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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(NOVEMBER, 1894.
cooking-room as an ancestor. Among them the spirit of the man who dies an accidental death is supposed to wander. The spirit is kept to the village boundary by the offering of a cock. The Halvakki Vâkkals, an early tribe of Kanareso husbaudinen, worship balindra, their ancestral cocoanat, by bathing it with water, rubbing it with saudal paste, offering it flowers, and waving a lighted lamp before it. The Buils of Khandesh worship the spirits of their ancestors, and believe in sorcery, witchcraft, and omens. Most of them pay a special reverence to the female spirits called mátás, or the anothers. Among the Bijapur Ambigs, or Kabligers, on the fifth, or other odd, month after a death, if the dead be a mati, & mask, or, if the dead be a woman, a top-like vessel, is brought and laid among the house gods and worshipped. The Suryavamsi Lads of Bijapur, on the eleventh day after a death, get a silver image of the dead made, and, with other ancestral images, carry it to a stream-bank and worship it. The Belgaum Kunlis worship copper pots filled with water as representatives of their ancestors. The Råmosis of Belgaum worship their ancestors.10 In the Gujarat Pånch Maháls the honsehold deity of the Bhis is Meldi Mata, a dead woman of the house, who helps them when they wish to avenge themselves on a rival. The Gujarat Chans often wear round the neck a golden mask of one of their ancestors, and among the Gujarat Bhangiâs the only household god is the image of a woman who has been possessed. 12 The Central Provinces Gonds people the forests, billa, valleys and trees with Gonds.13 They worship Sanalk, or the dead who comes into the office of ministrant, or pujari. The Naikada Gonds worship the family dead on the third day after a death and on every Saturday and feast day ;15 and the Halwas, an early class of Gouds, also worship the ancestora, 16 and the donna, a dead man, and the sam, a dead woman.17 The Sontháls sacrifice fowls and sheep to ancestors.18 In Eastern Bengal the important tribe of Bhúiyas worship virus, or dend ancestors ;19 and ancestor-worship also prevails among the Nageswars and the Karens.20 Further west the Köchs, or Köccbs, of Kûch Bihår worship their ancestors and offer them fruit, 71 and the Kôls bring back the soul of the dead as a household spirit.22 The Khonds of Ganjam in North Madras, thik an ancestor is re-horn in a child.2) The Poliars, formerly a slave class in Malabar, worship the good dead as Erikapeni, and the bad dead as Kuli, and make offerings to both. The Panians, a wild tribe near the Wynand, call good spirits kulis and bad spirits pénés. They lay oat rice, cocoadat and ligoor on the ground, and call on the spirits to receive the offerings.25 The Arrigans, or Malai-arasar, of South Travankor worship ancestors and local spirits who live in peaks, trees and great rocks.36 Sir W. Elliot mentions the case of a woman in Masulipatam, who was believed to have been murdered by her husband coming and entering into women and demanding her husband. The woman afterwards became a goddess, and was worshipped.27 The Malabår fishermen, known as Mukuas, worship the spirits called Paisachis, and respect a class of exorcists called Kanian 29 The Kurubarus, properly shepherds and blanket-Weavers, one of the leading Kanarese tribes, worship vírikus, the spirits of unmarried ancestors. Red cloth, molasses, and rice are offered every year to them. If the feast is omitted, the virikis get angry, send sickness and horrid dreams, kill sheep, and strike people on the back when they walk at night. They are appeased by a feast.20 The worship of unfriendly spirits, or demons, is most typical among the South Indian Shânârs. The spirit is called Pai, or Pê,30 Sir W. Elliot says this demon-worship has infected all the religious systems of India. The Brahmans abhor it, but in sickness conform
• Op. cit. Vol. XV. p. 219.
• Op. cit. Vol. XV. p. 203.
• Op. cit. Vol. XII. p. 98. Op. cit. Vol. XXIII. p. 117. • Op. cit. Vol. XXIII. p. 173.
Op. cit. Vol. XXI. p. 124. 19 Op.cit. Vol. XXI. p. 124.
I From MS. notes.
From MS. Dotes 18 Hislop, Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces, p. 4.
14 Op. cit. App. I. 16 Op. cit. p. 25.
16 Op. cit. p. 21.
37 Op. cit. App. III. #* Jour. Ethno. Sec. Vol. I. p. 106. 11 Dalton's Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 199. * Op. cit. pp. 117, 182.
91 Op. cit. p. 91. 35 Tylor's Primitive Culture, Vol. II. p. 152 18 Macpherson's Khonds, p. 56
* Buchanan's Mysore, Vol. II. p. 492. 28 Op. cit. p. 496.
* Jour. Ethno. Soc. New Series, Vol. I. p. 109. 31 Op.cit. p. 116.
> Buchanan's Mysore, Vol. II. p. 528. * Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 397.
* Jour. Ethno. Soc. Vol. I. p. 115.
