The Dead

Santals are very much afraid of burial grounds; for dead men become

_bongas_ and _bongas_ eat men. If a man meet such a _bonga_ in a

burial ground it is of little use to fight for the _bonga_ keeps on

changing his shape. He may first appear as a man and then change into

a leopard or a bear or a pig or a cat: very few escape when attacked

by such a being.

It is said that the spirits of young children become _bhuts_ and those

of grown-up people _bongas_ and those of pregnant women _churins_.