government, although it is still said to be adhered to secretly
in the interior of the country. That woman is considered
very fortunate who can enjoy the privilege of "sati," that
is, be burned alive on the funeral pyre of her husband, for
thereby she secures unquestionable happiness in the next
world. So strongly can religious enthusiasm, even in our
days, influence a sensible and civilized people. We generally
suppose cremation in India to be an imposing ceremony,
such as a great pyre, intense heat, which keeps a devout
congregation at a proper distance, etc. Such is not the case,
however; for, leaving out the mourning relatives, it may
better be compared with the hilarious soldiers around the
camp-fire roasting the booty of a nightly raid,— a shote or
a quarter of beef.
An entirely different mode of burial is used among the
Parsees, who are descendants of the ancient Persians, and
live in the western part of India where they were driven from
Iran by the Mohammedans. They profess the religion of
Zoroaster, and are fire-worshipers. They regard the earth,
air, water and fire as sacred objects, but a corpse, on the
contrary, as something unclean, and therefore they would not
pollute the fire by burning the dead, nor soil the earth or the
sea by burying them. In place of this they expose the dead
bodies in the open air to be devoured by birds of prey. For
this purpose are erected towers of stone, on the top of
which arc iron grates to put the bodies on. In one of the
surburbs of Bombay are three such towers on Malabar hill.
They arc called "The Towers of Silence." Each of them
has only one entrance, and they are about twenty feet high.
Large Hocks of ravens and vultures surround them sitting
on branches of the palm trees in the vicinity. As soon as a
corpse is exposed there is a fierce rush for it, and within an
hour the birds have consumed everything except, of course,
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