The Bahnas venerate Muhammad, and also worship the tombs of Muhammadan
saints or _Pirs_. A green sheet or cloth is spread over the tomb and
a lamp is kept burning by it, while offerings of incense and flowers
are made. When the new cotton crop has been gathered they lay some
new cotton by their bow and mallet and make an offering of _malida_
or cakes of flour and sugar to it. They believe that two angels, one
good and one bad, are perched continually on the shoulders of every
man to record his good and evil deeds. And when an eclipse occurs they
say that the sun and moon have gone behind a pinnacle or tower of the
heavens. For exorcising evil spirits they write texts of the Koran
on paper and burn them before the sufferer. The caste bury the dead
with the feet pointing to the south. On the way to the grave each
one of the mourners places his shoulder under the bier for a time,
partaking of the impurity communicated by it. Incense is burnt daily
in the name of a deceased person for forty days after his death, with
the object probably of preventing his ghost from returning to haunt
the house. Muhammadan beggars are fed on the tenth day. Similarly,
after the birth of a child a woman is unclean for forty days, and
cannot cook for her husband during that period. A child's hair is
cut for the first time on the tenth or twelfth day after birth, this
being known as Jhalar. Some parents leave a lock of hair to grow on
the head in the name of the famous saint Sheikh Farid, thinking that
they will thus ensure a long life for the child. It is probably in
reality a way of preserving the Hindu _choti_ or scalp-lock.