d miserably perished; while their
paradise, as already seen, was the comparatively warm and fertile
country to which they had so hardly attained, where they had learnt
to grow corn and where they wanted to stay thenceforth and for ever.

8. The Zoroastrians in Persia.

In Persia itself the Zoroastrian faith is now almost extinct, but
small colonies still survive in the towns of Yezd and Kerman. They are
in a miserable and oppressed condition and are subjected to various
irritating restrictions, as being forbidden to make wind towers to
their houses for coolness, to wear spectacles or to ride horses. In
1904 their number was estimated at 9000 persons. [361]

9. Their migration to India and settlement there.

The migration of the Parsis to India dates from the Arab conquest
of Persia in A.D. 638-641. The refugees at first fled to the hills,
and after passing through a period of hardship moved down to the
coast and settled in the city of Ormuz. Being again persecuted, a
party of them set sail for India and landed in Gujarat. There were
probably two migrations, one immediately after the Arab conquest in
641, and the second from Ormuz as described above in A.D. 750. Their
first settlement was at Sanjan in Gujarat, and from here they spread to
various other cities along the coast. During their period of prosperity
at Sanjan they would seem to have converted a large section of the
Hindu population near Thana. The first settlers in Gujarat apparently
took to tapping palm trees for toddy, and the Parsis have ever since
been closely connected with the liquor traffic. The Portuguese writer
Garcia d'Orta (A.D. 1535) notices a curious class of merchants and
shopkeepers, who were called Coaris, that is Gaurs, in Bassein, and
Esparis or Parsis in Cambay. The Portuguese called them Jews; but they
were no Jews, for they were uncircumcised and ate pork. Besides they
came from Persia and had a curious written character, strange oaths
and many foolish superstitions, taking their dead out by a special
door and exposing the bodies till they were destroyed. In 1578, at
the request of the Emperor Akbar, the Parsis sent learned priests
to explain to him the Zoroastrian faith. They found Akbar a ready
listener and taught him their peculiar rites and ceremonies. Akbar
issued orders that the sacred fire should be made over to the charge
of Abul Fazl, and that after the manner of the kings of Persia, in
whose temples blazed perpetua