On the third day they bathe and are shaved, and catch a fish, which is
divided among all the relatives, however small it may be, and eaten
raw with salt, turmeric and garlic. It seems likely that this fish
may be considered to represent the dead man's spirit, and is eaten in
order to avoid being haunted by his ghost or for some other object,
and the fish may be eaten as a substitute for the dead man's body,
itself consumed in former times. On the tenth night after the death
the soul is called back, a lighted wick being set in a vessel at the
cross-roads where the rice and cotton had been sprinkled. They call
on the dead man, and when the flame of the lamp wavers in the wind
they break the vessel holding the lamp, saying that his soul has come
and joined them, and go home. On the following Dasahra festival, when
ancestors are worshipped, the spirit of the deceased is mingled with
the ancestors. A cock and hen are fed and let loose, and the headman of
the sept calls on the soul to come and join the ancestors and give his
protection to the family. When a man is killed by a tiger the remains
are collected and burnt on the spot. A goat is sacrificed and eaten
by the caste, and thereafter, when a wedding takes place in that man's
family, a goat is offered to his spirit. The Kharias believe that the
spirits of the dead are reborn in children, and on the Barhi day, a
month after the child's birth, they ascertain which ancestor has been
reborn by the usual method of divination with grains of rice in water.