designates it, rubbed six times with earth, washed six times with water, and aired for six months, before it was again fit for use.17 Earth, fire and water were all susceptible of this defilement, and even the celestial luminaries; but no purification could, of course, be applied to the latter, except the recitation of prayers and formularies.18 It naturally follows rom the burdensome consequences entailed by impurity that whosoever contributes to its spread is guilty of a very grave offence. So the casting abroad of a recent bone, canine or human, so large as the tip of one's little finger, was a sin of the same enormity as to smite and grievously wound a righteous man.19

The most efficacious ceremony of this kind is the Barashnom nuh shava, or Purification of nine nights, which, being the most elaborate and important observance of the religion, will merit a passing description. The place used for the performance is a retired spot destitute of trees or water and surrounded by a high wall to exclude observation. The priest who officiates should be distinguished for his learning and purity of character, and where a woman is the subject, he must be an aged man. He prepares himself for the solemn occasion by three nights of prayer and recitation. It is also to be observed that in the services of purification, tending the sacred fire, and many others, the acting functionaries wear over the nose and mouth a piece of cloth shaped like a little apron, which is as indispensible as the tiphillin, or prayer-straps, worn by the Jews in their devotions. The priest commences by digging nine little holes in the ground and placing in them as many little heaps of stones, which he surrounds and partitions off by twelve or thirteen furrows scratched with a knife tied on the end of a stick that has nine knots. The person requiring purification enters the circles in a state of complete nudity, accompanied by a friend leading a dog, and takes his stand on the first heap of stones. The priest stands without all the furrows, and even outside the wall when the impure is a woman. The purifier ties a leaden ladle on the nine-knotted stick, and with this pours upon the head of the impure of the aforesaid "product of the cow," with which the patient is to wash himself thoroughly. When that is done, laying his right hand on his head and his left hand on the dog, he

17 Vendidad vii. 36.

18 Id. xi. 3.

19 Id. vi. 19.

At the sixth

passes successively to each heap of stones. heap he rubs himself over fifteen times with dry earth poured in the same manner on his head, on the three last he washes himself with water, then dresses and leaves the enclosure. All this is, of course, accompanied by no end of prayers and recitations. As the patient is not yet per fectly pure, he is required to remain apart from all other persons for nine days, repeating his ablutions on the evening of the third, sixth and ninth. Then is he clean.20

How it Works.-There is joy in the Parsee's house when a child is born into the world, for children, brought up to virtue and usefulness, were regarded by the Persians as not only an honor and comfort in this world, but, as they expressed it, the very steps of the ladder to heaven. The jewels of Cornelia were never more prized than the sons and daughters of the Parsee matron. If a man died without issue, a wife and child were assigned to him, that he might not be childless in Paradise. The Achemenian kings gave annual prizes to the fathers of the largest families.21 This love of offspring has in Persia adhered to the race notwithstanding the change of religion. Sheikh Ali Mirza, son of Futteh Ali Shah, was esteemed the proudest and happiest man in the empire, because when he rode out on state occasions he was attended by a body-guard of sixty of his own sons.22 Nor has this distinctive feature been obliterated by a change of country, but equally characterizes the present Parsees of India.

The new-born babe is cleansed from original impurity by means analogous to those already described, and a few drops of the sacred para homa are introduced between its lips, before any kind of nourishment. Yet it is probable that these are comparatively recent inventions, since the directions in the Vendidad23 for the treatment of infants make no mention of either observance. Until the end of the seventh year the child is incapable of sin; but the guilt of all his wrong actions rests on the parents. From the seventh to the tenth year the parents and child divide the sin between. them. When the child is three years old the father must bring an offering to Mithra, on the day and month bearing

20 Vendidad ix. Anquetil's Zendav. ii. 545. Spiegel's Avesta ii. Einleitung lxxxv. 21 Herodot. i. 136.

22 Rawlinson's Herodotus vol. i. 214, note. 23 Fargard xvi.

the name of that Ized.24 At the age of five he begins to be taught the common prayers and a knowledge of good and evil; until the eighth year he may not be struck in punishment or otherwise; and at ten he should be instructed in the law.25 Like the offspring of Christian parents, the infant Parsee is without the pale of the church until, with the proper ceremonies, he is girt with the Costi, or sacred girdle. This took place anciently at the age of fifteen, but has been brought down to the tenth year in Kirman, and the seventh in India. This ceremony is primeval and identical with the initiatory rite of the Brahmins. Great importance is attached to the costi; it is a card composed of seventy-two threads of woolen, in which there must be no element of black, and said to represent the seventy-two chapters of the Yasna. It is passed three times round the waist and tied with four knots. The ceremony is accompanied by a due measure of prayers, and by a declaration of the fundamental doctrines of the faith,-the unity of God, the divine mission of Zoroaster, and the necessity of a virtuous life.26 The costi is worn alike by both sexes, and must never be laid aside except in undressing or changing the apparel.27 The later books assign to it a mystic significance, and say that it typifies the fraternal bond of unity which embraces all Zoroastrians, and makes each one a partaker in the righteousness of all the others. The newly admitted member must at this juncture select a patron genius among the Izeds, and from the body of the clergy a spiritual adviser to whom he thenceforth owes an obedience as strict as to his father and mother.29

At the age of fifteen the youth is ready to enter into the full communion of his church by a rite which holds the relative place of confirmation in the Church of England. For this purpose he ought to be able to read the Vendidad, repeat the Yasna, go through the ceremonies prescribed by the law and understand the doctrines of his religion. In point of fact, however, few reach, or even aspire to, so high a standard, except candidates for the priestly office; and the lay neophyte is allowed, for a suitable fee, to perform his part by proxy. It is at this juncture that the trade or profession is chosen, the religion of the Mazdayasnas being

24 Anquetil's Zendav. ii. 551. 25 Ibid. 26 Parsees 67. 27 Vd. xviii. 115. Sadder, Porta xii. 28 Spiegel's Avesta ii. Einleitung xxi. 29 Ibid.

everywhere closely connected with the industrial pursuits of life.30

The

"A

The most universally important middle point of life is marriage, which the Magian religion has invested with great sanctity and guarded with peculiar care. The ancient canonical books do not appear to have given any precise directions concerning this ordinance, and the various regulations in regard to it are of comparatively recent date. ceremony is very simple, unobjectionable, and differing but little from that in use among Europeans. The marriagable age for youth of both sexes, appears to have been anciently fifteen or upwards 31; but according to the prevailing custom of the East, it is now much earlier, and varies in different countries. In Kirman, girls are betrothed at the age of nine and married at thirteen. In India, matters are hastened still more. It is common for children of two or three years to be affianced 32; and in Bombay and Guzerat twenty years ago it was not uncommon to betroth infants who were yet only in expectancy, and had not seen the light of day.33 This precipitancy, no doubt, had its origin in the example of the surrounding Hindoos, and its folly is now frankly acknowledged by intelligent Parsees. great change," says Dosabhoy Framjee, “has taken place within the last fifteen or twenty years in Bombay, and though the majority of marriages are still celebrated while the children are very young, instances frequently occur of marriages of grown up boys and girls. The feeling of shame, which, in common with the Hindoos, was for a long time shared by the Parsees, has, to a great degree, disappeared, and it may, with some degree of confidence, be asserted that ten or twenty years hence, early marriages among the Parsees will be a thing of the past. As the Zend religion is eminently practical, it offers no encouragement to celebacy or other monkish austerities. A bachelor is not deemed a citizen.35 A girl of suitable age may demand of her parents or guardians that they procure her a husband; and they are guilty of heinous sin if they fail to comply.36 Nay, more than all, if a lady should wilfully and of her own malice aforethought, persist until her 30 Einleitung xxiii. Anquetil's Zendav. ii. 555.

34

81 Vd. xiv. 65. Parses 76. 32 Spiegel's Avesta ii. Einleitung xxix. 33 Parsees 77. 34 Id. 78. 35 Anquetil's Zendav. ii. 556. 36 Ib. 557.

eighteenth year in evading the nuptial bands, however exemplary her life might be in other respects, she would by that one error have incurred a guilt for which there is no earthly atonement, which could only be purged away by the fires of the world to come.37 The present writer, however, is not aware that such a case has ever actually occurred.

The marriage of first cousins was especially affected by the Persians, a custom common to many nations, whose object was, probably, the maintenance of family and caste distinctions, and the modern objections to which, we think much over-stated. At Athens it was no scandal for Cimon to wed his sister, because such things were common.38 The six sons of Hippotades had their six sisters for wives, and were the pride and pleasure of their venerable parent; and the Incas of Peru regularly married their sisters.40 And this wide-spread usage, however objectionable in a moral point of view, does not appear to have entailed any physical degeneracy.

39

Another custom of the Parsees deserves notice in this connection. If a man dies without having a son, his daughter or sister, if he have one, when the proper occasion arrives, is married under the condition that her first-born son, if she have one, shall be called the son of the deceased. When there is no female relative eligible, a stranger is hired or induced to undertake the obligation of nominally resigning the first son. In either case, the adopted child or the mother for him, inherits as a son.41 And this mode of maintaining the integrity of family descent certainly accords better with our ideas of moral purity than that of the Hebrews, prescribed Deuteronomy xxv. 5.

The marriage, however contracted, is a solemn compact, under the care of Mithra, the guardian of covenants, and is forever indissoluble.42 Circumstances which would generally among Christian nations be considered cause for divorce, are held to justify a man in taking a second wife. But for

37 Anquetil's Zendav. ii. 557. 38 Cornelius Nepos Praef. Diododorus Sic. Lib. i. 27. "Jus est apud Persos misceri cum matribus. Egyptiis et Athenis cum sororibus legitima connubia." Minucus Felix Octav. 39 Odyssey x. 6.

40 Prescott's Peru i. 113. 41 Anquetil's Zendav ii. 560. 42 Spiegel's Avesta ii.

Einleit. xxvi.