History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. VI.] AN EXCELLENT QUALITY. 265

for their love of charity. Some may even carry this virtue to a fault and forget that “charity begins at home.” It is sufficient to satisfy a wealthy Parsi that there is an object deserving of relief or support, and his purse is at once opened.

This excellent quality, which is natural to Parsis, has been noticed by the earliest Europeans. _ We have referred in previous pages to several instances of the charitable disposition of the Parsis, and described the numerous benefits they have conferred upon their fellow-countrymen. The English newspapers of the day abound in notices of such liberality, and they speak in the highest terms of praise of the Parsis for feeding thousands of people of different castes during the famines which raged in Western India at the close of the last and the commencement of the present century.

The benevolence of Sorabji Mancherji Readymoney is thus referred to in a Bombay newspaper, dated 1790 :—* We are happy in the opportunity of pointing out the liberality of Sorabji Mancherji, whose conduct does honour to humanity. During the present scarcity of provisions he daily feeds upwards of 2,000 people, of different castes, at his own expense.”

Mrs. Graham, in her journal of a residence in India in the years 1805 and 1806, says: “The Parsi merchant Ardeshir Dadi fed 5,000 people, besides