The dead are usually buried, and all members of the dead man's sept
are considered to be impure. After the funeral they bathe and come
home and have their food cooked for them by other Dhobas, partaking of
it in the dead man's house. On the ninth, eleventh or thirteenth day,
when the impurity ends, the male members of the sept are shaved on the
bank of a river and the hair is left lying there. When they start home
they spread some thorns and two stones across the path. Then, as the
first man steps over the thorns, he takes up one of the stones in his
hand and passes it behind him to the second, and each man successively
passes it back as he steps over the thorns, the last man throwing the
stone behind the thorns. Thus the dead man's spirit in the shape of
the stone is separated from the living and prevented from accompanying
them home. Then a feast is held, all the men of the dead man's sept
sitting opposite to the _panchayat_ at a distance of three feet. Next
day water in which gold has been dipped is thrown over the dead man's
house and each member of the sept drinks a little and is pure.