The Kewats worship the ordinary Hindu deities and believe that a
special goddess, Chaurasi Devi, dwells in their boats and keeps them
from sinking. She is propitiated at the beginning of the rains and in
times of flood, and an image of her is painted on their boats. They
bury the dead, laying the corpse with the feet to the south, while some
clothes, cotton, til and salt are placed in the grave, apparently as
a provision for the dead man's soul. They worship their ancestors at
intervals on a Monday or a Saturday with an offering of a fowl. As is
usual in Chhattisgarh, their rules as to food are very lax, and they
will eat both fowls and pork. Nevertheless Brahmans will take water
at their hands and eat the rice and gram which they have parched. The
caste consider fishing to have been their original occupation, and
tell a story to the effect that their ancestors saved the deity in
their boat on the occasion of the Deluge, and in return were given
the power of catching three or four times as many fish as ordinary
persons in the same space of time. Some of them parch gram and rice,
and others act as coolies and banghy-bearers. [468] Kewats are usually
in poor circumstances, but they boast that the town of Bilaspur is
named after Bilasa Keotin, a woman of their caste. She was married,
but was sought after by the king of the country, so she held out her
cloth to the sun, calling on him to set it on fire, and was burnt
alive, preserving her virtue. Her husband burnt himself with her,
and the pair ascended to heaven.