Note 141 — Chapter V · WORSHIP OF THE MALEVOLENT DEAD.
Reading edition
Most high caste people, on the death of their first wives, take an impression of their feet on gold leaves or leaf-like tablets of gold and cause their second wives to wear them round their necks.141 These impresses of feet are called shok-pagalāns or mourning footprints. Among the lower castes, the hands or the feet of the second wives are tattooed in the belief that this prevents the deceased wife from causing injury to the second wife.142