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Towers of Silence

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Towers in Persia and India, some sixty feet in height, on the top of which Parsees place the dead to be eaten by vultures. The bones are picked clean in the course of a day, and are then thrown into a receptacle and covered with charcoal.

“A procession is then formed, the friends of the dead following the priests to the Towers of Silence on Malabar Hill.”—Col. Floyd-Jones.


⁂ The Parsees will not burn or bury their dead, because they consider a dead body impure, and they will not suffer themselves to defile any of the elements. They carry their dead on a bier to the Tower of Silence. At the entrance they look their last on the dead, and the corpse-bearers carry the dead body within the precincts and lay it down to be devoured by vultures which crowd the tower. (Nineteenth Century, Oct., 1893, p. 611.)

 

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Tourlourou
Tournament or Tournay
Tournemine
Tours
Tout (pronounce towt)
Tout Ensemble (French)
Tout est Perdu Hormis LHonneur
Tout le Monde
Tower of Hunger
Tower of London
Towers of Silence
Town (A)
Town and Gown Row (A)
Toyshop of Europe (The)
Tracing of a Fortress (The)
Tracts for the Times
Tractarians
Tracy
Trade
Trade Mark
Trade Winds

See Also:

Towers of Silence