Having Deposited It In An Iron Coffin -
The Same For Everyone - They Carry It To The Dakhma.
If any one,
who has once been carried thither, should happen to regain
consciousness, the nassesalars are bound to
Kill him; for such
a person, who has been polluted by one touch of the dead bodies
in the dakhma, has thereby lost all right to return to the living,
by doing so he would contaminate the whole community. As some
such cases have occurred, the Parsees are trying to get a new law
passed, that would allow the miserable ex-corpses to live again
amongst their friends, and that would compel the nassesalars to
leave the only gate of the dakhma unlocked, so that they might
find a way of retreat open to them. It is very curious, but it
is said that the vultures, which devour without hesitation the
corpses, will never touch those who are only apparently dead, but
fly away uttering loud shrieks. After a last prayer at the gate
of the dakhma, pronounced from afar by the mobed, and re-peated
in chorus by the nassesalars, the dog ceremony is repeated. In
Bombay there is a dog, trained for this purpose, at the entrance
to the tower. Finally, the body is taken inside and placed on one
or other of the rows, according to its sex and age.
We have twice been present at the ceremonies of dying, and once
of burial, if I may be permitted to use such an incongruous term.
In this respect the Parsees are much more tolerant than the Hindus,
who are offended by the mere presence at their religious rites of
an European.
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