[Patron Saint.] 12. Vâlmîki, the author of the Râmâyana, is a sort of patron saint of the tribe. According to the Aheriya legend Vâlmîki was a great hunter and robber. After he had taken many lives he one day met the saint Nârada Muni in the jungle. As he was aiming his arrow at the Rishi, Nârada asked him if he knew what a sin he was committing. At last Nârada convinced him of his wickedness and tried to teach him to say Râma! Râma! but for a long time he could get no nearer it than Mâra! Mâra! (Kill! kill!) Finally his devotion won him pardon, and he became learned enough to compose the Râmâyana. Hence he is the saint of the Aheriyas. [House worship.] 13. Some make a house shrine dedicated to Mekhâsur in a room set apart for the purpose. Women regularly married are permitted to join in this worship, but unmarried girls and karâo wives are excluded. The sacrifices to these tribal godlings are done by some member of the family, not by a regular priest. In the case of Miyân Sâhib and Jakhiya they sometimes release the victim after cutting its ear; in all other cases the animal is killed, and the flesh eaten by the worshippers. Most of their festivals are those common to all Hindus, which will be often mentioned. There is a curious survival of human sacrifice in the observance at the festival known as the Sakat Chauth, when they make the image of a human being of boiled rice, and at night cut it up and eat it. They venerate the pîpal tree, and have a special worship of the âonla (phyllanthus emblica) on the eleventh of the light half of Phâlgun. Women bow down before the tree and offer eight small cakes and water at noon. At the Nâgpanchami women draw pictures of snakes on the walls of their houses and throw milk over them. Men take milk to the jungle and place it near the hole of a snake. Their favourite tattoo mark is Sîtâ ki rasoi, or a representation of the cooking room of Sîta, which is still shown on the Chitra Kûta hill. Their chief oath is on the Ganges, and this is made more binding if the person taking it stands under a pîpal tree or holds a leaf of it in his hand. [Social rules.] 14. They cannot eat or drink with any other caste; but they will eat kachchi cooked by Ahîrs, Barhais, Jâts, and Kahârs; they eat pakki, cooked by a Nâi, but he will not eat pakki cooked by them.