Their principal deity in Bilaspur is Nakti Devi [265] or the 'Noseless
Goddess.' For her ritual rice is placed on a square of the floor
washed with cowdung, and _ghi_ or preserved butter is poured on it and
burnt. A hen is made to eat the rice, and then its head is cut off and
laid on the square. The liver is burnt on the fire as an offering to
the deity and the head and body of the animal are then eaten. After
the death of a man a cock is offered to Nakti Devi and a hen after
that of a woman. The fowl is made to pick rice first in the yard of
the house, then on the threshold, and lastly inside the house. Thakur
Deo is the deity of cultivation and is worshipped on the day before
the autumn crops are sown. On this day all the men in the village
go to his shrine taking a measure of rice and a ploughshare. At the
same time the Baiga or village priest goes and bathes in the tank and
is afterwards carried to the assembly on a man's shoulders. Here he
makes an offering and repeats a charm, and then kneeling down strikes
the earth seven times with the ploughshare, and sows five handfuls of
rice, sprinkling water over the seed. After him the villagers walk
seven times round the altar of the god in pairs, one man turning up
the earth with the ploughshare and the other sowing and watering the
seed. While this is going on the Baiga sits with his face covered
with a piece of cloth, and at the end the villagers salute the Baiga
and go home. When a man wishes to do an injury to another he makes
an image of him with clay and daubs it with vermilion and worships
it with an offering of a goat or a fowl and liquor. Then he prays
the image that his enemy may die. Another way of injuring an enemy
is to take rice coloured with turmeric, and after muttering charms
throw it in the direction in which the enemy lives.