Cities of India

is calm, fairy scene ; on the other stands out the dull, ugly wall which surrounds the Towers of Silence, where the Parsees deposit their dead, to be devoured by vultures. On the trees and on the walls scores of these hideous birds can be seen. Suddenly they rise in the air : a bier is being brought up the long flight of steps which leads to the hills on which the Towers are situated. Close by the bier are two bearded men, and behind them follow a train of Parsees, dressed in white robes with their clothes linked. At the door of the Towers the relatives leave the body, and it is taken within by the two priests. Inside the large roofless tower are stages, or stories of stone pavement, slanting down to a well, covered with a grating, and on the upper tier are placed, stark naked, the bodies of men ; on the second those of women, and on the third those of children. The moment the priests leave the body the vultures swoop down and strip it of every particle of flesh. The skeleton is left for a few days to bleach in the sun and wind till it becomes perfectly dry ; then the carriers of the dead, who are a separate class and not allowed to have any social intercourse with other Parsees, come gloved, and with tongs (for a dead body is regarded as an unclean thing) remove the bones and cast them into the well. This mode of disposing of the dead the Parsees have practised from time immemorial. In Grose's Voyage to the East Indies, printed in 1772, we have a sensational picture of...