Note 24 — DOMESTIC LIFE

Guns being comparatively scarce, the Lhota still hunts deer with dogs and spear as his forefathers did before him. Sambhur (sepu) are chiefly found in the flat river valleys, and when hunted invariably make for the water, which they cross and recross repeatedly. Tracks having shown that a sambhur is in a certain piece of jungle, the dogs are worked through it by their owner, who encourages them with a shout like a loud laugh. With him goes a thin line of spearmen to guard against a break back, while other spears wait at places where the quarry is likely to cross the stream. The dogs give tongue lustily enough as soon as they pick up the scent, so that the waiting spearmen can change their position according to the line which the deer seems to be taking. This goes on till the deer is either killed or gets clean away. The method of hunting serow (tsiyo) and barking deer (sanu) is the same, except that these animals are found in the little valleys running down the hills and are ambushed at the points where they try to get through into the next valley. The Lhota is a wonderful judge of the line a deer is going to take and can generally be relied upon to get his spear into a running target at twenty yards, so that these hunts are more often successful than unsuccessful. No hunting takes place on the day on which anyone has died in the village, not apparently from any idea of showing respect to the dead, but because it is regarded as a foregone conclusion that luck will be bad that day. If an animal killed is found to have died with its tongue hanging out of the left side of its mouth, hunting is probably stopped for the day, as it is believed that no more game will be killed; but to find the tongue hanging out of the right side of the mouth means that if the hunters go on they will rouse and kill another deer. Sityingo24 is the jungle deity who owns all wild animals as a man owns domestic animals. If a hunting party kills a deer with a torn ear they will hunt no more that day, for have they not killed a deer whose ear Sityingo has snicked as a sign of ownership. The deer, however, can be eaten. Furthermore, the dogs must be purified before they can hunt again. Their owner orders his wife to prepare a little “madhu.” This she must do in silence. Next day no stranger from another village may enter his house, nor anyone who is doing a “genna” of any kind. The following day water is added to the “madhu” and the “madhu” rice given to the dogs to eat. The owner, taking them with him, goes with an old man to a spot outside the village, where the latter makes a fire with a fire-stick, and lifting the dogs in his hands passes them through the smoke, uttering as he does so the following prayer to Sityingo: “We have made new ‘madhu’ and new fire, and have purified the dogs. May all the deer wherever they be come to our village and be hunted by these dogs.” He then watches to see what insects come near the fire. If big insects come the dogs will get sambhur. If small insects come they will get barking deer.