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

CHAP, VI] GOOD CITIZENS. 291

SPECIAL SECOND VERSE. Stay now Thy chastening hand, In Time of Famine or Pestilence. Sikhsakar hath Tun var, O Lord our God! arise! Heal Thou our stricken land, O Is Jagdis! Tun uth! Des keru dukh nivar, Help while destruction flies FATHER ! in grief we stand, Jyan hoe markini kut, Tat! Santapman avar,

Swift o’er us all. On Thee we call.

Le am sambhal. Am yahre chal.

The Parsis are the most law-abiding subjects of the British crown. The returns of the criminal courts furnish incontestable proof of the fact. They are naturally averse to rioting. They may at times have had to defend themselves, but they have never been the aggressors. Fully recognising the obligations of modern citizenship, they would never think of resorting to violence or of taking the law into their own hands. The leaders of the community are always prepared to seek constitutional remedies if their co-religionists suffer any wrong; but they never encourage a spirit of lawlessness. The feelings of the entire Parsi community were never more outraged, nor were the Parsis ever more excited since their arrival in India, than when two Parsi youths named Dhanjibhai Naorozji and Hormasji Pestanji were induced by the late Rev. Dr. Wilson to change their religion for Christianity. It was in the year 1839 that these two Parsi youths (who are to-day respected ministers of the Christian religion) were