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

CHAP. I1.] AN ANNUAL PILGRIMAGE. 87

he had intended for the princess to the spot where the chasm had opened, and sacrificed her in expiation of her offence. As the news spread, his co-religionists, fired with the same emotion and grieved at the sad fate of Khatun Banu, made similar sacrifices, and the practice continued for many years afterwards. This place was named Dari-din (the door of faith), and thousands of Parsi pilgrims periodically crowded thither from the remotest corners of the empire to pay their homage. The spot commemorating this mysterious disappearance was in Akda, a town or hamlet in the vicinity of Yezd. The annual slaughtering of cows at this place being repugnant to the feelings of the Bombay Parsis, one of the first measures which Mr. Manakji adopted was to put a stop to this practice. He substituted in place of it the performance of more legitimate observances prescribed in the Zoroastrian code of behef. His directions appear to have been willingly obeyed, and the barbarous practice of cow-killing was permanently abandoned. Anxious, however, that the commemoration of so touching and interesting a tradition should be encouraged and perpetuated, Mr. Manakji caused a dome of great size, together with cooking places, to be erected at the expense of the late Mr. Mervanji Framji Panday of Bombay, who also built extensive masonry squares for the accommodation of the large number of pilgrims who

assemble there at each celebration.