Parsee festivals are celebrated with but little show. Their day is divided into watches termed gah, of which there are four in winter and five in summer. Each gah has a heavenly watcher and its own special prayers. Pateti Naoroz, or New Year's Day, is held on the 1st of Farvardin, cele brated in honour of Yezdejird, the last king of the Sassanian dynasty. On this day alms are given, and congratulatory visits paid, in which the Hama i-jor or hand-joining is practised. Rapitwar, on the 3d of Farvardin, is in memory of Ardibehest ; Khurdad-sal, in memory of Zoroaster.
Physicians who attend Parsee patients are always charged (if the cases are likely to terminate fatally) to give timely warning to the friends of the sick man. When it is believed that he is drawing near his end, the sacred Horn water is given to drink, and, when life departs, the attendants place the body on stones, in a lower chamber, from which everything else has been removed, and wash it with warm water. The reasons given for the removal to the ground are various, but the one ordinarily accepted amongst them is that a dead body is an unclean thing, necessitating that all who touch it must destroy their clothes, and whatever it touches must be destroyed. With these views the dead in Bombay are carried by a class of Parsees called Nessus Solar, Nessus meaning unclean. These men carry the remains to the dokhma or tower of silence, on the floor of which they lay it. The dokhma is without any roof covering, is open to the sky, so that birds of prey, vultures, kites, and crows have the freest approach. The raised floor has a deep well surrounded by a platform, with channels con verging to the well. The dead are carried within on an iron bed, from which they are removed and placed on a partition of the platform, and the fluids resulting from its decomposition flow along the channels into the well ; but after a time • the remnants of bones are also swept into that exca vation. This mode of disposing of the dead is universal among the Parsees whenever they are able to give effect to the arrangements. A small dokhma will cost Rs. 10,000 or Rs. 15,000. When the well is full, the bones are removed and buried outside the dokhma. After the demise, before removal from the house, a dog is brought near to gaze on the departed. This is the Sag-did, or dog-gaze, and its object is variously explained,— anciently, it is said, because the dog's intelligence could show whether life was extinct ; but at present the notions are that the dog's presence secures the passage of the soul over the bridge of Chinvat (see Bridge). The fire-priests are
paid to pray for the dead, monthly, for a year, and thereafter on the anniversary of the demise.
Addar jasan is the 9th day of the 9th month of the Parsee year. On this day, money is distributed to the priests, and offerings of sandal-wood are made to the sacred flame in their fire-temples, which are then much crowded. The educated amongst them are inclined to imagine their Gurasman or Bahasht, in which Hormazd dwells, a heaven something like that of the Christians, but seven (or four) heavens are recognised amongst them ; and their Dozakh, where dwells Ahriman or Shaitan amongst dark fiends, is the equivalent of hell.
In childhood, a Jubhla or silken frock is worn by the Parsee, both boys and girls, and they are invested with the Sadaro, or sacred shirt, and the cord or kusti, at the age of six years and three months. It is in reality deemed to be the seventh year,—the nine months of the child's gestation being included. This investiture is the initiation of the child into the religion of Zoroaster, the silken Jubhla being then discontinued. The Sadaro is made of cotton cloth, or gauze, or net, while the kusti is a thin woollen cord of seventy two threads, representing the seventy-two Has or chapters of the Izashne, one of their sacred books. The Sadaro and kusti are worn alike by men and women, but the latter likewise dress in the sarce. generally of coloured silk, and the short-sleeved silk vest called the Kanchri or Choli. Provided the Sadaro be worn, any other material and of any colour may be added over it. It is to the knsti, the sacred thread, to which Moore, in his Lalla Rookb, alludes, when he makes Hafiz declare himself a fire-worshipper :— `Hold hold ! thy words are death, The stranger cried, as wide be flung His mantle back, and showed, beneath, The Gebr belt that round him hung.' The kusti is terminated by two small tails at each end, denoting the four seasons; three knots on each tail represent in the aggregate the twelve months of the year. Baron de Bode, however, states that the cord is twisted, of 27 threads, such being the number, according to one Parsee inter pretation, of the known kingdoms of the world at the time of Hushang. But it is variously explained. The assumption of the Sadaro or sacred shirt is part of the ceremony of initiation. It corresponds to the under garment worn by a Hebrew child, called Arbang Kanphoth.