The _pitras_ or ancestors are worshipped at every festival, and when
the new rice is reaped a hen is offered to them. They pray to their
dead parents to accept the offering and then place a few grains of
rice before the hen. If she eats them, it is a sign that the ancestors
have accepted the offering and a man kills the hen by crushing its head
with his closed fist. This is probably, as remarked by Father Dehon, in
recollection of the method employed before the introduction of knives,
and the same explanation may be given of the barbaric method of the
Baigas of crushing a pig to death by a beam of wood used as a see-saw
across its body, and of the Gond bride and bridegroom killing a fowl
by treading on it when they first enter their house after the wedding.