Note 23 — Chapter IV · WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS AND SAINTS.

At Mithbáv in the Devgad taluka it is believed that the souls of those who die with their wishes unfulfilled take the form of a Bhut. They enter the bodies of people. Any woman who is attacked by the Bhut of a Pir becomes able to speak in the Hindi language although it may not be her mother tongue. When a child or a person is suffering from the attacks of a spirit, incense is burnt, and it at once begins to tell the whereabouts of the spirit and the reason why the person has been attacked. He is then asked to state what he wants, and when the things which the spirit wants are offered, it goes away.23 Spirits are generally invisible.