rally revolting to the Western mind, he powerfully justified it on the score of sanitariness. So careful are the Parsees that earth shall not be polluted by the absorption of matter from dead bodies that in connection with the well containing the decomposed bones they have an elaborate system of drainage which carries off whatever may issue direct to the sea. Whatever else may be said of the system, it is certainly cheap, five rupees covering funeral costs.

As we stood in the grounds a funeral came by. In accordance with custom, the service had commenced at the house of the deceased, where friends and relations had gathered and prayer had been said. It is enjoined by the Parsee ritual that whatever the intervening distance may be, the body must be carried on the shoulders of men from the bed to the tower. They passed us at a swinging pace, four men bearing the body on a light bier, shoulder high. The body was simply covered from head to foot with a white cloth. All the mourners were dressed in white, and those not carrying the bier walked two and two, each couple holding a handkerchief between them.

I asked the secretary what was the significance of this; but he did not know, could only

surmise, in no very clear way, that it was "a fortification against impurity." It was ordained by Zoroaster, and that was enough for him, if not sufficient for a mind fresh to the inquiry.

Before the procession walked an old man leading a white dog with curly tail and not in the best condition. I thought he had caught the mongrel trespassing within the cemetery and was leading it to the gate with intent ignominiously to thrust it forth; but I learned that a dog is an indispensable figure in the funeral-scarcely less so than the corpse itself. When the bearers brought the body to the foot of the tower on the topmost edge of which the vultures sat, a black foreboding line, the cloth was removed from the head, the dog brought up, and effort made to cause him to look into the dead face. This done, the corpse-bearers took up the body and disappeared within the trap-door and the dog was led away. Here again, except that it was ordained in the ritual and had been practised for thousands of years, my philosopher and friend in the baggy red trousers was at a loss for explanation.

"Some hold," he said, whilst warning me against accepting it as anything but a surmise, "that the dog's eyes have the power of attracting to themselves all impurity."

In well-regulated households the dog is brought in to look upon the face of the dying man or woman before the last struggle comes, just as in another church extreme unction is administered. As the dying eyes of the pious Catholic look last upon the cross, so ere earthly things fade for ever from his closing eyes the Parsee looks on the face of a dog. The dog must be white in colour, and to be perfect should be marked with yellow spots-a rare phenomenon reserved for the betterment of the eternal chances of the rich.

We saw the dog come back, and no longer wondered at his melancholy aspect. What a life it must lead! To be taken out at frequent intervals expecting that it is going for a scamper through the fields, or peradventure to be led forth to a bountiful meal, and always to be brought up short to see the cloth uncovered, to think that perhaps after all here is the meal, and once again only the pale dead face and the glassy eyes. I asked the secretary did they live long; but he did not know.

The corpse-bearers having disappeared within the tower, the mourners quickly retraced their steps and ranged themselves outside the temple on the side facing the tower. They stood there mute and motionless for several minutes. Suddenly the silence was

broken by the sound of a bell. The black line, circling the top of the tower, swooped downward with hoarse cries and the rustle of great wings, and the mourners took up the concluding portion of the service for what cannot strictly be called the burial of the dead.

When we left the place a quarter of an hour later the black ring on the top of the whitewashed tower was beginning to form again. The vultures slowly sailing up were resuming their old positions. Many of them, standing on one leg, seemed to be picking their teeth with the other claw, as with contentment born of the dinner they lazily surveyed the scene-Bombay, busy and bustling, still containing fair supplies of plump Parsees, and beyond the quiet sea, taking on roseate tints in the light of the setting sun.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE HOLY CITY.

THE railway journey from Bombay to Benares is accomplished in two nights and the greater parts of two days. The line passes through a level country, which at this season of the year is piteously parched. There are many signs that in the rainy season the supply of water is even embarrassingly rich. But the river beds which drain the plain at brief intervals are now dry lands, and the sign of former water makes the country look more desolate. Only the trees bear up against the prevailing drought. These, deep rooted in the soil, and profiting by the plentiful summer rains, have begun to take on a weary look; but on the whole they are wonderfully green, and relieve the landscape from absolute barrenness. For the rest, there is no sign of life save the thin cattle forlornly nosing the burnt stubble that here and there fringes the dusty