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

CHAP. VI] DEVOTION TO THE ROVAL FAMILY. 283

nothing is more oratifying to the Parsis than that the English people should have admitted their right to be called the most loyal of Indian races.

Loyalty to Her Majesty the Queen-Empress includes of course loyalty to all the members of the royal family. The Parsis take as much interest in the royal family of England, and have as much love for them, as their ancestors had for their ancient kings. They have not forgotten the names of their wise and beneficent rulers and the glory of their empire under kings like Jamshid, Cyrus, and Shapur; nor have they forgotten the heroic deeds of Jal, Rustam, and Sorab; but their glory is now only treasured in pious memory. The foremost place in the Parsi heart is now occupied by our gracious Queen-Empress and her sons and daughters. In the joys and sorrows of the royal family the Parsis heartily and sincerely participate. Marriage in a Parsi family is an occasion of great rejoicing, and as our readers have been told in previous pages the toast of the Royal Family is never omitted. On the marriage of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales the rejoicings in Parsi families were as great as if they had been living under their own kings. The most superficial observer who entered a Parsi house on that day could not fail to have been convinced of Parsi loyalty.

Then, again, when news was received in India in 1871 of the serious illness of His Royal Highness the