GUERRES, GAURS, or GAVRES (i.e., "gnome" or infidel), terms used in the East to designate the Fireworshippers, a very ancient religious sect in Persia, who derive their origin from the immediate followers of Zoroaster. In India, where a colony of this sect has long been established along the western coast, they are called Parses, a name indicative of their origin. Many of these have acquired great wealth and distinction, particularly at Bombay. The characteristic feature in this religion is the worship of fire, which the Behendie (i.e., "followers of the true faith"), as they designate themselves, profess to regard as symbolical of the Supreme Power, which, as imaged in the sun, quickens, vivifies, and blesses all things; or, in other words, as the emblem of Deity. Their sacred books are termed the Zend-Avesta, the authorship of which is ascribed to Zoroaster, though it is unquestionably a spurious production. For an exposition of the leading tenets of this sect, see Zend.

The Fire-worshippers of Persia at the present day are nearly confined to the city of Yezd, and some towns in Kerman. They are a mild and inoffensive race, industrious, and temperate. They drink wine, eat all kinds of meat, and eschew polygamy, which is specially prohibited by their religion, except in cases of hopeless sterility, when a second wife is admissible. They have a singular mode of disposing of their dead, by exposing the bodies upon the towers of their temples, to be devoured by birds; and, from observation of the part first preyed upon, they draw inferences as to the fate of the deceased.