The Ataris are Muhammadans of the Sunni sect. They revere the
Muhammadan saints, and on the night of Shabrat they let off fireworks
in honour of their ancestors and make offerings of _halwa_ [36] to
them and place lamps and scent on their tombs. They swear by the pig
and abstain from eating its flesh. The dog is considered an unclean
animal and its tail, ears and tongue are especially defiling. If the
hair of a dog falls on the ground they cannot pray in that place
because the souls of the prophets cannot come there. To see a dog
flapping its ears is a bad omen, and a person starting on a journey
should postpone his departure. They esteem the spider, because they
say it spread its web over the mouth of the cave where Hasan and
Husain lay concealed from their enemies and thus prevented it from
being searched. Some of them have Pirs or spiritual preceptors, these
being Muhammadan beggars, not necessarily celibate. The ceremony of
adhesion is that a man should drink sherbet from the cup from which
his preceptor has drunk. They do not observe impurity after a death
nor bathe on returning from a funeral.