These bearers come to every funeral in new garments.

So far as is known, no human being, other than an official corpse-bearer--save one--has ever entered a Tower of Silence after its consecration.

Just a hundred years ago a European rushed in behind the bearers and fed his brutal curiosity with a glimpse of the forbidden mysteries of the place.

This shabby savage's name is not given; his quality is also concealed.

These two details, taken in connection with the fact that for his extraordinary offense the only punishment he got from the East India Company's Government was a solemn official "reprimand"-- suggest the suspicion that he was a European of consequence.
The same public document which contained the reprimand gave warning that future offenders of his sort, if in the Company's service, would be dismissed; and if merchants, suffer revocation of license and exile to England.
The Towers are not tall, but are low in proportion to their circumference, like a gasometer.