ece of wood
into the ground, calling it Bhimsen Deo or King of the Clouds. They
pour water over it and pray to it, asking for rain. Every year, after
the crops are harvested, they worship the rivers or streams in the
village. A snake, a jackal, a hare and a dog wagging its ears are
unlucky objects to see when starting on a journey, and also a dust
devil blowing along in front. They do not kill wild dogs, because
they say that tigers avoid the forests where these reside, and some
of them hold that a tiger on meeting a wild dog climbs a tree to get
out of his way. Wednesday and Thursday are lucky days for starting on
a journey, and the operations of sowing, reaping and threshing should
be commenced and completed on one of these days. When a man intends
to build a house he places a number of sets of three grains of rice,
one resting on the other two, on the ground in different places. Each
set is covered by a leaf-cup with some earth to hold it down. Next
morning the grains are inspected, and if the top one has fallen down
the site is considered to be lucky, as indicating that the earth is
wishful to bear the burden of a house in this place. A house should
face to the east or west, and not to the north or south. Similarly,
the roads leading out of the village should run east or west from
the starting-point. The principal festivals of the Parjas are the
Hareli [423] or feast of the new vegetation in July, the Nawakhani
[424] or feast of the new rice crop in August or September, and the
Am Nawakhani or that of the new mango crop in April or May. At the
feasts the new season's crop should be eaten, but if no fresh rice has
ripened, they touch some of the old grain with a blade of a growing
rice-plant, and consider that it has become the new crop. On these
occasions ancestors are worshipped by members of the family only
inside the house, and offerings of the new crops are made to them.

8. Disposal of the dead

The dead are invariably buried, the corpse being laid in the ground
with head to the east and feet to the west. This is probably the most
primitive burial, it being supposed that the region of the dead is
towards the west, as the setting sun disappears in that direction. The
corpse is therefore laid in the grave with the feet to the west ready
to start on its journey. Members of the tribe who have imbibed Hindu
ideas now occasionally lay the corpse with the head to the north in
the direction of the Ganges. Rice-