a pig is sacrificed over
it. The next day a small chicken is taken to the place, and after
a mark supposed to be the dead man's name is made on its head with
red ochre, it is thrown back into the forest, the priest exclaiming,
'Take this and go home.' The ceremony is supposed to lay the dead
man's spirit and at the same time to prevent the tiger from doing
any further damage. The Baigas believe that the ghost of the victim,
if not charmed to rest, resides on the head of the tiger and incites
him to further deeds of blood, rendering him also secure from harm
by his preternatural watchfulness. [91]

They also think that they can shut up the tiger's _dar_ or jaws,
so that he cannot bite them, by driving a nail into a tree. The
forest track from Kanha to Kisli in the Banjar forest reserve of
Mandla was formerly a haunt of man-eating tigers, to whom a number
of the wood-cutters and Baiga coolies, clearing the jungle paths,
fell victims every year. In a large tree, at a dangerous point in the
track, there could recently be seen a nail, driven into the trunk by
a Baiga priest, at some height from the ground. It was said that this
nail shut the mouth of a famous man-eating tiger of the locality and
prevented him from killing any more victims. As evidence of the truth
of the story there were shown on the trunk the marks of the tiger's
claws, where he had been jumping up the tree in the effort to pull
the nail out of the trunk and get his man-eating powers restored.

6. Religion.

Although the Binjhwar subcaste now profess Hinduism, the religion of
the Baigas is purely animistic. Their principal deity is Bura Deo, [92]
who is supposed to reside in a _saj_ tree (_Terminalia tomentosa_); he
is worshipped in the month of Jeth (May), when goats, fowls, cocoanuts,
and the liquor of the new mahua crop are offered to him. Thakur Deo
is the god of the village land and boundaries, and is propitiated
with a white goat. The Baigas who plough the fields have a ceremony
called Bidri, which is performed before the breaking of the rains. A
handful of each kind of grain sown is given by each cultivator to the
priest, who mixes the grains together and sows a little beneath the
tree where Thakur Deo lives. After this he returns a little to each
cultivator, and he sows it in the centre of the land on which crops
are to be grown, while the priest keeps the remainder. This ceremony
is believed to secure the success of the harvest. Dulha Deo