The tribe have exogamous totemistic septs, as Bagh a tiger, Kachhim a
tortoise, Bokda a goat, Netam a dog, Gohi a big lizard, Pandki a dove
and so on. If a man kills accidentally the animal after which his sept
is named, the earthen cooking-pots of his household are thrown away,
the clothes are washed, and the house is purified with water in which
the bark of the mango or _jamun_ [422] tree has been steeped. This
is in sign of mourning, as it is thought that such an act will bring
misfortune. If a man of the snake sept kills a snake accidentally,
he places a piece of new yarn on his head, praying for forgiveness,
and deposits the body on an anthill, where snakes are supposed to
live. If a man of the goat sept eats goat's flesh, it is thought that
he will become blind at once. A Parja will not touch the body of his
totem-animal when dead, and if he sees any one killing or teasing it
when alive, he will go away out of sight. It is said that a man of the
Kachhim sept once found a tortoise while on a journey, and leaving it
undisturbed, passed on. When the tortoise died it was reborn in the
man's belly and troubled him greatly, and since then every Parja is
liable to be afflicted in the same way in the side of the abdomen,
the disease which is produced being in fact enlarged spleen. The
tortoise told the man that as he had left it lying by the road, and
had not devoted it to any useful purpose, he was afflicted in this
way. Consequently, when a man of the Kachhim sept finds a tortoise
nowadays, he gives it to somebody else who can cut it up. The story
is interesting as a legend of the origin of spleen, but has apparently
been invented as an excuse for killing the sacred animal.