Note 35 — D.

Death ceremonies. 11. The dead are cremated exactly as is done by the Bhuiyas; after the mourners return from the cremation they come to the house of the deceased and there some butter is thrown on a fire lighted in the courtyard, and the mourners pass their hands through the smoke and rub their bodies. The ashes of the dead are thrown into a neighbouring stream. They have no idea of the careful preservation of the bones as described by Colonel Dalton among the Orâons.35 On the day of the cremation all the women walk in a line to the river or tank close by. They are very careful not to touch each other with their toes, as they walk one after the other. The woman thus struck is believed to lose her son or husband during the year. When they arrive at the water the red powder is washed off the parting of the widow’s hair. The chief mourner is impure for ten days, during which he places a leaf platter (dauna) full of food daily on the road by which the deceased was removed for cremation. On the tenth day the male relatives shave and return to the house of the deceased, where the chief mourner sacrifices a pig in the name of the deceased, and cutting off its feet and snout buries them in the courtyard and covers them with a stone. Then striking this stone with another stone he says,—“I have buried you here, never to come out; you are to rest here no matter how hard an exorciser (Ojha) or anyone else tries to wake you.” Then he pours some liquor over the stone. There is no priest employed in the funeral ceremony, and no formulæ of any kind are recited.