Identifier: wanderingseastof00penf (find matches)
Title: Wanderings east of Suez in Ceylon, India, China and Japan
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Penfield, Frederic Courtland, 1855-1922
Subjects: East Asia -- Description and travel India -- Description and travel Sri Lanka -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : George Bell and Sons New York : Century co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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showered upon them from London.Incidentally, a good deal of the money with whichhospitals and libraries were given by great Par-sees of a former generation came as reward forrunning a successful corner in Indian cotton atthe time of Americas civil war. Lancashire millscould get no staple from the Southern states, andastute Bombay capitalists, securing control of thenative crop, held the same until the price ad-vanced from ten or twelve cents to a dollar apound. The fruits of this coup., some of them atleast, dotted Bombay with noble buildings andstatues. Some Parsees drive public street vehicles, workon tramways and railways, and pursue humblervocations, it is true; but most Parsees dwell inprincely homes and go to their offices and clubs insplendidly appointed broughams and victorias.Success in life even in Parseedom is based uponthe principle of survival of the fittest—or astutest. The Parsees stoutly deny that they are fire wor-shippers. The sacred flame perpetually^ burning 128
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The Parsee in their houses of worship, brought by their an-cestors from Persia, is but a symbol, they insist.God, according to their faith, is the emblem ofglory, refulgence, and spiritual life; thereforethey face the holy flame when praying as the mostfitting symbol of the Deity. In the open air theyprostrate themselves when praying to the settingsun. Parsee temples are plain to severity, withwalls bare and floors uncovered and empty; butthere is always the recess wherein burns thesacred fire of incense and sandalwood. The method of dealing with the Parsee dead isstartlingly original, and said to be in strict keep-ing with the teaching of Zoroaster. According toParsee tenets fire is too highly venerated to bepolluted by burning the dead, while water isequally respected, and Mother Earth as well.Hence the Parsees offer their dead to the elementsand the birds of the air, and the bones of rich andpoor, high and low, even of the malefactor andsuicide, are consigned to eternity in crumble

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