Directory_and_Chronicle_1879 — Page 47

PARSEE FESTIVALS AND OBSERVANCES.

or cut-straw upon her head, in token of grief. These pass round in a circle, accom- panied or followed by a company on foot who beat upon their breasts, crying, "Hai Hossein! Hai Hossein!" Sometimes, a person represented in a dying state, his body covered with wounds and blood and darts and daggers run into it, is carried about in procession. It would seem that this festival is now celebrated with less effort and effect than formerly. It is entirely disapproved by the Sunis.

PARSEE.

Parsees originally came from Persia, where they were once the ruling nation. The Persian Empire was extended in their time from the Mediterranean to the Indus, from the Jaxartes to Arabia and the confines of Egypt. They bad also extended their conquests into India. But after the overthrow of their last monarch, Yezdezerd III., by Caliph Omar, Persia became a prey to the Arabs and Turks, who exercised a most tyrannical sway with the view of converting Parsees to the Moslem Faith. To escape religious persecution and oppression at the hands of their Mahomedan conquerors, a very large number of Parsees fled from their mother country, and about the eighth century took refuge at Sanjam, in Western India, where Hindoo idolatry and polytheism were prevalent. Parsees, however, clung to their own rites and ceremonies and preserved monotheism wherever they went and in whatever position their lot was cast. From Sanjam they dispersed themselves into small knots over the whole of Guzerat, and we find them occupying responsible positions under the sway of the Delbi Moguls, and also under the Portuguese Government at Bombay. They had been rendering material assistance, both pecuniary and mercantile, to the Honourable the East India Co. at Surat. Surat bal, however, to yield its commercial importance to Bombay, which being the principal seaport of Western India, afforded peculiar advantages for the development of commerce, in which the Parsees have taken the leading part. To the shores of China they were the first to migrate in 1756, and for more than a hundred years Parsee firms have been carrying on a thriving trade in Canton, Macao, Hongkong, and Shanghai. With Bengal, Pegu, Rangoon, Madras, and the Malabar coast they also began to trade in rice, timber, &c. at an early date. Under the fostering care of the British they soon extended their trade with England in cetton, piec" goods, and other staples. The particular characteristics of the community are, devout loyalty, love of truth and constitutional justice, libe- rality, and mercantile enterprise. These have led to their rapid development from a state of obscurity and poverty into opulence and social and political importance. The liberality of the Parsees is proverbial. From the rear 1803 we find them contributing to subscriptions raised in England; as in the memorial fund of William Pitt, the testimonial to Dr. Jenner, the well known discoverer and propagator of vaccination, the London Patriotic Fund of 1804, the Marquis of Cornwallis Memorial Fund of 1806, and the London Hospital Fund of 1808, and several others, without needlessly entering into a description of the way in which they have always stood forward during the last fifty years in the cause of suffering humanity.

The Parsees of India are divided into two sects-the "Shanshahis" or "Rasmis," and the “Kudmis" or "Churigars," the former of whom consitute the larger portion of the race.

This division originated only about a hundred and fifty years ago, when a learned Persian priest, named Jamasp, arrrived in India, and found that his co-religionists differed from their brethren of Iran in their calculation of time by a full month, and in other minor points relating to their "Liturgy." Serious disputes arose in consequence, which ended in the formation of the two sects, the Shansbahis adhering to their own views, and the Kudmis adopting the opinions imported by Jamasp-thus agreeing with their Persian brethren. Notwithstanding this division, no estrangement exists between them in their social intercourse. The difference lies only in their computation of time, and in some slight variations in their form of prayer. Intermarriage is allowed, as well as admission to each other's places of worship.

The festivals of the Parsees are celebrated with little or no outward pomp. Their holidays are mostly occupied in prayers in the morning, and festivities and rejoicings