Dulha Deo, 'the Bridegroom God', is one of the favourite household deities of the Baiga and of the Central Provinces generally. He is the deified spirit of a young bridegroom who died on the very day of his wedding, in the common telling carried off by a tiger, or in others struck down by lightning, as he rode to fetch his bride. Enshrined in the home, he wards off disease, accident and evil chance from the family and is offered a fowl or goat of reddish colour; at weddings a miniature coat, a pair of shoes and a bridal crown are set before him. Sources differ on the manner of his death, but agree in making him a mortal transformed by an untimely wedding-day death into a protecting spirit of the hearth.