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water, earth, etc. (among some P[=a]h[=a]riahs on the arrow). Some have a sort of belief in the divinity of the chief, and among the Lurka Koles this dignity is of so much importance that at a chief's death the divine dignity goes to his eldest son, while the youngest son gets the property. In regard to funeral rites, the Koles first burn and then bury the remains, placing a stone over the grave.
Besides the Or[=a]ons' totem of the mouse, the Sunth[=a]ls have a goose-totem, and the Garos and Kassos (perhaps not to be included in either of the two groups), together with many other tribes, have totems, some of them avatars, as in the case of the tortoise. The Garos, a tribe between Assam and Bengal, are in many respects noteworthy. They believe that their vessels are immortal; and, like the Bh[=a]rs, set up the bamboo pole, a religious rite which has crept into Hinduism (above, p. 378). They eat everything but their totem, immolate human victims, and are divided into ' motherhoods,' M[ra]h[=a]ris, particular M[ra]h[=a]ris intermarrying. A man's sister marries into the family from which comes his wife, and that sister's daughter may marry his son, and, as male heirs do not inherit, the son-in-law succeeds his father-in-law in right of his wife, and gets his wife's mother (that is, his father's sister) as an additional wife.[22] The advances are always made by the girl. She and her party select the groom, go to his house, and carry him off, though he modestly pretends to run away. The sacrifice for the wedding is that of a cock and hen, offered to the sun. The god they worship most is a monster (very much like Çiva), but he has no local habitation.
Of the Sav[=a)ras or Sauras of the Dekhan the most interesting deity is the malevolent female called Th[=a]kur[=a]n[=i), wife of Th[=a]kur. She was doubtless the first patroness of the throttling Thugs (thagsare (t.Jhaks, assassins), and the prototype of their Hindu K[=a]][=i). Human sacrifices are offered to Th[=a]kur[=a]n[=i), while her votaries, as in the case of the Thugs, are noted for the secrecy of their crimes.
Birth-rites, marriage-rites, funeral rites (all of blood), human sacrifice, tab[=u] (especially among the Burmese), witchcraft, worship of ancestors, divination, and demonology are
