and attention, for it was deemed proper
that the souls of the deceased should have strong and lusty frames to
dwell in.

The Buddhists of Bhotan are said to expose the bodies of their dead on
top of high rocks.

According to Tegg, whose work is quoted frequently, in the London Times
of January 28, 1876, Mr. Monier Williams writes from Calcutta regarding
the "Towers of Silence," so called, of the Parsees, who, it is well
known, are the descendants of the ancient Persians expelled from Persia
by the Mohammedan conquerors, and settled at Surat about 1,100 years
since. This gentleman's narrative is freely made use of to show how the
custom of the exposure of the dead to birds of prey has continued up to
the present time.

The Dakhmas, or Parsee towers of silence, are erected in a garden on
the highest point of Malabar Hill, a beautiful, rising ground on one
side of Black Bay, noted for the bungalows and compounds of the
European and wealthier inhabitants of Bombay scattered in every
direction over its surface.

The garden is approached by a well-constructed, private road, all
access to which, except to Parsees, is barred by strong iron gates.

The garden is described as being very beautiful, and he says:

No English nobleman's garden could be better kept, and no pen could
do justice to the glories of its flowering shrubs, cypresses, and
palms. It seemed the very ideal, not only of a place of sacred
silence, but of peaceful rest.

The towers are five in number, built of hardest black granite, about 40
feet in diameter and 25 in height, and constructed so solidly as almost
to resist absolutely the ravages of time. The oldest and smallest of the
towers was constructed about 200 years since, when the Parsees first
settled in Bombay, and is used only for a certain family. The next
oldest was erected in 1756, and the three others during the next
century. A sixth tower of square shape stands alone, and is only used
for criminals.

The writer proceeds as follows:

Though wholly destitute of ornament and even of the simplest
moldings, the parapet of each tower possesses an extraordinary
coping, which instantly attracts and fascinates the gaze. It is a
coping formed not of dead stone, but of living vultures. These
birds, on the occasion of my visit, had settled themselves side by
side in perfect order and in a complete circle around the parapets
of the towers, with their heads pointing