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

98 HISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. III.

tion the numbers of the sexes were still more equal, the proportion of males to females being 102 to 100.

As we have said before, the bulk of the Parsi population dwells in the city of Bombay ; and we find, moreover, that the Parsi population is more essentially native to Bombay than any other class in that city can be said to be. According to the last census seventy per cent of the Zoroastrian population of Bombay were born within the city, while twentytwo per cent came from the old home in Surat, and the rest from other parts of India.

The Bombay census report of 1881 shows the occupations followed by the Parsis, and we draw from it the following particulars, which may be instructive. There were in that year 855 priests and persons officiating in religious buildmgs. The Parsis are well represented as the educators of youth—141 out of a total of 951 schoolmasters, and 34 out of a total of 165 ladies (60 being Europeans and 44 native Christians) were Parsis; 33 Zoroastrians returned themselves as civil engineers, the total number of civil engineers being 84. In business pursuits we find a much larger number of Parsis; 1,384 were enumerated as ordinary clerks, and 115 as office managers or as connected with offices. The early enterprise and capacity of the Parsi people in the industry of shipbuilding will be referred to in another chapter, and in the census we find that at the present day, out of 46