They believe that the spirits of ancestors are reincarnated in children
or in animals. Sometimes they make a mark with soot or vermilion
on the body of a dead man, and if some similar mark is subsequently
found on any newborn child it is held that the dead man's spirit has
been reborn in it. In Bastar, on some selected day a short time after
the death, they obtain two small baskets and set them out at night,
placing a chicken under one and some flour of wheat or kutki under
the other. The householder then says, "I do the work of those old men
who died. O spirits, I offer a chicken to you to-day; be true and I
will perform your funeral rites to-morrow." On the next morning the
basket placed over the flour is lifted up, and if a mark resembling a
footprint of a man or any animal be found, they think that the deceased
has become incarnate in a human being or in that animal. Subsequently
they sacrifice a cow to the spirit as described. In other places on
the fifth day after death they perform the ceremony of bringing back
the soul. The relatives go to the riverside and call aloud the name
of the dead person, and then enter the river, catch a fish or insect
and, taking it home, place it among the sainted dead of the family,
believing that the spirit of the dead person has in this manner been
brought back to the house. The brother-in-law or son-in-law of the dead
man will make a miniature grass hut in the compound and place the fish
or insect inside it. He will then sacrifice a pig, killing it with a
rice-husker, and with not more than three blows. The animal is eaten,
and next morning he breaks down the hut and throws away the earthen
pots from the house. They will spread some flour on the ground and in
the morning bring a chicken up to it. If the animal eats the flour
they say that the soul of the deceased has shown his wish to remain
in the house, and he is enshrined there in the shape of a stone or
copper coin. If it does not eat, then they say that the spirit will not
remain in the house. They take the stone or coin outside the village,
sacrifice a chicken to it and bury it under a heap of stones to prevent
it from returning. Sometimes at the funeral ceremony one of the party
is possessed by the spirit of the dead man, and a little white mark or
a small caterpillar appears on his hand, and they say that it is the
soul of the dead man come back. Then the caterpillar vanishes again,
and they say that the dead man has been taken among the gods, and go
home. Occasionally some mark may appear on the hand of the dead man's
son after a period of time, and he says that his father's soul has
come back, and gives another funeral feast. The good souls are quickly
appeased and their veneration is confined to their descendants. But
the bad ones excite a wider interest because their evil influences may
be extended to others. And the same fear attaches to the spirits of
persons who have died a violent or unnatural death. The soul of a man
who has been eaten by a tiger must be specially propitiated, and ten
or twelve days are occupied in bringing it back. To ascertain when
this has been done a thread is tied to a beam and a copper ring is
suspended from it, being secured by twisting the thread round it and
not by a knot. A pot full of water is placed below the ring. Songs are
then sung in propitiation and a watch is kept day and night. When the
ring falls from the thread and drops into the water it is considered
that the soul has come back. If the ring delays to fall they adjure
the dead man to come back and ask where he has gone to and why he
is tarrying. Animals are offered to the ring and their blood poured
over it, and when it finally falls they rejoice greatly and say
that the dead man has come back. The ancestors are represented by
small pebbles kept in a basket in the kitchen, which is considered
the holiest part of the house, or they may be pice copper coins
(1/4d.) tied up in a little bundle. They are daubed with vermilion
and worshipped occasionally. A man who has been killed by a tiger or
cobra may receive general veneration, with the object of appeasing
his spirit, and become a village god. And the same honour may be
accorded to any prominent man, such as the founder of a village.