The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1927, Sheet 47

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

for certain whether the white man was not a de-
parted father or a distant ancestor, and he therefore
treated him with great respect. Curious incidents
often resulted.

It once happened, for instance, that a convict
among the whites had escaped from prison. Day
after day he wandered without proper food, until
at last he was scarcely able to drag himself along.
Finally, he became so weak that it was no longer
possible for him to move.

When in this dire strait, he happened to notice
a staff planted in the center of a fresh mound.
Without any thought of the origin or the owner-
ship of the staff he pulled it up and used it after
a few minutes of rest to help him on the way.

A few hours later a company of natives caught
up with him, and at once he noticed that they
treated him with unusual respect. When they
learned of his hunger they fed him bountifully.
They carried him on their shoulders and took him
to their own village. There they nursed him with
the greatest solicitude until health and strength
were fully restored. Not a dweller in the village
but was anxious to render him some service. Soon
after his recovery they made him chief.

For many years he remained among those people,
and one day he discovered the reason why they
venerated him. The mound on which he had rested
that weary day was the mound of the chief of the
tribe. The staff he had appropriated was the chief’s
staff. When the company of natives saw him walking
slowly toward them with the staff, they said, “Here
is our chief come to life as a white man; but he is
still weak.”

It was a miracle to their eyes, and there was
nothing, in their minds, for them to do but acknowl-
edge him as their rightful ruler. — World Outlook.

————_—-—__

Towers of Silence.

Overlooking the city of Bombay and high above
the Arabian Sea stand the gruesome Towers of
Silence. Here, in the stillness of an Indian after-
noon, the traveler may sce the strangest funeral rite
which takes place in Eastern lands. To the Towers
of Silence the Parsee dead are brought, and when
the winding sheet is removed, the body is left to be
devoured by the “heaven-sent birds,” as the Parsees
call them. They are, in fact, ghastly vultures which
wait on top of the tower for the grim Reaper to
furnish another feast for them. When it is ready,
they spread their great wings and, rising slowly in

45

the air, utter a never-to-be-forgotten cry. Then
they swoop down upon their prey. In half an hour
their feast is over. When the bones have dried, they
are swept into a central cistern and are covered
with lime.

No stranger is allowed to go even to the entrance
of the tower, but a model of it is shown near the
temple. The floor is of stone, cut in grooves and
converging toward the center. It is open to the
sky. The outer row is to receive the bodies of men;
the next smaller, those of women; and the inner
row, those of children. When a Parsee dies, he is
borne to the hill on a bier carried on the shoulders
of four men. This is followed by mourners dressed
in white, walking two by two, each couple holding
a handkerchief between them as a token of united
grief.

When the tower is reached, the corpse is delivered
to two bearded men, who take it inside and remove
the shroud. These men, because they have touched
the dead, are called unclean and are shunned
like lepers and forbidden to mingle with their
fellow-men.

There is a separate tower for suicides and some
private towers for wealthy families... A large tower
serves for the general public. While vultures are
consuming the body, friends of the dead wait in
a temple near-by, where the “eternal fire” of incense
and sandal-wood is always burning; for the Parsees
are descendants of the Persians, disciples of Zoro-
aster, and are sometimes called fire-worshipers.
This they deny, claiming that God to them is an
emblem of glory and spiritual life, and the holy
flame is but a symbol. Tire is a sacred ‘element,
earth and water are also sacred elements, therefore
they must not be polluted.

To us Christians the Parsees’ method of dis-
posing of their dead cannot but be exceedingly repul-
sive, more horrible even than the Burning Ghats of
the Hindus and the crematories of our own country.

Adapted from World Outlook.

You Think of When You

What Do Y
: Think of India?

‘What picture comes to your mind when you
think of India?” was asked of a company of people.

“The Taj Mahal,” answered one traveler, as he
recalled to his mind the memory of that glittering
_gem of Indian architecture.

“The Road to Mandalay,” replied another, re-
calling the glamor of Rudyard Kipling’s India.