Note 91 — Volume II. (continued 2)

Festivals. 25. The only Hindu festival which they observe is the Anant Chandas (14th light half of Bhâdon). They fast on that day and wear a thread on the right arm, over which some rude spells (mantra) are recited. Then they go into the forest and cut a branch of the karam tree (anthocephalus cadamba) which they fix up in the court-yard. The men bow to it, and the women decorate it with red lead. Then they get drunk, dance round it, and sing the karama songs. The festival is an occasion of rude license and debauchery. It is understood that if any girl takes a fancy to a man she has only to kick him on the ankle during the dance, and the parents get the pair married forthwith. They believe firmly that persons killed by tigers become dangerous ghosts. They are worshipped periodically by the Baiga with offerings of fowls and liquor at a mud shrine erected at the place the person was killed.91 This is called the Baghaut. They also believe in the appearance of ghostly fires in the jungle at night. One of these blazes on the Juriya hill in Pargana Dudhi. It is said to be the fire of some holy faqîr, but when any one goes near the place it disappears. If any one goes into the forest wearing a red cloth the ghosts (bhût) which inhabit old mahua (bassia latifolia) and pîpal trees (ficus Indica) enter into him. A person in such a state has to go into the forest and bow down before every tree of these species until the ghost leaves him. The field deity is Hariyâri Devi (“the goddess of greenness”). She is worshipped in the field by the Baiga with a sacrifice of fowls and liquor when the harvest is completed.