140 THE LATE REV. P. DEHON ON 



to become a bhut. No one can imagine the state of consternation in which the relatives 

 of the poor woman are when she dies in such a state. 



No greater misfortune could have befallen them. They firmly believe the poor 

 woman has become a mischievous bhut. She will now hover over her burial-place and 

 be an object of horror and fright to everyone passing by. It is her nature to look out for 

 a companion, and she is said always to choose that member of the family whom she liked 

 best during her lifetime. She will then come at night and embrace him and tickle him 

 under the arms, making him laugh till he dies. This is too much of a good thing, and the 

 Uraons do not appreciate being subjected to such extravagant tokens of affection. To 

 prevent her therefore from coming back they carry her body as far away as they can, but 

 no woman will accompany her to her last resting-place lest similar misfortune should 

 happen to her. Arrived at the burial-place, they break the feet above the ankle, twist 

 them round bringing the heels in front, and then drive long thorns into them. They 

 bury her very deep with her face downwards, and with her they bury the bones of a 

 donkey and pronounce the anathema, " If you come home may you turn into a donkey " : 

 the roots of a palm-tree are also buried with her, and they say, " May you come home 

 only when the leaves of the palm-tree wither," and when they retire they spread mustard 

 seeds all along the road saying, " When you try to come home pick up all these." They 

 then feel pretty safe at home from her nocturnal visits, but woe to the man who passes at 

 night near the place where she has been buried. She will pounce upon him, twist his 

 neck and leave him senseless on the ground, until brought to by the incantations of a 

 sorcerer. Pregnant woman are always in a mortal fright when they hear someone 

 speak of a Churil. The husband of a woman who has become a Churil would never 

 dare to think of getting married again until he has offered a sacrifice to appease the 

 bhut. 



When Churil has been the cause of some mischief and appears in the flame of the 

 O/Iui s lamp, her face looks somewhat like Dakhiris, but her feet are distorted : she is 

 hunchbacked and has a big hole in her belly like the hollow of a rotten tree. To appease 

 her the Ojha offers a white fowl. He breaks first the right wing, then the left leg ; part 

 of the head is skinned, and the tongue is drawn out of the beak and cut with a knife. 

 After mutilating the poor bird in this way he throws it on the ground and forces it to eat 

 some hauva rice saying, " You scoundrel, you are not a fowl but the daughter of a bhut.'''' 

 He then cuts its throat, and the sacrifice is over. 



Bhula, namely the wanderer, is also the generic name of a class of bhut which are 

 subdivided into three chief species : the Pasal Muan or the shades of all those that have 

 been murdered ; the Tangal Muan or the shades of those that have been hanged ; and the 

 Baghaut or those that have been killed by a tiger. In fact Bhula means the shades of all 

 those that have died an unnatural death. They all keep the scars of their respective 

 wounds, and one can imagine what a weird-looking lot they are. They are always on the 

 move, and are, as it were, the mendicant portion of the invisible community. They are 

 not very powerful, and are responsible only for small ailments like nightmares, comas and 

 small indispositions. When an Ojha has discovered him in the light of his lamp he shows 

 a disappointed face and says : " Pshaw, only Bhula!'" No sacrifice is offered to him, 



