Each sept has a deity of its own who is usually some local god
symbolised by a wooden post or a stone. Instances of these are Kondraj
of Santoshpur represented by a wooden pillar carved into circular form
at the top; Chikat Raj of Bijapur by two bamboos six feet in length
leaning against a wall; Kaunam Raj of Gongla by a stone image, and at
fairs by a bamboo with peacock's feathers tied at the top. They offer
incense, rice and a fowl to their ancestors in their own houses in
Chait (March) at the new year, and at the festival of the new rice in
Bhadon (August). At the sowing festival they go out hunting, and those
who return empty-handed think they will have ill-luck. Each tenant
also worships the earth-goddess, whose image is then decorated with
flowers and vermilion. He brings a goat, and rice is placed before it
at her shrine. If the animal eats the sacrifice is held to be accepted,
but if not it is returned to the owner, and it is thought that some
misfortune will befall him. The heads of all the goats offered are
taken by the priest and the bodies returned to the worshippers to be
consumed at a feast. Each village has also its tutelary god, having a
hut to himself. Inside this a post of mahua wood is fixed in the ground
and roughly squared, and a peg is driven into it at the top. The god
is represented by another bamboo peg about two inches long, which is
first worshipped in front of the post and then suspended from it in a
receptacle. In each village the smallpox goddess is also present in
the form of a stone, either with or without a hut over it. A Jangam
or devotee of the Lingayat sect is usually the caste priest, and at
a funeral he follows the corpse ringing his bell. If a man is put
out of caste through getting maggots in a wound or being beaten by a
shoe, he must be purified by the Jangam. The latter rubs some ashes
on his own body and places them in the offender's mouth, and gives
him to drink some water from his own lota in place of water from a
sacred river. For this the offender pays a fee of five rupees and a
calf to the Jangam and must also give a feast to the caste. The dead
are either buried or burnt, the head being placed to the east. The
eldest son has his head and face shaved on the death of the father
of the family, and the youngest on that of the mother.