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

100 AIISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. II.

It is very much to be regretted that the Parsis of the present day do not pay the attention to agricultural pursuits which their ancestors paid in their own country, and which the first settlers in India exhibited for several centuries. The Parsis to-day are not men of the country; they have become essentially men of the towns. At the commencement of the present century several well-known Parsis owned extensive farms, and spent large sums of money in the improvement of their estates; but unhappily these have passed completely out of their hands. When other avocations brought riches sooner the Parsis gave up their investments in lands. Perhaps they now regret having abandoned so sure, if slow, a source of individual profit.

When Sir Richard Temple, the late energetic Governor of Bombay, was at Navsari, he reminded the Parsis of the ancient traditions of their race in respect to agriculture, and, after quoting from the Vendidad some striking passages of great force and interest in respect to the estimation in which agriculture was held in those ancient days, that enlightened statesman exhorted the Parsis to again take up this homely pursuit. Weare glad to say that some attention is being once more turned in this direction, and that Parsi capital is finding employment in the cultivation of land. A wealthy Parsi of Broach Mr. Rastamji Manakji has taken on lease a large extent of waste