PARSEES

PARSEES (i. e. inhabitants of Pars or Persia), a name given to the disciples of Zoroaster or their descendants in Persia and India, and sometimes called Guebres; majority of them live in India, chiefly in the Mumbai. They form a wealthy community, and are engaged mostly in commerce; in religion they incline to deism, and pay homage to the sun as the symbol of the deity; they neither bury their dead nor burn them, but expose them apart in the open air, where they are left till the flesh is eaten away and only the bones remain, to be removed afterwards for consignment to a subterranean cavern.