THE RELIGION AND CUSTOMS OF THE URAONS. 171 



except the door, and the smoke and steam soon entirely fill the whole compartment. Natives 

 themselves choke and cough, and bitter tears roll down their cheeks. As for a European, 

 it would be death by suffocation if he had to remain half an hour in it. Added to all 

 this is the stench of goats and the smell of cows and dirty men blending together, and 

 you will have an idea of the ordeal through which the nostrils have to pass. The en- 

 trance is closed by two big revolving planks roughly hewn out of the trunk of a tree. 

 They are a most heavy and unwieldy concern, too, to the fingers that are caught 

 between them, when with a screech and a bang they come together. On the upper part 

 you have a similar plank to support the wall above the door. This is called the kapar- 

 phora, i.e., the forehead-breaker. Never was a name so well applied. The natives 

 themselves are not in danger of breaking their heads, simply on account of their hard- 

 ness, but for a European who would deem it polite to go in bare-headed his fate would 

 be sealed. As for the missionary, who has often to go and visit his people in time of 

 sickness, his delapidated topi bears witness to the numerous encounters it has had with 

 the famous kaparphora. 



VII. — Miscellaneous Customs and Beliefs. 



Gaon Banowri. — The gaon banowri, or settlement of the village, is the ceremony 

 that is resorted to, to put everything right in the village. An epidemic for man and 

 cattle can be brought about 



(i) By the khunta bhuts of the village who club together and revolt against Pat 

 because they have not been satisfied with the sacrifices o ffered to them at the three great 

 feasts of Sarhul, Kodleta, and Kanhiari. 



(2) By a band of foreign lawless bhuts coming like a band of gipsies to steal and 

 plunder. 



(3) By the bhuts of the neighbouring village. 



(4) By bhuts brought in by dain besahis. 



In all these four cases several ojhas are called to practice the ghosna — " bhut ho 

 harane ke waste" —to subdue the bhuts. The work is very often very hard, and they 

 have to toil at their winnovving-fans for several days. At last, when the virulence of the 

 sickness has subsided, they declare that they have found out the bhuts. In the first 

 case, namely, when the epidemic is caused by the khunta bhuts of the village, the Pahan 

 is held responsible, and he has immediately to satisfy his clients. Sacrifices are then 

 offered to Pat, Duharia and other bhuts. 



In the second case, the foreign bhuts are caught, shut up in a singhi, as has been 

 explained above, and carried away very far to be thrown into a waterfall. 



In the third case, the Pahan of the next village to which the bhuts belong is called. 

 His bhuts are shut up, not in a singhi, but in a leaf of sakua with arwa rice. Fowls are 

 given to him, and he goes back to his village with his bhuts, whom he settles down in 

 their old places by offering them sacrifices. 



The fourth case happens when the epidemic lasts very long and the ojhas have been 

 unable to subdue the bhuts by their mantras and incantations ; then it is certain that 



