Note 87 — G

11. The following account of Gansyâm Deo may be compared with what has been elsewhere said about this deity.87 “Throughout the greater part of Râmgarh, and also in parts of Mandla, Gansyâm Deo is held in great reverence, and about one hundred yards from each village where he is in favour, a small hut is built for him. It is generally of the rudest material, with little attempt at ornamentation. A bamboo, with a red or yellow flag tied to the end, is planted in one corner, an old withered garland or two is hung up, and a few blocks of rough stone, some smeared with vermilion, are strewn about the place, which is thus especially dedicated to Gansyâm Deo. He is considered the protector of the crops, and in the month of Kârttik (November) the whole village assembles at his shrine to worship him: sacrifices of fowls and spirits, or a pig occasionally, according to the size of the village, are offered, and Gansyâm is said to descend on the head of one of the worshippers, who is suddenly seized with a sort of fit, and after staggering about for a little, rushes off into the wildest jungles, where, the popular theory is, if not pursued and brought back, he would inevitably die of starvation, a raving lunatic; for as it is, after being brought back, he does not recover his senses for one or two days. The idea is that one man is thus singled out as a scapegoat for the sins of the rest of the village.”