Mourning is usually observed for three days. The mourners abstain
from work and indulgence in luxuries, and the house is cleaned and
washed. The Gonds often take food on the spot after the burial or
burning of a corpse and they usually drink liquor. On the third day
a feast is given. In Chhindwara a bullock or cow is slaughtered on
the death of a male or female Gond respectively. They tie it up by
the horns to a tree so that its forelegs are in the air, and a man
slashes it across the head once or twice until it dies. The head
is buried under a platform outside the village in the name of the
deceased. Sometimes the spirit of the dead man is supposed to enter
into one of the persons present and inform the party how he died,
whether from witchcraft or by natural causes. He also points out the
place where the bullock's or cow's head is to be buried, and here
they make a platform to his spirit with a memorial stone. Red lead is
applied to the stone and the blood of a chicken poured over it, and
the party then consume the bodies of the cow and chicken. In Mandla
the mourners are shaved at the grave nine or ten days after the death
by the brother-in-law or son-in-law of the deceased, and they cook
and eat food there and drink liquor. Then they come home and put
oil on the head of the heir and tie a piece of new cloth round his
head. They give the dead man's clothes and also a cow or bullock to
the Pardhan priest, and offer a goat to the dead man, first feeding
the animal with rice, and saying to the dead man's spirit, 'Your son-
or brother-in-law has given you this.' Sometimes the rule is that the
priest should receive all the ornaments worn on the right side of a
man or the left side of a woman, including those on the head, arm and
leg. If they give him a cow or bullock, they will choose the one which
goes last when the animals are let out to graze. Then they cook and
eat it in the compound. They have no regular anniversary ceremonies,
but on the new moon of Kunwar (September) they will throw some rice
and pulse in front of the house and pour water on it in honour of the
dead. The widow breaks her glass bangles when the funeral takes place,
and if she is willing she may be married to the dead man's younger
brother on the expiry of the period of mourning.