hey are liquor and timber contractors, own and manage
weaving mills and ginning factories, and keep shops for retailing
European stores, and are the most prosperous and enterprising section
of the native population. Two Parsis have become members of Parliament,
and others have risen to distinction in Government service, business
and the professions. The sea-face road in Bombay in the evening,
thronged with the carriages and motor-cars of Parsi men and ladies, is
strong testimony to the success which the ability and industry of this
race have achieved under the encouragement of peace, the protection
of property and the liberty to trade. Though they have a common Aryan
ancestry and their religion is so closely connected with Hinduism,
the Parsis feel themselves a race alien to the Hindus and probably
have no great sympathy with them. Their wealth and position have been
mainly obtained under British rule, and the bulk of them are believed
to be its warm adherents. The Parsis now make no proselytes, and no
regular provision exists for admitting outsiders to their religion,
though it is believed that, in one or two cases, wives taken from
outside the community have been admitted. They object strongly to
the adoption of any other religion, such as Christianity, by members
of their body. The Parsis are notable for the fact that their women
are very well educated and appear quite freely in society. This is
a comparatively recent reform and may be ascribed to the English
example, though the credit they deserve for having broken through
prejudice and tradition is in no way diminished on that account. The
total number of Parsis in India in 1911 was just 100,000 persons.

11. Marriage customs.

Polygamy among the Parsis has been forbidden by the Parsi Marriage
and Divorce Act of 1865. The remarriage of widows is allowed but
is celebrated at midnight. If a bachelor is to marry a widow, he
first goes through a sham rite with the branch of a tree, as among
the Hindus. Similarly before the wedding the bride and bridegroom
are rubbed with turmeric, and for the ceremony a marriage-shed
is erected. At a feast before the wedding one of the women beats a
copper dish and asks the ancestral spirits to attend, calling them by
name. Another woman comes running in, barking like a dog. The women
drive her away, and with fun and laughing eat all the things they can
lay their hands on. Prior to the rite the bride and bridegroom are
purified