Jim’s Reviews > Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys Into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East > Status Update

Glass cases labeled to show that they contained the bodies of [Coptic] Christian martyrs who died under Diocletian, contained partly mummified corpses. These, with teeth flashing through black flesh twisted in pain, were reverently dresses in silver tinsel and wedding costumes as a symbol of the eternal happiness their sacrifice had won them.

Instead of despising dogs, as the Muslims did, the Zoroastrians put food out for them every night, before they themselves ate.

They believe in heaven, but it is called the Light-World; in an evil spirit, but one that, unlike Satan, is female, and called Ruha; and in baptism as a necessary condition for entering the Light-World, though for them it must be in running water, while babies who die unbaptized are comforted for eternity by trees bearing fruits shaped like their mothers' breasts.