for nine
whole days in the fire temple, and is not permitted to touch human
beings, vegetation, water nor fire, and must wash himself twice more
during that time, on the fourth day and on the seventh. It is only then
that he is considered amply purified and able to go through the _Navar_
ceremony.

The Zoroastrian religion is based on three excellent points--"good
thoughts, good words, good deeds"--and as long as people adhere to them
it is difficult to see how they can go wrong. They worship God and only
one God, and do not admit idolatry. They are most open-minded regarding
other people's notions, and are ever ready to recognise that other
religions have their own good points.

Perhaps no greater libel was ever perpetrated on the Parsees than when
they were put down as "fire-worshippers," or "worshippers of the
elements." The Parsees are God-worshippers, but revere, not worship, fire
and the sun as symbols of glory, heat, splendour, and purity; also
because fire is to human beings one of the most necessary things in
creation, if not indeed the most necessary thing; otherwise they are no
more fire-worshippers than the Roman Catholics, for instance, who might
easily come under the same heading, for they have lighted candles and
lights constantly burning in front of images inside their churches.

Besides, it is not the fire itself, as fire, that Parsees nurse in their
temples, but a fire specially purified for the purpose. The process is
this: Several fires, if possible originally lighted by some natural
cause, such as lightning, are brought in vases. Over one of these fires
is placed a flat perforated tray of metal on which small pieces of very
dry sandal-wood are made to ignite by the mere action of the heat, but
must not actually come in contact with the flame below. From this fire a
third one is lighted in a similar manner, and nine times this operation
is repeated, each successive fire being considered purer than its
predecessor, and the result of the ninth conflagration being pronounced
absolutely pure.

It is really the idea of the purifying process that the Parsees revere
more than the fire itself, and as the ninth fire alone is considered
worthy to occupy a special place in their temples, so, in similarity to
it, they aim in life to purify their own thoughts, words, and actions,
and glorify them into "good thoughts, true words, noble actions." This is
indeed very different from fire-worshipping of which the