The principal deities of the Gowaris are the Kode Kodwan or deified
ancestors. They are worshipped at the annual festivals, and also at
weddings. When a man or woman dies without children their spirits
are known as Dhal, and are worshipped in the families to which
they belonged. A male Dhal is represented by a stick of bamboo with
one cross-piece at the top, and a female Dhal by a stick with two
others crossing each other lashed to it at the top. These sticks are
worshipped at the Diwali festival, and carried in procession. Dudhera
is a godling worshipped for the protection of cattle. He is represented
by a clay horse placed near a white ant-hill. If a cow stops giving
milk her udder is smoked with the burning wood of a tree called sanwal,
and this is supposed to drive away the spirits who drink the milk
from the udder. All Gowaris revere the haryal, or green pigeon. They
say that it gives a sound like a Gowari calling his cows, and that
it is a kinsman. They would on no account kill this bird. They say
that the cows will go to a tree from which green pigeons are cooing,
and that on one occasion when a thief was driving away their cows a
green pigeon cooed from a tree, and the cows turned round and came
back again. This is like the story of the sacred geese at Rome,
who gave warning of the attack of the Goths.