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

CHAP. VI.] FEMALE EDUCATION. 393

they have fully succeeded in awakening in the minds of their countrymen a perception of the necessity of a general and rapid advance in the paths of knowledge and enlightenment, if they desire to rank among the civilised nations of the earth.

The Parsis are now acting in this spirit, and they have only to continue to do so for another age to produce, under God’s blessing, no insignificant results. Even to-day those seeking instruction and enlightenment are not confined within the walls of the schools. At the meetings of the literary societies, at public lectures, and in libraries large numbers of Parsis are always to be seen acquiring information in every shape, and from whatever source it can be obtained. Much good is expected from this thirst for knowledge, as the effect of English education upon the Parsis generally will be to raise them still higher in the scale of civilisation.

The history of female education among the Parsis is very interesting. We have said already that the exertions of the educated Parsi youth have worked a great change in the condition of Parsi society. Foremost among these we place the establishment of girls’ schools in the year 1849, from which date female education among the Parsis can only be said to have commenced, Before that Parsi ladies of the upper classes knew how to read and write a little Gujarati,

which is their vernacular. The Parsis of old, follow-