If a person has been killed by a tiger, the people go out, and if any
remains of the body are found, these are burnt on the spot. The Baiga
is then invoked to bring back the spirit of the deceased, a most
essential precaution as will shortly be seen. In order to do this
he suspends a copper ring on a long thread above a vessel of water
and then burns butter and sugar on the fire, muttering incantations,
while the people sing songs and call on the spirit of the dead man to
return. The thread swings to and fro, and at length the copper ring
falls into the pot, and this is taken as a sign that the spirit has
come and entered the vessel. The mouth of this is immediately covered
and it is buried or kept in some secure place. The people believe that
unless the dead man's spirit is secured it will accompany the tiger
and lure solitary travellers to destruction. This is done by calling
out and offering them tobacco to smoke, and when they proceed in the
direction of the voice the tiger springs out and kills them. And
they think that a tiger directed in this manner grows fiercer and
fiercer with every person whom it kills. When somebody has been
killed by a tiger the relatives will not even remove the ornaments
from the corpse, for they think that these would constitute a link
by which its spirit would cause the tiger to track them down. The
malevolence thus attributed to persons killed by tigers is explained
by their bitter wrath at having encountered such an untimely death
and consequent desire to entice others to the same.