o its sex and age.

We have twice been present at the ceremonies of dying, and once of
burial, if I may be permitted to use such an incongruous term. In this
respect the Parsees are much more tolerant than the Hindus, who are
offended by the mere presence at their religious rites of an European.
N. Bayranji, a chief official of the tower, invited us to his house to
be present at the burial of some rich woman. So we witnessed all that
was going on at a distance of about forty paces, sitting quietly on
our obliging host's verandah. While the dog was staring into the dead
woman's face, we were gazing, as intently, but with much more disgust,
at the huge flock of vultures above the dakhma, that kept entering the
tower, and flying out again with pieces of human flesh in their beaks.
These birds, that build their nests in thousands round the Tower of
Silence, have been purposely imported from Persia. Indian vultures
proved to be too weak, and not sufficiently bloodthirsty, to perform
the process of stripping the bones with the despatch prescribed by
Zoroaster. We were told that the entire operation of denuding the bones
occupies no more than a few minutes. As soon as the ceremony was over,
we were led into another building, where a model of the dakhma was to be
seen. We could now very easily imagine what was to take place presently
inside the tower. In the centre there is a deep waterless well, covered
with a grating like the opening into a drain. Around it are three broad
circles, gradually sloping downwards. In each of them are coffin-like
receptacles for the bodies. There are three hundred and sixty-five such
places. The first and smallest row is destined for children, the second
for women, and the third for men. This threefold circle is symbolical of
three cardinal Zoroastrian virtues--pure thoughts, kind words, and good
actions. Thanks to the vultures, the bones are laid bare in less than
an hour, and, in two or three weeks, the tropical sun scorches them into
such a state of fragility, that the slightest breath of wind is enough
to reduce them to powder and to carry them down into the pit. No smell
is left behind, no source of plagues and epidemics. I do not know that
this way may not be preferable to cremation, which leaves in the air
about the Ghat a faint but disagreeable odour. The Ghat is a place
by the sea, or river shore, where Hindus burn their dead. Instead of
feeding the old Slavonic deity "Mother Wet Earth" wi