The Singbonga (lit., sun or light spirit) is the chief; Buru Bonga (spirit of the hills), and the Ikhir Bonga (spirit of the deep), come next.  After these come the Darha, of which each family has its own, and they may be considered in the same light as Lares and Penates.  But every threshing, flour and oil mill, has its spirit, who must be duly fed, else evil result may be expected.  Their great festival (the Karam) is in honour of Singbonga and his assistants; the opening words of the priests’ speech on that occasion, sufficiently indicate that they consider Singbonga, the creator of men and things.  Munure Singbonga manokoa luekidkoa (In the beginning Singbonga made men).

Each village has its Sarna or sacred grove, where the hereditary priest from time to time performs sacrifices, to keep things prosperous; but this only relates to spirits actually connected with the village, the three greater spirits mentioned, being considered general, are only fed at intervals of three or more years, and always on a public road or other public place, and once every ten years a human being was (and as some will tell you is sacrificed to keep the whole community of spirits in good train.) The Pahans, or village priests, are regular servants of the spirits, and the najo, deona and bhagats are people who in some way are supposed to obtain an influence or command over them.  The first and lowest grade of these adepts, called najos (which may be translated as practitioners of witchcraft pure and simple), are frequently women.  They are accused, like the “Mula Curumbers,” of demanding quantities of grain or loans of money, &c., from people, and when these demands are refused, they go away with a remark to the effect, “that you have lots of cattle and grain just now, but we’ll see what they are like after a month or two.”  Then probably the cattle of the bewitched person will get some disease, and several of them die, or some person of his family will become ill or get hurt in some unaccountable way.  Till at last, thoroughly frightened, the afflicted person takes a little uncooked rice and goes to a deona or mati (as he is called in the different vernaculars of the province)—­the grade immediately above najo in knowledge—­and promising him a reward if he will assist him, requests his aid; if the deona accedes to the request, the proceedings are as follows.  The deona taking the oil brought, lights a small lamp and seats himself beside it with the rice in a surpa (winnower) in his hands.  After looking intently at the lamp flame for a few minutes, he begins to sing a sort of chant of invocation in which all the spirits are named, and at the name of each spirit a few grains of rice are thrown into the lamp.  When the flame at any particular name gives a jump and flares up high, the spirit concerned in the mischief is indicated.  Then the deona takes a small portion of the rice wrapped up in a sal (Shorea robusta) leaf and proceeds to the nearest new white-ant nest from which he cuts