Note 73 — G

Religion. 18. They call themselves Hindus, but their religion is of a very irregular type. They sometimes worship Mahâdeva with a burnt offering (hom). At marriages they worship Dulha Deo. When they are cutting the rice, they leave a little uncut in each field, and when harvest is done cut this, clean it, and boil it, and then offer it to the field goddess Hariyâri Devi, with a sacrifice of red coloured hens and cock.73 This offering is consumed by the family of the worshipper. They also worship the village boundary deity Siwâna (Terminus) with a goat, some liquor and a thick cake (rot), the head of the goat and the cake being the perquisite of the Mahto, who performs the worship. Curiously enough in this worship they do not employ the Baiga. On the sixth of the month Mâgh, they worship an obscure tribal god Chhat Bâba—“The lord of the sixth,” of whom no information can be obtained except that he appears to be some deified worthy of the tribe. In Bhâdon they have the tribal dance of the Karama. Unmarried girls fast that day, and in the evening drink liquor, dance, and indulge in rude debauchery. As already remarked (para. 5) this is the time when young couples arrange their matches. In the month of Mâgh or Pûs they have the Khichari festival74 when they eat coarse sugar, a sweetmeat (chûra), made of rice and sesamum, and drink liquor. They do the Phagua in the ordinary way, but do not light the Holi fire unless any of their Hindu neighbours do so, when they join in the ceremony.