A Woman's Journey Round the World / From Vienna to Brazil, Chili, Tahiti, China, Hindostan, Persia and Asia Minor

by Ida Pfeiffer

The active life of the rich inland and European commercial population must be sought for in the fortified parts of the town, which constitute a large quadrangle. Here is to be found merchandise from all parts of the world. The streets are handsome, the large square called The Green especially so. The buildings most remarkable for their architectural beauty are the Town-hall, whose saloon has no equal, the English Church, the Governor’s Palace, and the Mint.

The Open Town and the Black Town [{226}] adjoin the fortified portions, and are considerably larger. In the Open Town, the streets are very regular and broad, more so than any other Indian city that I saw; they are also carefully watered. I observed many houses decorated with artistically-carved wooden pillars, capitals, and galleries. The bazaar is an object of great interest; not, as many travellers affirm, on account of the richness of the merchandise, of which there is not more to be seen than in other bazaars—in fact, there is not even any of the beautiful wood mosaic work of which Bombay produces the finest—but from the diversity of people, which is greater here than anywhere else. Three parts, indeed, are Hindoos, and the fourth Mahomedans, Persians, Fire-worshippers, Mahrattas, Jews, Arabs, Bedouins, Negroes, descendants of Portuguese, several hundred Europeans, and even some Chinese and Hottentots. It requires a long time to be able to distinguish the people of the different nations by their dress and the formation of their faces.

The most wealthy among people owning property here are the Fire-worshippers, called also Gebers, or Parsees. They were expelled from Persia about 1,200 years since, and settled down along the west coast of India. As they are remarkably industrious and hard-working, very well disposed and benevolent, there are no poor, no beggars to be found among them—all appear to be prosperous. The handsome houses in which the Europeans reside mostly belong to them; they are the largest owners of land, ride out in the most beautiful carriages, and are surrounded by innumerable servants. One of the richest of them—Jamsetize-Jeejeebhoy—built, at his own expense, a handsome hospital in the Gothic style, and provides European medical men and receives the sick of every religious denomination. He was knighted by the English government, and is certainly the first Hindoo who could congratulate himself on such a distinction.

While speaking of the Fire-worshippers, I will relate all that I myself saw of them, as well as what I learnt from Manuckjee-Cursetjee, one of the most cultivated and distinguished among them.

The Fire-worshippers believe in one Supreme Being. They pay the greatest reverence to the four elements, and especially to the element of fire, and to the sun, because they look upon them as emblems of the Supreme Being. Every morning they watch for the rising sun, and hasten out of their houses, and even outside of the town, to greet it immediately with prayers. Besides the elements, the cow is considered sacred by them.

Soon after my arrival, I went one morning upon the esplanade of the town for the purpose of seeing the great number of Parsees [{227}] who, as I had read, assembled themselves there waiting for the first rays of the sun, on the appearance of which, as if at a given signal, they throw themselves on the ground, and raise a loud cry of joy. I, however, merely saw several Parsees, not in groups, but standing separately here and there, reading silently from a book, or murmuring a prayer to themselves. These did not even come at the same time, for many arrived as late as 9 o’clock.

It was precisely the same with the corpses which are stated to be exposed upon the roofs for the birds of prey to feed upon. I saw not a single one. In Calcutta, Mr. V---, who had but recently come from Bombay, assured me that he had himself seen many. I cannot believe that the English government would permit such a barbarous proceeding, and one so prejudicial to health. But I must resume my narrative. My first question, after I had been introduced to Manuckjee, was as to the manner in which the Parsees bury their dead. He conducted me to a hill outside the town, and pointed out a wall, four-and-twenty feet high, enclosing a round space of about sixty feet in diameter. He told me that within this wall there was a bier, with three partitions, built up, and near to it a large pit excavated. The bodies of the deceased are placed upon the bier, the men on the first, the women on the second, and children on the third compartment, and are fastened down with iron bands; and, according to the commands of their religion, are left exposed to the action of the element of air. The birds of prey, which always gather in large swarms round such places, fall upon the bodies ravenously, and in a few minutes devour the flesh and skin; the bones are gathered up and thrown into the cave. When this becomes full, the place is abandoned and another erected.

Many wealthy people have private burial-places, over which they have fine wire gauze stretched, so that the deceased members of their family may not be stripped of their flesh by birds of prey.

No one is allowed to enter the burial-ground except the priests, who carry the bodies; even the door is rapidly closed, for only one glance into it would be a sin. The priests, or rather bearers, are considered so impure that they are excluded from all other society, and form a separate caste. Whoever has the misfortune to brush against one of these men, must instantly throw off his clothes and bathe.

The Parsees are not less exclusive with respect to their temples; no one of any other belief is allowed to enter them, or even to look in. The temples which I saw here, of course only from the outside, are very small, extremely plain, and destitute of the slightest peculiarity of architecture; the round entrance-hall surrounds a kind of fore-court, enclosed by a wall. I was only allowed to go as far as the entrance of the wall leading to the fore-court. The handsomest temple in Bombay [{228}] is a small unimportant building, and I must again contradict those descriptions which make so much of the beautiful temples of the Fire-worshippers.