ships and was so enfeebled in the following sum-
mer that it was compelled to return to England,
where it arrived in October, 1823. In ilay. IS24,
Parry left with the same ships to make another
attempt to discover the long-sought passage, but
after a winter in the ice and the loss of the Fury,
the expedition returned home in October, 1825.
Parry then obtained the Admiralty's consent to
attempt to reach the Xorth Pole by the Spitz-
bergen route. He sailed on the Hecla for Spitz-
bergen in May, 1827, left his ship in Trurenberg
Bay on -Tune 21st, and started for the north with
two boats, titted with steel runners to serve as
sledges, 28 men. and sup[ilies for 71 days. The
advance was extremeh- diniciilt, the part}- ex-
changing from floe ice to water several times
each day. and the southward drift of the ice de-
prived Parry of many of his hard-won miles to
the north. The highest point attained was in
latitude 82° 45' N., which secured for England
a new record of highest latitude and remained
the highest north for forty-eight years. Parry
died on .Jul_v 8. 18.5.'), after serving two years
as governor of Greenwich Hospital. His best-
known books are Journal of a Second Voyage for
the Discovery of the yorthwest Passage, which
appeared in 1824, and^*orro7u-e of an Attempt
to I'each the Xorth Pole in Boats (1827).
PAR'RY ISLANDS. A group of large isl- ands in the Arctic archipelago of North America, lying chiefly north of the 75th parallel of lati- tude (Jlap: America, Xorth, (J 2). The chain extends westward from Baffin's Bay, south of Ellesmere Land, being bounded on the south by Lancaster and Melville sounds. The principal members of the group are North Devon, Grin- nell Land, and Cornwallis, Bathurst. Melville, and Prince Patrick islands. All the islands are irregular in outline, with numerous fiords and headlands. The coasts are rocky and steep, while the interior is covered with glaciers. They are uninhabited, ami their vegetation is very scanty, though sufficient in summer to support herds of reindeer and musk-oxen. One of the earliest explorers of the group was Parry, who wintered on Melville Island in 1819. The dis- coveries in these regions, however, were mainly accomplished during the search for Sir John Franklin.
PARSIFAL, piir'se-fal. A festival music- drama by Richard Wagner. The outline of the music was finished in 1879. the orchestration in 1882, and the first performance was given in Bayreuth, .luly 20. 1882. The story is based upon the Arthurian legend of Perceval and the Holy Grail, and particularly on the metrical version by Wolfram von Eschenbach. (See Per- ceval.) The scene is in or near the Castle of the Holy Grail (Monsalviit. Spain). The prin- cipal characters are: Parsifal: Amfortas, who has l>een one of the Knights of the Grail, but who has lost the Holy Spear, been wounded by it, and has fallen into the power of Klingsor. a magician hostile to the knights; and Kundry, one of the beautiful women throiigh whom Kling- sor hopes to gain authority over the knights (as he has over Amfortas) by tempting them to break their vows of chastity. In the first act the inexperienced Parsifal is brought to the castle by one of the knights, witnesses the adora- tion of' the Grail, but does not appreciate its significance, and is cast out by the knights. In the second act Parsifal withstands Klingsor's various attempts to overcome him, even Kundry is unsuccessful, and he finally wins from the magician the Holy .Spear and starts on his search for the Castle of the Grail, whose im|K)rtancc he now realizes. In the third act, after a lapse of many years, Parsifal meets Kundry and one of the knights. Kundrv has repented", and after baptizing her Parsifal is led by the knight to the castle. There he heals the old wound of Amfortas by touching it with the Holy Spear (the only possible cure) ; Kimdry dies "in hap- piness, and Parsifal is hailed as King of the Knights of the Grail. See the article Wagneb, KllIIARO.
PARSIMONY (l>at. parsimonia, parcimonia, frugalitv. from piirccre. to be frugal, to span': connected with parens). The Law of. The state- ment in explicit terms of the demand of thougiit that principles of explana,tion should not be un- necessarily multiplied.
PARSIS, par'sez, or PARSEES (Pers., IPind. Pursi, Persian, fire-worshi|)er). The modern Zoroa.strians, especially in India, where, in 1901, they numbere<l 94,190. Less than a hundred years after the Arab invasion in the seventh century, and the fall of the Iranian king- dom and faith, a considerable numl)er of Zoroastrians left Persia to gain greater re- ligious lil)erty. and moved as a community with their priests down to the city of Ornuiz. on the Persian Gulf. After residing there some fifteen years, they determined to seek the shores of India, and they landed first on the island of Diu, off the coast of Kathiawar. Here they re- mained for nineteen years until eircumstanc'es brought them farther south. They landed in 710 at Sanjan, some distance to the north of the modern Bombay, and settled among the Hindus. after comjilyiiig with certain simple regulations. In 775 a .sec-ond band seems to have joined these pioneers, and together they formed a conmiunity. which flourished for more than five hundred years. In 1315 the Mohammedans who were invading India attacked the Parsis of San- jan. who had made an alliance with their Hindu protectors. The allies were defeateil. Sanjan was destroyed, and the Parsis were fiuced t" seek refuge in the Bharhut hills, where they kept alive their sacred fire and preserved their ancient rites. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Zoroastrians spread quite widely thnnigh Gujarat, settling in Surat. Xavsari. Bombay, and other jJaces. The Parsi settlement in Bombay l>e!»an as early as the time of the Portuguese ix-- cupation (1.530-lli(ll ). The Bombay Pn-sideney has remained the centre of the Parsi population of India, although representatives of the com- munity are to be found as far northward as Peshawar, as far east as Calcutta, and as far to the south as Madras, or even Ceylon. Almost all the Parsis are well-to-do. and a laruv pro- portion of them wealthy. They are often called the Jews of the East.
The Parsis have in general remained faithful to the tenets of their ancient ctwhI. But in con- sequence of emigration from Persia, and because also of their contact with the Hindus and others, some changes have crept into their customs. Xor have they kept free from sectarian contiMver*y. As early as lt>Sli there is evidence of a vigorous dispute, as to supremacy of position, between
