The Savars both burn and bury their dead, placing the corpse on the
pyre with its head to the north, in the belief that heaven lies in
that direction. On the eleventh day after the death in Sambalpur
those members of the caste who can afford it present a goat to the
mourners. The Savars believe that the souls of those who die become
ghosts, and in Bundelkhand they used formerly to bury the dead near
their fields in the belief that the spirits would watch over and
protect the crops. If a man has died a violent death they raise
a small platform of earth under a teak or _saj_ tree, in which
the ghost of the dead man is believed to take up its residence,
and nobody thereafter may cut down that tree. The Uriya Savars
take no special measures unless the ghost appears to somebody in a
dream and asks to be worshipped as Baghiapat (tiger-eaten) or Masan
(serpent-bitten). In such cases a _gunia_ or sorcerer is consulted,
and such measures as he prescribes are taken to appease the dead man's
soul. If a person dies without a child a hole is made in a stone,
and his soul is induced to enter it by the _gunia_. A few grains of
rice are placed in the hole, and it is then closed with melted lead
to imprison the ghost, and the stone is thrown into a stream so that
it may never be able to get out and trouble the family. Savars offer
water to the dead. A second wife usually wears a metal impression of
the first wife by way of propitiation to her.