18. Clothes, food and ceremonial observances.
Pārsi 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 Pārsi 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 represented the sun and the light of day, the cock, the herald of the dawn, might be regarded as his sacred bird. Sometimes when a cock or parrot dies the body is wrapped in a sacred shirt or thread and carefully buried. Palm-juice toddy is a favourite drink at almost all meals in Gujarāt, and mahua spirit is also taken. Parsis must never smoke, as this would be derogatory to the sacred element fire.[24]
Temple of Siva at Bāndakpur, near Damoh
[1] C.P. Census Report (1911), p. 69.
[2] P. 276.
[3] Orphéus, p. 94.
[4] Ibidem.
[5] Haug, loc. cit. pp. 69, 70.
[6] Orphéus, pp. 91, 92.
[7] Haug, pp. 267, 268.
[8] Haug, p. 269.
[9] Haug, pp. 272, 273.
[10] Great Religions of India.
[11] Great Religions of India.
[12] Orphéus, p. 96.
[13] Ibidem, p. 98.
[14] Haug, p. 199.
[15] Sykes’ Persia and its People, p. 180; Great Religions of India, p. 173.
[16] Bombay Gazetteer, vol. ix. part ii., Pārsis of Gujarāt p. 190.
[17] Bombay Gazetteer, ibidem.
[18] Bombay Gazetteer, vol. ix. part ii., Pārsis of Gujarāt, pp. 233, 237.
[19] P. 133.
[20] Bombay Gazetteer, vol. ix. part ii., Pārsis of Gujarāt, pp. 221–226.
[21] Bombay Gazetteer, vol. ix. part ii., Pārsis of Gujarāt, p. 231.
[22] Ibidem, pp. 239–242.
[23] Bombay Gazetteer, vol. ix. part ii., Pārsis of Gujarāt, pp. 241, 243.
[24] Bombay Gazetteer, Pārsis of Gujarāt, pp. 205, 207, 219, 220.