The Wingham Advance-Times, 1963-12-19, Page 13Parsi Tells Story of Gifts Brought by Wise Men
BY LYMAN B. JACKES
Variations in the age-old
ry, told at Christmas time,
the Wise Men who came from
the east to Jerusalem. and en-
quired the way to the birth-
place of Him Who was born
King of the Jews, are recounted
by certain residents of Bombay.
in India,
I refer to a little known race
of less than a hundred thousand
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amid the teeming millions of
India's population. But what
the Parsi lacks in numbers he
makes up in power; fo'r they are
the richest people in the world
and their capital has nursed all
the great industrial enterprises
of India into fruition. They are
back of the great jute industry,
the splendid railways which
thread the land, great steam-
ship services, the silk industry
and anything else that is pro-
gressive.
The Parsi did not always live
on Bombay Island. About twel-
ve hundred years ago they were
driven out of Persia, their na-
tive land, by the hordes of Is-
lam which swept over the Near
East during the eighth century.
ARISTOCRAT OF ORIENT
Some few years ago I came
down to Combay from Arabia
and landed in the city on Dec-
ember 24. I had some business
with one of these great men.
As I was leaving his office
about four in the afternoon he
called me back and said:" To-
morrow is your Christmas day.
Nearly all your countrymen
have left to spend the holiday
in the hills. It will be lonely
for you here and if you will
come to my home for dinner
you will be welcome,"
Without doubt the Parsi is
the aristocrat of the Orient. To
receive such an invitation was
akin to being asked to dine with
Royalty in Europe. Swept with
emotion by the unexpected
honor of his words, I accepted
as graciously as possible and en-
quired the way to his home. It
was up toward Mallabar Hill
and overlooked the sea. He
sent one of his Rolls-Royces for
me (he had just seven of them.)
We climbed a long winding
avenue set out with palms and
then reached his home.
It is not my purpose to des-
cribe his charming family or
the wonderful meals served in
true Oriental style from the
floor, while we all sat oncost-
ly mats. I want to tell you of
what he said while we sat out
on his terrace after dinner and
watched the moon shed its sil-
very light through the gently
waving palms.
MYRRH NOT EXPENSIVE
"We do not keep Christmad;,
he said, "but we have perhaps
as much right to do so as you
have, for, according to your
Bible, our people played a,
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great role in the first Christmas
The Wise Men mentioned in
your sacred books were mem-
bers of our ancient priesthood,"
he remarked. To me this was
a thrilling remark. I had seen
and heard many strange things
during my journey to the east,
But to have a man calmly tell
you that the Wise Men werehis
direct forbears and that he
knew all about them was a new
peak of strange experience.
My Parsi host claimed that
the three articles brought to
Bethlehem, the gold, the frank-
incense and the myrrh, had no
intrinsic value. The last two
items could have been purchas-
ed in many of the stalls of the
Jerusalem market place for a
few pence. Gold in New Testa-
ment times was at a discount,
and as a precious metal rated
far below the value of silver.
As he drew attention to this
matter I recalled how often the
phrase appears in the Bible. It
is generally silver and gold —
seldom or never gold and silver.
My host further pointed out that
Christ, through out His life, al-
ways boasted of being a poor
man. If, he claimed, these
billionaire visiting priests had
have been merely making a
present they would have brought
rubies and silver, and in such
qualities that the family, in-
cluding Christ, would never
have wanted for any material
thing.
COUNTERPARTS OF "GIFTS"
During the course of this in-
teresting discussion he called a
servant — who returned from his
message bearing a small jewell
encrusted casket. In this cas-
ket he showed me his "gifts,"
which had been given to his
parents when he was born, by
the wise men of that day, in ex-
actly
xactly the same manner and
fashion as the earlier Parsi
priests who had visited Pales-
tine two thousand years earlier.
The three objects in my
host's casket were quite com-
monplace objects of no com-
mercial value. But they had
pointed out his destiny in life
and their forecast had been true
Now, I asked him, if the
gifts of the Wise Men were
meant to be symbols, what was
the meaning of the three ob-
jects presented to the Infant
Christ. "The gold," he replied,
"was meant to convey to Him
through His parents, that He
would be a King. The gold was
given first. It meant that as
far as earthly pomp a.... show
were concerned, His kingdom
would be second-rate. It would
not compare with the kingdoms
of His day that would have been
represented if the gift had been
a small block of silver.
"The next Parsi priest pre-
sented him with a small bit of
frankincense. This was the
great and cheap remedy for all
cuts, bruises and inflammations
of the day. It was applied as a
healing ointment as freely as
the well-known and cheap oint-
ments of the corner drug store
are applied today. It signified
the mission of this kingdom of
gold. It was to have a mission
of healing.
ONLY INSTANCE KNOWN
"When this gift had been
given and its significance ex-
plained, the third member of
the party stepped forward and
presented his symbol, which
was meant to tell the duration
of this second-rate kingdom of
gold with its mission of healing.
He presented a small container
of myrrh, the oil used to em-
balm the dead, and the chief
item in preparing the bodies of
Egyptians for mummification.
Myrrh was the great and
.cheap preservative of the time.
Even in New Testament times
its efficacy was known. The
bodies of persons who had died
thousands of years prior to the
visit of the Wise Men were in a
perfect state of preservation.
The meaning of this symbol was
that this kingdom of gold, with
a mission of healing, would last
and destruction could not pene-
trate it."
My host was of the opinion
that there must have been some
thing wonderful about the star
that appeared in the east.
Wingham Advance -Times, Thursday. Deo, 19, 1963 — Page 5
Council Gives
Cemetry Grants
Gorrie Cemetery was voted
a grant of $200, Wroxeter Cem-
etery $100 and Howick Luther-
an Cemetery $75 at the Howick
Township council meeting on
December 5, Wroxeter, Gor-
rie and Fordwich each received
a $30 grant for their Santa Claus
funds.
Henry Howe was refunded
two-thirds of his business tax for
1963 which amounted to $5.40
and Justin Will received a $4.00
dog tax refund.
It was decided to renew the
insurance on the Wroxeter rink,
$5,000 with North Waterloo
Mutual and $5, 000 with Pilot
Insurance Co.
A building permit will be
secured for the township shed
and the business tax for Jean
Andari for 1962 was writtenoff.
The road superintendent will
call for tenders within the Town-
ship of Howick for furnace oil
and diesel fuel for 1964.
Justin Will, refund on dog
tax, $4.00; Ross Hanna, deposit
on Sanderson Drain, $50.00;
Howick Twp. School Area
Board, proceeds of debentures,
$66,079.65; Gestetner(Canada)
Ltd., supplies, $13.18; John
Dinsmore, livestock valuator,
$12.00; Perry Strong, mowing
Pioneer Park , $25.00; H. N.
Gowdy and Son, fuel for office,
$36.92; Wingham Advance -
Times, advertising, $8.61;
Harriston Review, advertising
and printing, $28.21; relief
accounts, $104.72; Elmer
Greenley, fox bounty, $4.00;
Wm. Hay, fox bounty, $4.00;
W. E. Whitfield, part salary,
$215.00, preparing financial
statement, $15.00, printing
$190.00; nomination expenses,
$5.90, exchange, $7.92; H. G.
Harris, part salary, $75.00;
Gorrie Community Hall, rent of
of hall for nomination, $8.00;
I. Haskins, fees and mileage,
$323.45; R. Gibson, fees and
mileage, $278.50; F. King,
fees and mileage, $276.10; E.
H. Strong, fees and mileage,
$255.50; H. McMichael, fees
and mileage, $280.00; Robt.
Gibson, 2 hospital board meet-
ings. 810.00; Dept. of Nation-
al Revenue, income tax, $35.00,
Howick Twp. Recreation Com.
$294.50; Gorrie Cemetery,
$200.00; Wroxeter Cemetery,
$100.00; Howick Lutheran
Cemetery, $75,00; Fordwich
Santa Claus Fund, $30.00; Gor
rie Santa Claus Fund, $30.00;
Wroxeter, Santa Claus Fund,
$30.00; E. H. Strong, com-
missioner Sanderson Drain,
$40.00, commissioner W. King
Branch drain, $40.00; Road
accounts, $14, 852.79.
Oldsters remember when a
man who paid more than 25
cents for a necktie was consid-
ered a spendthrift and a dude.
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