Provinces, though
occasionally murders of suspected witches may still occur. The Bhils
are firm believers in omens, the nature of which is much the same as
among the Hindus. When a Bhil is persistently unlucky in hunting,
he sometimes says '_Nat laga_,' meaning that some bad spirit is
causing his ill-success. Then he will make an image of a man in
the sand or dust of the road, or sometimes two images of a man and
woman, and throwing straw or grass over the images set it alight, and
pound it down on them with a stick with abusive yells. This he calls
killing his bad luck. [342] Major Hendley notes that the men danced
before the different festivals and before battles. The men danced
in a ring holding sticks and striking them against each other, much
like the Baiga dance. Before battle they had a war-dance in which
the performers were armed and imitated a combat. To be carried on
the shoulders of one of the combatants was a great honour, perhaps
because it symbolised being on horseback. The dance was probably in
the nature of a magical rite, designed to obtain success in battle
by going through an imitation of it beforehand. The priests are the
chief physicians among the Bhils, though most old men were supposed
to know something about medicine. [343]

10. Funeral rites.

The dead are usually buried lying on the back, with the head pointing
to the south. Cooked food is placed on the bier and deposited on
the ground half-way to the cemetery. On return each family of the
sept brings a wheaten cake to the mourners and these are eaten. On
the third day they place on the grave a thick cake of wheaten flour,
water in an earthen pot and tobacco or any other stimulant which the
deceased was in the habit of using in his life.

11. Social customs.

The Hindu Bhils say that they do not admit outsiders into the caste,
but the Muhammadans will admit a man of any but the impure castes. The
neophyte must be shaved and circumcised, and the Kazi gives him
some holy water to drink and teaches him the profession of belief
in Islam. If a man is not circumcised, the Tadvi or Muhammadan Bhils
will not bury his body. Both classes of Bhils employ Brahmans at their
ceremonies. The tribe eat almost all kinds of flesh and drink liquor,
but the Hindus now abjure beef and the Muhammadans pork. Some Bhils
now refuse to take the skins off dead cattle, but others will do
so. The Bhils will take food from any caste except the impure ones,