telligent, active and energetic. With
business capacities far above the average, they are usually successful
in amassing wealth, while they are extremely benevolent in dispensing
their gains for both public and private charities. For private
benefactions they have, however, little call among themselves, since a
Parsee pauper would be an unheard-of anomaly. Their style of living is
princely but peculiar. In the reception-rooms of the wealthy--and most
of the Parsees in the city of Bombay are wealthy--one finds a
rather quaint mingling of Oriental luxury and European
elegance--brightly-tinted Persian carpets placed in Eastern fashion
over divans strewn with embroidered cushions and jewel-studded
pillows, among which recline, with genuine Oriental indolence, some of
the members of the family; while in another part of the same room
half a dozen more may be grouped about a table of marble and rosewood,
occupying velvet chairs that have traveled unmistakably from London
or Paris. French mirrors and Italian statuettes may have for their
_vis-a-vis_ the exquisite mosaics, the massive gold vases and the
costly bijouterie of the Orient, strewn so profusely around as to
startle unaccustomed eyes; and a genuine Meissonier will be just as
likely to be placed side by side with a Persian houri as anywhere
else. The Parsees drive the finest Arab steeds, but on their equipages
there is a more lavish display of ornament than we should deem quite
in accordance with good taste. The same is true in regard to personal
decoration. They wear immense quantities of costly jewelry, and nearly
all their garments are of silk, generally richly embroidered in gold,
and often with the addition of precious stones. Even little children
wear only silk, infants from the very first being wrapped in long,
loose robes of plain white silk that are gradually displaced by others
more elaborate and costly; while the toilette of a Parsee lady in full
evening-dress is often of the value of a hundred thousand rupees (or
forty-five thousand dollars). The female costume consists of silk or
cotton skirts gathered full round the waist, and long, loose robes
of silk, lace or muslin, all more or less decorated according to the
wealth of the wearer. The dress of the men is composed of trousers and
shirts of white or colored silk and long caftans of muslin, with the
addition of a fanciful little scarf fringed at the ends, and worn
jauntily across one shoulder and under the