THE RELIGION AND CUSTOMS OF THE URAONS. 173 



chosen according to one of the three methods used in choosing the pahan or Saiga. 

 The boy selected has to come every night quite naked, and offer to the goddess ghi 

 and incense, and on the day of the expedition he sacrifices five fowls to her. 



Sohrai. — This is properly the feast of the cattle, as the people want to show their 

 gratitude to the animals who have worked the whole year for them. But as they have 

 worked together they must also feast together. On the eve of the ceremony a lamp is kept 

 burning the whole night in the stable, and a cock of different colours is offered in every 

 house in honour of Gaureya. When offering the sacrifices they join hands and say this 

 prayer : " O Gaureya, kind Devata, look after our cattle : when they go to graze in the 

 jungle, change the tiger into an ant-hill ; change the ravines into a smooth path and 

 snakes into ropes." 



The next morning they anoint with oil the heads and horns of all the bullocks, hang 

 garlands of flowers round their necks and put sindur on their forehead. The whole day 

 is then spent by the people in rejoicings. No work is taken from the bullocks, and they 

 are given a good feed of corn. In the evening there is a panchayat in which the goala 

 is rewarded. They settle how much he has to pay for the cattle that have been lost or 

 impounded through his negligence. 



Barpahari is a puja that has been brought in by the Bhuinhars or the Mundas, 

 who separated from the main stock and have lost their language. Barpahari is nothing 

 else than the well-known Marang Buru, or the great mountain of the Mundas. The man 

 who offers the sacrifices goes to a piece of tanr, or highland, accompanied by the pane h 

 of the villages. There he offers a white cock to Darmesh and two fowls to Barpahari. 



The Uraons can never forget their Bhuinhari village, or the place where their fore- 

 fathers first settled, nor the deities of that place. Every year they have the Phagun 

 Bhaiari and the Hariari Bhaiari. On these two days there is a family puja ; and all the 

 people of the same family living in the same district assemble at the house of the eldest 

 representative of the family. 



The man who has to offer the puja is chosen according to one of the two methods 

 for choosing the baiga, and he offers a sacrifice of several fowls to Pat and the other 

 tutelary divinities of their Bhuinhari village. A fowl is offered also to Pachbal in the 

 customary way. The blood of the victims is spilt in a winnowing-fan, and this with the 

 knife that has been used for the sacrifice remains hanging in the house, and is kept solely 

 for that purpose. Outsiders may be invited, and are even allowed to eat of the fowls that 

 have been sacrificed, but the head, liver, wings, and the legs are exclusively reserved for 

 the members of the Bhaiari. 



Karam. — The Karam is a Hindu feast, but as the Uraons and other aboriginal people 

 have taken to it, it is as well to say a word about it. The Karam tree is a godling of 

 the Hindus. The Uraons celebrate this feast a month earlier than the Hindus. The 

 man chosen to officiate at the ceremony, who represents the panch, goes from house to 

 house, and performs the palkhonsna. On the eve of the day fixed, the boys and 

 girls have to fast, and in the evening they go together to the nearest jungle, and cutting a 

 branch of the Karam, bring it back, dancing and singing in triumph. They plant it in 

 the middle of the akhra or dancing place, and adorn it with flowers and lights like a 



