DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22900#0171
CHAP. III.]
PARSI DOMESTICITY.
127
them indulge in at dinner, though, of course, at large
parties various wines are handed round and pretty
freely indulged in. During the day they abstain from
drinking anything stronger than tea. They abhor
drunkenness as the parent of many evils. As an
instance of their esteem for temperate habits, it
may be mentioned that, in the early part of this cen-
tury, when the Panchayet was in power, it directed
the removal of a liquor shop kept by a Parsi from a
street inhabited by other Parsis on pain of excom-
munication. It will not be out of place to state here
the fact that Parsis do not smoke either tobacco or
opium, from their religious instinct forbidding them
to bring fire, which is pure, into contact with the
mouth, which is deemed impure.
The Parsi women occupy in their society a much
more honourable and independent position than either
their Hindu or Mahomedan sisters. According to
Dr. Haug, a high authority on Zoroastrian scriptures,
" the position of a female was in ancient times
much higher than it is nowadays. They are always
mentioned as a necessary part of the religious com-
munity. They have the same religious rites as
men ; the spirits of deceased women are invoked as
well as those of men."
The Parsi generally makes a good and affectionate
husband, and discharges faithfully his matrimonial
duties, and the wife is equally conscious of her obliga-
PARSI DOMESTICITY.
127
them indulge in at dinner, though, of course, at large
parties various wines are handed round and pretty
freely indulged in. During the day they abstain from
drinking anything stronger than tea. They abhor
drunkenness as the parent of many evils. As an
instance of their esteem for temperate habits, it
may be mentioned that, in the early part of this cen-
tury, when the Panchayet was in power, it directed
the removal of a liquor shop kept by a Parsi from a
street inhabited by other Parsis on pain of excom-
munication. It will not be out of place to state here
the fact that Parsis do not smoke either tobacco or
opium, from their religious instinct forbidding them
to bring fire, which is pure, into contact with the
mouth, which is deemed impure.
The Parsi women occupy in their society a much
more honourable and independent position than either
their Hindu or Mahomedan sisters. According to
Dr. Haug, a high authority on Zoroastrian scriptures,
" the position of a female was in ancient times
much higher than it is nowadays. They are always
mentioned as a necessary part of the religious com-
munity. They have the same religious rites as
men ; the spirits of deceased women are invoked as
well as those of men."
The Parsi generally makes a good and affectionate
husband, and discharges faithfully his matrimonial
duties, and the wife is equally conscious of her obliga-