men!"

ROME, Christmas, 1871.

T. BUCHANAN READ.

THE PARSEES.

Hanging in my study is a noteworthy portrait, generally the first
object observed by those who enter. It is an exquisite painting on
glass, the work of Lang Qua, the best artist China has produced in our
day, and it delineates the form and features of a singularly handsome
young man. But it is the quaint Parsee garb that first attracts
attention; and the weird romance that attaches to the history of the
Fire-worshipers gives this work of art its real value, rather than
its lines of beauty or the celebrity of the painter's name. This
delicately-featured portrait _may_ depict the countenance of Musaljee
Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, the first-born son and heir of the late Sir
Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, baronet, of Bombay, India. That he really sat for
this portrait I cannot, however, positively assert, since I obtained
the painting from an English officer, who bought it of the artist, but
had "forgotten the strange, outlandish name of the Indian nabob," as
he said. It is certainly the portrait of a _Parsee_--true to the life
in features and garb, and it bears a striking resemblance to the young
Musaljee when about eighteen years of age. He was not then a personage
of any great celebrity, though the worthy son of a most remarkable
sire, the latter long known and honored in Europe for his liberal and
enlightened charities, and especially for his munificent donations,
that saved the lives of thousands of British subjects, during the
terrible famines that occurred in India between the years 1840 and
1846. It was in grateful recognition of this noble philanthropy that
Queen Victoria conferred upon him the honor of a baronetcy, sending
out a nobleman to act as her proxy in the presentation of a sword
which had been handled by more than one British monarch. Sir Jamsetjee
was the first East Indian who ever received a title from a European
sovereign. During the terrible famines alluded to he not only
distributed daily from his own palace a plentiful supply of food to
all who came, but he made also large donations of provisions to the
English governor of Bombay for the supply of his starving troops.
When, subsequently, pestilence followed in the footsteps of famine,
this true-hearted philanthropist, overstepping all prejudices of creed
and clan, built and endowed at his own expense a free hospital for the
sick of all nations and religions. Temporary bamboo cottages at f