ustom seems to
indicate that the Parsis formerly believed that the spirits of their
ancestors went into the dogs which devoured their bodies, a belief
which would be quite natural to primitive people. Such a hypothesis
would explain the peculiar customs mentioned, and also the great
sanctity which the Parsis attach to dogs. On the same analogy they
should apparently also have believed that the spirits of ancestors
went into vultures; but it is not recorded that they show any special
veneration for these birds, though it must be almost certain that
they do not kill them. The explanation given for the custom of the
exposure of the dead is that none of the holy elements, earth, fire
or water, can be polluted by receiving dead bodies. But, as already
stated, towers of silence cannot be a primitive institution, and the
bodies in all probability were previously exposed on the ground. The
custom of exposure probably dates from a period prior to the belief
in the extreme sanctity of the earth. It may have been retained in
order that the spirits of ancestors might find a fresh home in the
animals which devoured their bodies; and some platform, from which
the towers of silence subsequently developed, may have been made to
avoid defilement of the earth; while in after times this necessity
of not defiling the earth and other elements might be advanced as a
reason justifying the custom of exposure.

18. Clothes, food and ceremonial observances.

Parsi men usually wear a turban of dark cloth spotted with white,
folded to stand up straight from the forehead, and looking somewhat as
if it was made of pasteboard. This is very unbecoming, and younger men
often abandon it and simply wear the now common felt cap. They usually
have long coats, white or dark, and white cotton trousers. Well-to-do
Parsi women dress very prettily in silks of various colours. The men
formerly shaved the head, either entirely, or leaving a scalp-lock
and two ear-locks. But now many of them simply cut their hair short
like the English. They wear whiskers and moustaches, but with the
exception of the priests, not usually beards. Neither men nor women
ever put off the sacred shirt or the thread. They eat the flesh only
of goats and sheep among animals, and also consume fish, fowls and
other birds; but they do not eat a cock after it has begun to crow,
holding the bird sacred, because they think that its crowing drives
away evil spirits. If Ahura Mazda repre