The Bhuiyas commonly take as their principal deity the spirit of the
nearest mountain overlooking their village, and make offerings to it
of butter, rice and fowls. In April they present the first-fruits
of the mango harvest. They venerate the sun as Dharam Deota, but
no offerings are made to him. Nearly all Bhuiyas worship the cobra,
and some of them call it their mother and think they are descended
from it. They will not touch or kill a cobra, and do not swear by
it. In Rairakhol they venerate a goddess, Rambha Devi, who may be a
corn-goddess, as the practice of burning down successive patches of
jungle and sowing seed on each for two or three years is here known
as _rambha_. They think that the sun and moon are sentient beings,
and that fire and lightning are the children of the sun, and the stars
the children of the moon. One day the moon invited the sun to dinner
and gave him very nice food, so that the sun asked what it was. The
moon said she had cooked her own children, and on this the sun went
home and cooked all his children and ate them, and this is the reason
why there are no stars during the day. But his eldest son, fire,
went and hid in a _rengal_ tree, and his daughter, the lightning,
darted hither and thither so that the sun could not catch her. And
when night came again, and the stars came out, the sun saw how the
moon had deceived him and cursed her, saying that she should die for
fifteen days in every month. And this is the reason for the waxing
and waning of the moon. Ever since this event fire has remained hidden
in a _rengal_ tree, and when the Bhuiyas want him they rub two pieces
of its wood together and he comes out. This is the Bhuiya explanation
of the production of fire from the friction of wood.