A woman is unclean for a month after childbirth, though the Binjhwars
restrict the period to eight days. At the ceremony of purification a
feast is given and the child is named, often after the month or day
of its birth, as Chaitu, Phagu, Saoni, and so on, from the months
of Chait, Phagun and Shrawan. Children who appear to be physically
defective are given names accordingly, such as Langra (lame), or Bahira
(deaf). The dead are usually buried, the bodies of old persons being
burnt as a special honour and to save them from the risk of being
devoured by wild animals. Bodies are laid naked in the grave with the
head pointing to the south. In the grave of a man of importance two
or three rupees and some tobacco are placed. In some places a rupee
is thrust into the mouth of the dying man, and if his body is burnt,
the coin is recovered from the pyre by his daughter or sister, who
wears it as an amulet. Over the grave a platform is made on which
a stone is erected. This is called the Bhiri of the deceased and is
worshipped by his relatives in time of trouble. If one of the family
has to be buried elsewhere, the relatives go to the Bhiri of the
great dead and consign his spirit to be kept in their company. At a
funeral the mourners take one black and one white fowl to a stream
and kill and eat them there, setting aside a portion for the dead
man. Mourning is observed for a period of from two to nine days,
and during this time labour and even household work are stopped, food
being supplied by the friends of the family. When a man is killed by
a tiger the Baiga priest goes to the spot and there makes a small
cone out of the blood-stained earth. This must represent a man,
either the dead man or one of his living relatives. His companions
having retired a few paces, the priest goes on his hands and knees
and performs a series of antics which are supposed to represent the
tiger in the act of destroying the man, at the same time seizing the
lump of blood-stained earth in his teeth. One of the party then runs
up and taps him on the back with a small stick. This perhaps means
that the tiger is killed or otherwise rendered harmless; and the
Baiga immediately lets the mud cone fall into the hands of one of the
party. It is then placed in an ant-hill and a pig is sacrificed over
it. The next day a small chicken is taken to the place, and after
a mark supposed to be the dead man's name is made on its head with
red ochre, it is thrown back into the forest, the priest exclaiming,
'Take this and go home.' The ceremony is supposed to lay the dead
man's spirit and at the same time to prevent the tiger from doing
any further damage. The Baigas believe that the ghost of the victim,
if not charmed to rest, resides on the head of the tiger and incites
him to further deeds of blood, rendering him also secure from harm
by his preternatural watchfulness. [91]
They also think that they can shut up the tiger's _dar_ or jaws,
so that he cannot bite them, by driving a nail into a tree. The
forest track from Kanha to Kisli in the Banjar forest reserve of
Mandla was formerly a haunt of man-eating tigers, to whom a number
of the wood-cutters and Baiga coolies, clearing the jungle paths,
fell victims every year. In a large tree, at a dangerous point in the
track, there could recently be seen a nail, driven into the trunk by
a Baiga priest, at some height from the ground. It was said that this
nail shut the mouth of a famous man-eating tiger of the locality and
prevented him from killing any more victims. As evidence of the truth
of the story there were shown on the trunk the marks of the tiger's
claws, where he had been jumping up the tree in the effort to pull
the nail out of the trunk and get his man-eating powers restored.