"Parsees do not eat anything cooked by a person of another religion, and reject beef and pork, especially hams. They are not permitted to marry outside of their own sect. Their dead are not buried or cremated, but are committed to what is called the Tower of Silence. The bodies are exposed on an iron grating, where the carniverous birds of the air can get to them until the flesh has all disappeared. Then the sun-dried bones fall through into a receptacle, from which they are removed to a cavern in the earth."
"How horrid!" exclaimed the ladies with one voice.
"The Parsee does not think so; and perhaps he has the same view you have of our manner of disposing of the dead. In spite of the awe and respect with which the Parsees regard fire, they are about the only eastern people who do not smoke. But I think you need a rest by this time, and I will retire for a little while."
The company applauded as usual, and then began to pace the promenade deck.
CHAPTER XIII
LORD TREMLYN DISCOURSES MORE ABOUT INDIA
The delightful weather of the forenoon charmed the party as they walked the deck. It was mid-summer in the middle of the winter, as they looked at it; for the almanac of home lingered in their minds, though the days were longer. The sun was rather warm on both sides of noon, though it was not oppressive, and the abundant awnings protected the passengers from its more searching rays.
Statistical as the lecture had been, the viscount had made it interesting by softening the figures with his comparisons; and some of his points, even in regard to the States, were new to them, and especially in regard to the United Kingdom. In about half an hour they were summoned to Conference Hall again for a continuation of the lecture.
"From the vast emigration to your country, ladies and gentlemen, I suppose there must be a great variety of people on your territory. The Germans, the English, the Irish, the Scandinavians, the Italians, and other nationalities, in the process of assimilation, although very many of them have become as American as Americans themselves, take the manners and customs, the national peculiarities, of the fatherland with them.
"The Irish drink whiskey, the Germans beer, and the Italians are apt to have a stilletto about them. Then the antecedents, climate, politics, and other influences, have made the East differ from the West, and the South from both of them. Lynch law prevails to a considerable extent in the latter, never in the Eastern and Middle States, and very rarely in the West. But all Americans speak the same language; and foreigners are compelled to learn English in order to get on at all, and it has become one of the bonds of your union."