mitted an
offence entailing temporary excommunication from caste. Until this
offence has been expiated his relationship with the tiger as head of
the clan is in abeyance, and the tiger will eat him as he would any
other stranger. If a tiger meets a member of the clan who is free from
sin, he will run away. Members of the Khoba or peg clan will not make a
peg nor drive one into the ground. Those of the Dumar or fig-tree clan
say that their first ancestor was born under this tree. They consider
the tree to be sacred and never eat its fruit, and worship it once a
year. Sometimes the members of the clan do not revere the object after
which it is named but some other important animal or plant. Thus the
Markam clan of Gonds, named after the mango-tree, venerate the tortoise
and do not kill it. The Kathotia clan of Kols is named after _kathota_,
a bowl, but they revere the tiger. Bagheshwar Deo, the tiger-god,
resides on a little platform in their verandas. They may not join
in a tiger-beat nor sit up for a tiger over a kill. In the latter
case they think that the tiger would not come and would be deprived
of his food, and all the members of their family would get ill. The
Katharia clan take their name from _kathri_, a mattress. A member of
this sept must never have a mattress in his house, nor wear clothes
sewn in crosspieces as mattresses are sewn. The name of the Mudia or
Mudmudia clan is said to mean shaven head, but they apparently revere
the white _kumhra_ or gourd, perhaps because it has some resemblance to
a shaven head. They give a white gourd to a woman on the day after she
has borne a child, and her family then do not eat this vegetable for
three years. The Kumraya sept revere the brown _kumhra_ or gourd. They
grow this vegetable on the thatch of their house-roof and from the time
of planting it till the fruits have been plucked they do not touch it,
though of course they afterwards eat the fruits. The Bhuwar sept
are named after _bhu_ or _bhumi_, the earth. They must always
sleep on the earth and not on cots. The Nun (salt) and Dhan (rice)
clans of Oraons cannot dispense with eating their totems or titular
ancestors. But the Dhan Oraons content themselves with refusing to
consume the scum which thickens on the surface of the boiled rice,
and the Nun sept will not lick a plate in which salt and water have
been mixed. At the weddings of the Vulture clan of the small Bhona
caste one member of the clan kills a small chi