Every third year in the month of Chait (March) the tribe offer a
goat and a cocoanut to Mata, the deity of cholera and smallpox. They
bow daily to the sun with folded hands, and believe that he is of
special assistance to them in the liquidation of debt, which the
Bhunjias consider a primary obligation. When a debt has been paid
off they offer a cocoanut to the sun as a mark of gratitude for
his assistance. They also pay great reverence to the tortoise. They
call the tortoise the footstool (_pidha_) of God, and have adopted
the Hindu theory that the earth is supported by a tortoise swimming
in the midst of the ocean. Professor Tylor explains as follows how
this belief arose: [380] "To man in the lower levels of science the
earth is a flat plain over which the sky is placed like a dome as the
arched upper shell of the tortoise stands upon the flat plate below,
and this is why the tortoise is the symbol or representative of the
world." It is said that Bhunjia women are never allowed to sit either
on a footstool or a bed-cot, because these are considered to be the
seats of the deities. They consider it disrespectful to walk across
the shadow of any elderly person, or to step over the body of any human
being or revered object on the ground. If they do this inadvertently,
they apologise to the person or thing. If a man falls from a tree he
will offer a chicken to the tree-spirit.