the Greeks, namely, the facility for adapting themselves to foreign manners and customs; and they are decidedly the most Europeanized of any of the Asiatic inhabitants of India. In one particular, however, they cling steadfastly to their national custom, namely, with regard to the disposal of their dead. These they neither bury nor burn, but expose them, uncoffined, at the top of high towers, where they are devoured by the birds. This custom appears to us both unnatural and disgusting, but is defended by them as being the best possible, because the speediest, way of disposing of the dead bodies, and as wise on sanitary grounds. Cremation, which is frequently recommended on this latter ground, they object to from religious scruples, Zoroaster having taught that fire was too sacred a thing to be profaned by a dead body.
The towers on which the bodies are exposed are called Towers of Silence, and are, some of them, of a great height. The highest at Bombay is over ninety feet. It is considered a very meritorious act to build such a tower, and the completion of one is usually made the subject of a general rejoicing.
It is frequently claimed for the Parsis, by their own writers, that they are a very tolerant people, and that while they have proved their fidelity to their own faith even to the death, they have never persecuted
