In Mandla the dead are sometimes mingled with Bura Deo or the Great
God. On the occasion of a communal sacrifice to Bura Deo a stalk of
charra grass is picked in the name of each of the dead ancestors, and
tied to the little bundle containing a pice and a piece of turmeric,
which represents the dead ancestor in the house. The stalk of grass
and the bundle is called kunda; and all the kundas are then hidden in
grass or under stones in the adjacent forest. Then Bura Deo comes on
some man and possesses him, and he waves his arms about and goes and
finds all the kundas. Some of them he throws down beside Bura Deo,
and these they say have been absorbed in Bura Deo and are disposed
of. Others he throws apart, and these are said not to have been
absorbed into the god. For the latter, as well as for all persons who
have died a violent death, a heap of stones should be made outside the
village, and wine and a fowl are offered at the heap, and passers-by
cast additional stones on it to keep down their spirits, which remain
unquiet because they have not been absorbed in the god, and are apt
to wander about and trouble the living.