THE TOWERS OF SILENCE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2037, 24 April 1890, Page 3

THE TOWERS OF SILENCE.

Lady Dufferin, in visiting Bombay thus describes the Towers of Silence": *• Sir Jamesetjee Jeejeebhoy came to do the honors of the place. It is really most interesting and curious, and although it would be hard to reconcile oneself to the idea of laying out one’s dead to be torn to pieces by vultures, yet undoubtedly the system has much to be said for it in a hot climate. The Parsee idea is that the earth should not bo contaminated by any decaying matter, and their funeralsareconducted in these Towers of Silence in the following way ; The towers are round but not very high, and are uncovered. Inside there is a stone platform running all round, with three sets of grooves sloping downward towards a deep empty well in the centre. The outer circle of grooves is for men—- ‘ good actious’; the second line for women— * good words’; and the third for children— ‘ good thoughts.’ ‘When a person dies he is placed on an iron bier and carried by official corpsebearers, accompanied by a procession of friends and morners, all walking, and all kept together by holding the ends of white pockethandkerchiefs between them. When they reach the place the friends stand at a distance from the tower, the corpse-bearers strip the corpse at the entrance, and place the body naked in one of the grooves. The vultures are all sitting on the trees and walls watching and in less than five hours they have reduced it to a skeleton. In about eight days the bones are completely dried up, and they are then lifted with tongs and thrown into the central well, where they crumple into dust, The rain washes down into this well, and gradually carries all away into the drains provided for the purpose, and which have large filters at either end so that when the water reaches mother earth there is no contaminating matter in it.”