ABSTRACT
During the Sohrae festival, at lagre dances and weddings or at meetings in the forest, Santals occasionally sing songs of death. When death actually occurs, the family breaks into bitter grieving songs. A mother sings of her dead child. A young wife watches her husband go with blank despairing sorrow. But besides grief at the death of a loved familiar person, there is also the knowledge that a sudden sinister crisis has occurred in the family and village. The world of bongas which normally impinges only intermittently on Santal affairs is abrupdy brought into sharper focus. Death is a victory for all those anti-Santal forces which are represented by hostile bongas. Accordingly when a Santal dies, the family and village all co-operate in disposing of his body and mollifying its outraged spirit.
