THE TODAS

The Todas live in little villages scattered about the hills. The greater part of the plateau consists of grass-covered hills separated by valleys, sometimes narrow, more often of wide extent. In every valley there are streams and in many places swamps. In the hollows of the hills are small woods, generally known as sholas, and it is usually near these sholas that the Toda villages are to be found. Some parts of the hills are much more thickly beset with villages than others, and this is especially the case in the neighbourhood of the part known as Governor Shola, about six to eight miles west and north-west of Ootacamund.

In other parts one may go considerable distances without finding a Toda village, but relics of the former history of the Todas may be found widely scattered over the hills, and I think there can be little doubt that at one time the Toda habitations were much more generally distributed than they are at present. The bazaar at Ootacamund has now become an important place in the economic life of the Todas; they sell there the ghi or clarified butter in which form their dairy produce chiefly goes to the market, and they [24]procure in return at the bazaar the rice and grain and other things which have now taken their places among the necessaries of life. In consequence there exists a tendency for the larger part of the Todas, especially those of the Todanad, to live within an easy distance of Ootacamund, and many of the villages in the more distant parts of the hills are now only occupied for a few weeks in the year.

The Toda name for a village is mad,2 but this is now often replaced by the Badaga form of the word, mand, and the latter word is used exclusively by the Europeans and others living on the Nilgiri hills. A mad usually consists of several huts. In some villages there may be only one hut, and the maximum number I have seen is six. At some places where there was formerly a village with dwelling-huts there is now only a dairy, but the term mad is still applied to the place at which the dairy is situated. The term mad is also given to the funeral-places of the Todas. Sometimes the funeral-place is also a village at which people live; sometimes it has only a dairy; while in other places there may be no trace of human habitations; but the term mad is equally applied in all three cases. The term is also used for the dairies and accessory buildings connected with the most sacred herds of buffaloes (the ti). Each group of buildings is called a mad or ti mad. The term has therefore a wider significance than “village” and denotes rather a “place”—a place connected in any way with the active life of the Todas. The chief village of a clan and certain other sacred or important villages are called etudmad and other villages are often known as kinmad.

FIG. 5.—THE VILLAGE OF TARADR, SHOWING TWO DAIRIES IN THE FOREGROUND AND THREE HOUSES IN THE BACKGROUND.

A typical Toda village consists of a small group of huts (ars), often on a piece of ground slightly raised above the surrounding level and enclosed by a wall (katu). In this wall there are two or three narrow openings, large enough to admit a man but not a buffalo. In most villages there is a dairy or there may be several dairies. Each of these buildings is also enclosed by a wall, usually higher than that surrounding the dwelling-huts. The dairies may be near the huts, but more commonly are at some little distance from [26]the latter. Somewhere near the dairy will be found a circular enclosure, the buffalo-pen, or tu,3 in which the buffaloes are enclosed at night, and there may be more than one tu for use on different occasions or for different kinds of buffalo. There will be a small pen for the calves which is called kadr, and there may also be a house for the calves (kwotars). A small structure called kush (? kudsh), used as an enclosure for calves less than fifteen days old, may often be seen, situated between the spreading roots of a tree.

Close to the village there will be at least one stream (nipa), and very often there are two streams. If possible, there should be two streams, in order that one may be used for the sacred purposes of the dairy, the pali nipa, while the other is used for household purposes, the ars nipa. Where there is only one stream, different parts are used for the two purposes, and the two parts of the stream then receive the names pali nipa and ars nipa. In this case the pali nipa is always above the ars nipa, so as to avoid the danger that the water used for the dairy shall have been contaminated by contact with household vessels. At some villages there may even be a third stream, or part of a stream, used in the ordination ceremonies of the dairymen.

It has often been a subject of remark by visitors to the Nilgiri Hills that the Todas have chosen the most beautiful spots for their dwellings, and interest has been taken in the love of beauty in nature which this choice shows. I think there can be little doubt that the choice of suitable dwelling-places has been chiefly determined by the necessity of a good water-supply, and if possible of a double water-supply, and the Todas have chosen the beautiful spots, not because they are beautiful, but because they are well watered. Their choice has been dictated, not by a love of beautiful scenery, but by the practical necessities of their daily life.

In the immediate neighbourhood of a village there are usually well-worn paths by which the village is approached, and some of these paths or kalvol receive special names. [27]Some may not be traversed by women. When I first visited the village of Taradr, nearly the whole population of the village met me at the spot where the path to the village leaves the road. We all went along together till I suddenly found that I was walking with the men and boys only, while the women and girls were following another path. We were going by the way over which the sacred buffaloes travel when leaving or approaching the village, and the women might not tread this path, but had another appointed way by which they were to reach their home.

FIG. 6.—THE VILLAGE OF TARADR, SHOWING THE HOUSES SURROUNDED BY A WALL, IN WHICH THERE IS ONE OPENING IN THE MIDDLE.

Within the village there are also certain recognised paths, of which two are especially important. One, the punetkalvol, is the path by which the dairyman goes from his dairy to milk or tend the buffaloes; the other is the majvatitthkalvol, the path which the women must use when they go to the dairy to receive buttermilk (maj) from the dairyman. Women are not allowed to go to the dairy or to other places connected with it, except at appointed times when they receive buttermilk given [28]out by the dairyman, and when going for this purpose they must keep to the majvatitthkalvol. This path is sometimes indicated by a stone, the majvatitthkars, and the spot where the women stand to receive the buttermilk is called the majvatvaiidrn.

FIG. 7.—THE CHIEF HOUSE OF THE VILLAGE OF KIUDR.

At many villages there are other stones which have definite names and mark the sites where certain ceremonial functions are performed.

The house is called ars, and is of the kind shown in Fig. 7. It is shaped like half a barrel, with the barrel-like roof and sides projecting for a considerable distance beyond the front partition containing the door. The size of the hut is by no means constant; in some cases it is sufficiently roomy to enable people to move about with ease and comfort, while in others it is so small that it is unbearably stuffy, and the smoke from the fire, which is always burning, makes it difficult to believe that anyone can long live in it. The entrance to [29]the hut is always very small, and is closed by a door which slides over the opening on its inner side.

Some houses are much longer than others, with a door at each end and a central partition, so as to form a double hut which is called epotirikhthars, i.e., “both-ways-turned house.” This kind of hut did not seem to be common, and I only saw three or four examples, of which one is shown in Fig. 8.

A much more common kind of double hut is called merkalars, i.e., “other-side house,” in which the back part of the hut is partitioned off, with a door at one side.

FIG. 8.—THE VILLAGE OF PEIVÒRS, SHOWING A DOUBLE HUT (IN THE BACKGROUND). THE TWO BUILDINGS ON THE LEFT ARE DAIRIES, AND THE STRUCTURE IN THE CENTRE IS A CALF-HOUSE.

In some Toda villages there may now be found huts of the same kind as those of the Badagas. In the cases in which I found such huts, I was told that they had been built by Badagas who had lived in the villages while the Toda occupants were away. Todas may also occasionally be found living away from their own villages, usually near tea plantations. They do this because there is a demand for buffalo manure at the plantations, and when living in this way they not uncommonly use huts of the Badaga pattern.

In front of the hut on either side of the door there are usually raised seats called kwottün, and there are similar [30]raised portions, called tün, within the huts on which the people sleep. The floor of the hut is divided into two parts, which are marked off from one another by the hole in which grain is pounded by the women. The part in front of this is often used for churning, and with this part women have nothing to do, their operations being limited to the hinder part.

FIG. 9.—A TODA MAN, SIRIAR (20), WITH HIS WIFE AND CHILD, SHOWING THE ORDINARY METHOD OF WEARING THE ‘PUTKULI.’

There is little difference between the dress of men and women. Each wears a mantle called the putkuli, which is worn thrown round the shoulders without any fastening. Under it is worn a loin-cloth called tadrp, and the men also wear a perineal band called kuvn, corresponding to the Hindu languti. The kuvn is kept in position by a string round the waist called pennar, a string which, we shall see later, is of considerable ceremonial importance.

There are various ways of wearing the cloak which will be [31]more fully described in Chapter XXIV. It will be sufficient to say here that when showing reverence, a Toda bares his right arm, this method of wearing the cloak so that the arm is exposed being called kevenarut. It is shown in Figs, 1 and 10.

The daily life of the Toda men is largely devoted to the care of their buffaloes and to the performance of the dairy operations. As we shall see later, much of the dairy work is the duty of certain men set aside to look after the sacred buffaloes and the sacred dairies connected with them. A large proportion, however, of the Toda buffaloes are not sacred, and their care falls on the ordinary Todas. The milking and churning is chiefly the duty of the younger men and boys, but the older men also take their part, while the head of the family exercises a general superintendence.

FIG. 10.—KÒDRNER PERFORMING THE SALUTATION CALLED ‘KAIMUKHTI.’ HIS RIGHT ARM IS BARED (‘KEVENARUT’), AND HE HAS REMOVED HIS TURBAN.

On rising in the morning, the men salute the sun with the gesture called kaimukhti, shown in Fig. 10, and then they turn to their work of milking the buffaloes and churning the milk.

When the dairy operations of the morning are over, the buffaloes are driven to the grazing ground, the people take their food and go about any business of the day. Some may [32]collect firewood and procure the leaves used as plates and drinking vessels; others may carry out any necessary tendance which the buffaloes require, or may go to fetch grain or rice from Badaga villages or from the bazaar. The chief men of the village may perhaps have to attend a meeting of the naim, or council, which holds very frequent sittings to adjudicate upon the many disputed points which arise in connexion with the intricate social organisation of the people.

While the men are doing their work, the women will have been seeing to their special tasks, of which three, represented in Fig. 11, have come to be regarded as pre-eminently woman’s work.

They pound the grain with the wask in a hole situated in the middle of the floor of the hut,4 and when the pounding is finished the grain is sifted with the murn, or sieve, and the hut is swept with the kip. It seemed that pounding grain is normally performed wearing the tadrp only.

Though these are the three operations which are regarded as pre-eminently woman’s work, the women have other things to do. They rub the seats or beds both inside and outside the hut with dried buffalo-dung, and use the same material to cleanse the various household utensils. They mend the garments of the family, and some women devote much time to the special embroidery with which they adorn their cloaks.

FIG. 11.—WOMEN POUNDING AND SIFTING. THE BROOM IS ON THE GROUND TO THE RIGHT.

The ordinary routine of the day is often broken by the visits of people from other villages, who may have come to talk over a proposed marriage or transference of wives; to announce some approaching ceremony; to discuss some business connected with the buffaloes, or perhaps, but probably rarely, to pay a friendly call. Such a visit will probably give the opportunity of observing the characteristic Toda salutation shown in Fig. 12.5 This is essentially a salutation between a woman and her male relatives older than herself. If a man [33]visits a village in which he has any female relatives younger than himself, these will go out to meet him as he approaches the house, and each bows down before the man, who raises his foot, while the woman places her hand below the foot and helps to raise it to her forehead, and the same salutation is repeated with the other foot. This mode of greeting is [34]called kalmelpudithti,6 or “leg up he puts.” It is usually a salutation in which women bow down before men, but it may also take place between two men or between two women, while on certain occasions a male may bow down and have his forehead touched by the feet of a woman.

In the evening the buffaloes again find their way to the milking-place, and the operations of the morning are repeated. When these are finished the buffaloes are shut up in the enclosure, or tu, for the night; the lamp is now lighted and saluted by the men who use the same gesture as that with which the sun had been saluted in the morning. The people then take their food and retire to rest.

The first distinction to be made concerns the buffaloes. These animals are divided into those of a sacred character and those which may be called ‘ordinary buffaloes.’ The latter are known as putiir; they may be kept at any village, are tended by the men and boys of the village—in Toda language, they are tended by perol, or ordinary persons—and their milk is churned in the front part of the dwelling-hut. There is no special ritual of any kind connected with these buffaloes or with their milk, and there are no restrictions on the use of the milk or its products.

The classification of the sacred buffaloes is very different in the two divisions of the Toda people. The Teivaliol possess only one class of sacred buffalo and these buffaloes are called collectively pasthir. The Tartharol, on the other hand, have several classes of sacred buffalo, and, so far as I could ascertain, they have properly no collective term for all of them, though they are often spoken of by the Teivali term, pasthir.

Possessing only one kind of sacred buffalo, the dairy organisation of the Teivaliol is comparatively simple. The milk of the pasthir is churned in dairies at the more important villages of each clan. The dairy is, in general, called pali,1 and the dairyman is called palikartmokh, ‘dairy watch-boy,’ or palikartpol, ‘dairy watch-man,’2 according to his age; but, [40]probably owing to the general custom of employing youths or young men to fill the office of dairyman, the term palikartmokh is in far more general use, and is often employed even when the dairyman is an elderly man.

At many of the chief Teivali villages, there are two dairies; a large dairy, called etudpali, and a smaller, called kidpali. Each of these dairies should have its own palikartmokh, and this is still the case when both dairies are used, but at most villages at the present time one of the two dairies has been disused and there is in consequence only one dairyman.

Both ordinary and sacred buffaloes are the property, not of the whole clan, but of families or individuals, and the buffaloes tended at the dairy of a village are, in general, the property of the family living at that village. A large clan with many villages, such as that of Kuudr, has many dairies in working order and a corresponding number of dairymen.

Among the Tartharol the organisation is far more complicated. Most Tarthar clans have more than one kind of sacred buffalo in addition to the ordinary buffaloes or putiir. In every clan there is one kind of sacred herd which may be said to correspond to the pasthir of the Teivaliol. The milk of these buffaloes is churned in a dairy called pali by a dairyman called palikartmokh or palikartpol. There are, however, two grades of dairy corresponding to these buffaloes. The lower grade is called the tarpali, or more commonly tarvali, and is served by a tarvalikartmokh. The higher grade is called kudrpali, tended by a kudrpalikartmokh. There is no distinction of buffaloes corresponding to this distinction of dairies, the same buffaloes being tended sometimes at a kudrpali and sometimes at a tarvali. The distinguishing feature of a kudrpali is the possession of a mani, or sacred bell, and the greater elaboration and stringency of its ritual is due to the presence of this sacred object.

In addition to the buffaloes tended at the tarvali or kudrpali, most Tarthar clans possess other sacred buffaloes called wursulir. These buffaloes are tended by a dairyman called wursol and their milk is churned in a dairy called wursuli or wursulipali. One point which marks off this branch of the dairy organisation from the preceding is that [41]the dairyman, or wursol, must belong either to the Teivaliol or to the Melgars clan of the Tartharol. Both tarpalikartmokh and kudrpalikartmokh are chosen from the Tartharol, either of the same or of a different clan from that of the dairy, but the wursol must be taken either from the members of the other chief division of the Todas or from one special clan of the Tartharol, a clan which has many other peculiar privileges and occupies a position in some ways intermediate between Tartharol and Teivaliol.

The ritual of the wursuli is distinctly more elaborate than that of either tarvali or kudrpali, and the wursol is a more sacred personage, so far as one can judge from his rules of conduct and the elaboration of his ordination ceremonies.

Two Tarthar clans have dairies of especial importance and sanctity, in both of which there are distinctive features of ritual.

The people of Taradr possess a herd of buffaloes called kugvalir which take their name from the dairy, the kugvali or kugpali, meaning the chief or great dairy. The kugvalir are tended by a kugvalikartmokh, who must belong to the Taradrol. The six chief families of this clan take charge of the buffaloes for periods of three years in rotation, and the head of the family in charge selects the kugvalikartmokh.

The other Tarthar dairy which occupies an exceptional position is that of Kanòdrs, which is called a poh, and is tended by a dairyman called pohkartpol. The ritual both of this dairy and of the kugvali of Taradr resembles in some respects that of the most sacred Toda dairies, the dairies of the institution called the ti.

The number and nature of the dairies are different in the different Tarthar clans and in different villages of the same clan. The Melgars clan has only one kind of dairy, the tarvali. The Nòdrs clan now has a tarvali and a wursuli, and at most Kars villages there are both kudrpali and wursuli, but formerly both at Nòdrs and Kars there were three kinds of dairy, tarvali, kudrpali, and wursuli. Some Pan villages have tarvali and wursuli, others kudrpali and wursuli. At Taradr there are both tarvali and wursuli in addition to the special institution of that clan, the kugvali. [42]

All these various kinds of dairy are situated at the villages where the people live. In addition, five Tarthar clans possess dairies where are kept herds of great sanctity, the herds of the ti or the tiir. These buffaloes are kept at special dairies far from any village where people live. A place where such a dairy is situated is called a ti mad, or ti village, and each sacred herd moves about from one ti mad to another at different seasons of the year, and the group of places, together with the herds connected with it, is known collectively as a ti.3 The ti is thus the name of a special institution comprising buffaloes, dairies, grazing grounds, and the various buildings and objects connected with the dairies.

The ti is presided over by a dairyman-priest called palol, who is assisted by a boy or youth called kaltmokh or, more rarely, kavelol. Formerly it was the custom in most cases that a ti should have two palol, each of whom had his own herd of buffaloes and his own dairy, so that each ti mad had two dairies. This custom now persists in full at one ti only, though in other cases there are still two dairies, of which one is not used, or is only used on special occasions.

Though the ti is, in every case, regarded as the property of a Tarthar clan, the palol must be chosen from the Teivaliol, and in some cases the choice is restricted to certain Teivali clans. The kaltmokh must belong either to the Teivaliol or to the Melgars clan of the Tartharol. The dairy of a ti is always called a poh.

The ritual of the ti reaches a far higher degree of complexity than is attained in any village dairy. The palol is a far more sacred personage than the wursol or the palikartmokh; his life is far more strictly regulated, and the ceremonies attendant on his entrance into office are far more elaborate. The ceremonies connected with dairy or buffaloes are more numerous, and when they correspond to ceremonies performed at the lower grades of dairy, they are much more elaborate and prolonged. [43]

There are two forms of Toda dairy. One resembles very closely the ordinary hut, and, but for its situation and the higher wall which surrounds it, it might often be supposed to be one of the huts. The vast majority of dairies are now of this form. The other kind of dairy is circular with a conical roof. There are now only three or four of these buildings in existence, though others have only fallen into ruins in recent times. Breeks, who wrote in 1873, says4 that at that time there were four, and a fifth in ruins.

The best known of these dairies is that at Nòdrs (the Manboa of Breeks), shown in Fig. 13. It has received the name of “the Toda Cathedral,” and is one of the show places of the Nilgiris. Another (shown in Fig. 25) is at Kanòdrs (the Mutterzhva of Breeks). Both are village dairies of especial sanctity; the Nòdrs building is in full working order, while that of Kanòdrs is only occupied occasionally. A third dairy of the conical form is at the ti place of Anto near Sholur (the Kiurzh of Breeks) and should be regularly visited once a year, though the year in which I was on the Nilgiris was an exception. The fourth dairy of the kind (called by Breeks Tarzhva) is at Tarsòdr on the Kundahs. It is also a ti dairy, but is now falling into ruins, having been disused for about twenty years. The ruined dairy mentioned by Breeks (Katedva) is said to be still in the same condition. It was used as a ti dairy, and is near Makurti Peak.

There is no doubt that conical dairies were at one time more numerous. There was one at the ti place of Enòdr, not far from Ootacamund. There was another at the village of Kars, and the circular wall which once surrounded the dairy still remains, and has been converted into a buffalo pen.

FIG. 13.—THE CONICAL DAIRY OF NÒDRS. THE STONE AT THE RIGHT-HAND END OF THE WALL IS THE ‘TEIDRTOLKARS’ (see p. 439).

The various names given to the Toda dairies are at first sight very confusing. We have already seen that each kind of dairy is named according to the kind of buffalo connected with it—according to its position in the dairy-series connecting tarvali with ti. Each dairy has also its own special or individual [45]name; thus the kudrpali of Kars is called Tarziolv, and the wursuli of the same village, Karziolv.

In addition to these two sets of names, there is another distinction of a more general kind. There are two general names, poh and pali, and every dairy is one or other of these. The former name is given to every ti dairy, to every dairy of the conical form,5 and to certain other dairies at the older and more important villages. Some of the latter are ordinarily called pali, but the name poh lingers in the name employed for the dairies in prayer (see Chapter X), or in the individual names of the dairies; thus the dairy at the ancient village of Nasmiòdr is ordinarily called a pali, but its individual name is Tilipoh. I think it probable that originally poh and pali were the names of the two forms of dairy, the conical kind being called poh and the ordinary kind pali. At the present time every existing conical dairy is a poh, and every dairy which is said to have been in the past of the conical form is called poh. It seems probable that in many cases a dairy, originally of the conical form, has been rebuilt in the same form as the dwelling-hut, owing to the difficulty and extra labour of reconstruction in the older shape; and that in some of these cases the dairy of the new form has retained the name of the old and is still called poh, at any rate on certain occasions. All the dairies to which the name poh is ever given are either ti dairies or are situated in villages of especial antiquity and sanctity.

There is now no definite rule as to the grade of dairymen who shall serve at a dairy called poh. The poh of a ti is, of course, occupied by a palol and kaltmokh. The conical poh of Nòdrs, the old conical poh of Kars, and several old dairies which are still called poh in the prayers are, or were, tended by dairymen of the rank of wursol, while several poh of the ordinary shape belonging to the Teivaliol are occupied by dairymen called palikartmokh. The only place at which the dairyman takes his name from the poh is Kanòdrs, where the conical dairy is occupied by a pohkartpol. [46]

FIG. 14.—THE LOWER PART OF THE CONICAL DAIRY OF NÒDRS, WHICH IS HIDDEN BY THE WALL IN FIG. 13. THE ‘WURSOL’ IS SHOWN EATING ‘AL’ FROM A LEAF-PLATE.

There is a considerable degree of uniformity in the orientation of dairies of all grades. The doors usually face in an easterly direction, and in the majority of those I observed the door faced north of east, the most frequent direction being some point between east and north-east. In one case, that of the ti poh at Mòdr, the door of the dairy faces south-east; but in front of the door there is a screen, and on leaving [47]his dairy the palol always turns to the left, so that he faces north-east as he goes towards his buffaloes. In a few dairies the door faces directly west, and, according to Breeks, this is the case at the conical dairy of Anto.

The Toda buffalo is a variety of the Indian water-buffalo, but the life on the hills seems to have produced a much finer animal than that of the plains. Although thoroughly under the control of the Todas, the buffaloes are semi-wild and often attack people of a different race from their owners, and Europeans have frequently been severely injured by the onslaught of these animals.

The Toda name for the male buffalo is er, and for the female ir, but either term may be used when the people speak of buffaloes collectively. Calves have different designations at different ages. A young calf is kar, one from one to two years of age is pòl, and a three-year-old calf is nakh.

Defective buffaloes, and especially those with only one horn, are called kwadrir, and those whose horns bend downwards are kughir. Barren buffaloes are called maiir.

There are considerable differences of colour among the buffaloes. Those much lighter than the rest are called nerir or pushtir, and there is a legend about the origin of these buffaloes, which, however, I failed to obtain. The only obvious way in which the animals differ from one another in marking is that some have a black stripe running down either side of the neck very much in the position which would be occupied by the chain suspending a bell.

There do not seem to be any physical differences between the buffaloes of different classes, and, as we shall see shortly, the nature of the breeding of the Toda buffaloes is such as would have entirely destroyed any distinctions of the kind if they had ever existed.

Every adult female buffalo has an individual name, which is usually given when her first calf is born. The number of buffalo names is limited, so that many buffaloes bear the same name. [48]

The following are among the buffalo names of which I have records:—Kûdzi or Kûrsi, Kâsimi, Pän or Pern, Kiûd or Kiûdz, Enmon, Koisi, Keien, Ilsh or Idrsh, Kârsthum, Perûv or Perov, Kebân, Enmars, Persud, Nerûv, Kôzi, Perith, Pülkoth, Persuth, Tòthi, Kerâni, Keirev, Püthiov, Peires, Nersâdr, Tâlg, Ûf, Köji, Persv, Arvatz, Kòjiû, Pundrs, Purkîsi, and Òrsum.

Both Tartharol and Teivaliol have the same names for their buffaloes, and it seemed that a buffalo of any village herd might have the same name as one belonging to the ti. It is possible, however, that certain names may be restricted to the ti herds. I collected some names which occurred only in these herds, but I cannot say positively that they might not also be used for less sacred buffaloes.

Male buffaloes are unnamed and appear to have little or no sanctity even when born of cows of the most sacred herds. The greater number of male calves are either killed at erkumpthtiti ceremonies (Chap. XIII) or given away to the Kotas. A few are kept for breeding purposes, usually in the proportion of two to every hundred females.

There is a singular absence of care about the breeding of the buffaloes. The Todas have many herds of which every female has some degree of sacredness, and it might have been expected that the bulls of a sacred herd would have been carefully chosen from the male calves of that herd. So far as I could ascertain after repeated inquiries, there was no restriction of any kind in the mating of the sacred animals; a bull of the ordinary buffaloes (putiir) of a village might even mate with the highly sacred animals of a ti dairy. No importance seemed to be attached to the question of paternity among the buffaloes, and so far as I could ascertain the people were quite indifferent whether the male was related or unrelated to the female, whether of the same or of another herd.

I did not hear of the existence of any ceremonies connected with the chosen male buffaloes. Marshall states6 that a bull new from one of the sacred ti herds undergoes a process of sanctification before he is permanently installed, [49]by being isolated for a day and night in a small pen in the sacred woods of the ti, during which time he is deprived of food, though allowed access to water. Marshall also states that it is permissible to introduce a bull from an ordinary drove “after due sanctification.” Though I failed to obtain definite confirmation of Marshall’s statement, it is possible that something of the kind may at one time have taken place or may even still take place.

At the present time the buffaloes are tended entirely by males, and males only are allowed to take any part either in the work of the dairy or in those dairy operations which are performed in the house. There is a tradition that at one time women attended to the buffaloes at the time of calving, and one incident is recorded in which women performed Cæsarian section on a dying buffalo (p. 78), but this custom has now long ceased to be followed.

The first buffaloes were created by one of the chief Toda gods, Ön, and his wife. The buffaloes created by the male deity were the progenitors of the sacred buffaloes, while the ordinary buffaloes or putiir are descended from those created by the wife. Certain other buffaloes are descended from ancestors created by other gods, but the account of their various creations may be deferred till the chapter containing the legends of the gods. I was told by some that the sacred buffaloes were descended from a sambhar deer, but it was later found that this was only believed to be true of one special group of buffaloes belonging to one clan.

The general plan of the dairy procedure is the same in all dairies, the difference between different dairies lying chiefly in certain formalities accompanying certain stages of the procedure.

The day’s operations begin with the churning of the milk drawn on the previous evening. The milk is poured from the milking-vessels into earthenware pots, and during the night it will have coagulated. The coagulated mass is first broken up by the churn; water and butter already made are added, [50]and then the churning is continued till the milk separates into a solid part, which I shall speak of as ‘butter,’ and a liquid, which I shall call ‘buttermilk.’ It must be remembered, however, that these do not correspond to the butter and buttermilk of a European dairy. The milk coagulates before the cream has risen in any quantity, and there is no skimming. The ‘butter’ consists of both the fat and casein of the milk, while the ‘buttermilk’ ought perhaps rather to be called ‘whey.’

In order to avoid this ambiguity in the use of the words ‘butter’ and ‘buttermilk’ it might have seemed desirable to use the Toda terms for these products; but I have not done so, partly in order to avoid the too frequent use of Toda words, partly because the names are not constant among the Todas themselves, different terms being used in different dairies.

When the churning is finished, the butter and buttermilk are put into their appropriate vessels, and the dairyman goes out to milk the buffaloes, using for this purpose a bamboo milking-vessel, into which he has put some buttermilk from the previous churning. The newly drawn milk is poured into the earthenware vessels, in which it stands till the afternoon. By this time the milk will have become solid, and is churned as in the morning.

The ‘butter’ is used chiefly in the form of ghi, or clarified butter, for which the Toda name is nei. The butter is clarified by keeping it over the fire after the addition of grain or rice. The latter sinks to the bottom of the vessel, while the nei consists of the liquefied fat of the milk. The nei or ghi is partly used by the Todas, but is largely sold at the bazaar. The deposit of grain or rice is called al, and is one of the chief Toda foods. It is, no doubt, mixed with part of the proteid constituents of the milk precipitated during the process of clarification.

FIG. 15.—ÒD (26) CHURNING.

The milking-vessel is of bamboo, and several of the small vessels used in the dairy procedure are also made from bamboo of various sizes. The vessels into which the milk is poured and in which it is churned are of earthenware, and the vessels in which the butter and buttermilk are kept are also [52]of this kind. The earthenware vessels used in the ordinary dairy-work are made by the Kotas.

The names of the different dairy vessels vary according to the dairy in which they are used, and these, together with a complete list of the dairy vessels and implements, will be reserved till later.

The method of churning is shown in Fig. 15. The churning is always done within the hut or dairy, but in order to obtain a photograph of the process a staff was put in the ground outside a hut, so that the figure shows exactly the method used within the hut or dairy. The upright staff is called palmän, or ‘milk-tree’; the two rings by means of which the churning-stick is fastened to the palmän are called palkati, or ‘milk-ties.’ The cord by which the churning-stick, or madth is revolved is called kudinan or palv.

The general plan of the dairy operations appears to be much the same as that practised elsewhere in India. There are, however, two special features of the Toda procedure which, so far as I know, are not in general use elsewhere. One of these is the addition of buttermilk from a previous churning. This addition probably hastens the process of coagulation, and has a material use, but in the hands of the Todas it has become of great ceremonial importance, and forms the basis of some of the most interesting features of the dairy ritual.

The other special feature which does not seem to be generally found in India is the addition of grain or rice when clarifying the butter. Unlike the addition of buttermilk, this has no ceremonial value, and is chiefly important in providing the Todas with one of their favourite foods.

This is the name applied to the lowest grade of Tarthar dairy and may mean “the ordinary dairy,” the first syllable being probably the same as in the word “Tarthar.”

The tarvali is always of the ordinary form and is never called poh. The dairyman, or tarvalikartmokh, is often a [62]youth or man of the village to which the dairy belongs, but he may be taken from any other village of the clan or from other Tarthar villages, the choice in some cases being restricted to certain clans. The only Tarthar clan which is strictly limited to its own members in the choice of tarvalikartmokh is that of Melgars. In all cases this grade of dairyman must be one of the Tartharol; he is never taken from the other division of the Toda people.

When the dairyman is taken from another clan, he may receive certain wages, viz., two cloaks (putkuli) in the year and six rupees, together with the loan of a milking buffalo for the use of his family. I have no definite information whether anything is given to dairymen who are members of the clan or family to which the dairy belongs.

The dairyman is regarded by the Todas as a servant, especially when taken from another clan. I was often told that a man was working for another and was his servant, and always found that the so-called servant was palikartmokh at the dairy of the village at which the master lived. Correspondingly, there seemed to be no doubt that the dairyman was treated with very scant respect, except on ceremonial occasions and when actually performing the ritual of his office.

The tarvalikartmokh wears nothing but the kuvn, or perineal band, when he is in the dairy, and wears a loincloth called irkarthtadrp when milking. When away from his work or when looking after his buffaloes on the grazing-ground, he wears the ordinary cloak, or putkuli. He usually sleeps in the outer room of the dairy, but is allowed to sleep at any time in the dwelling-hut. When he goes there he may only touch the sleeping-place (idrtül) and the floor (kuter). If he touches any other part of the hut, he at once loses his office and becomes an ordinary person. There are no restrictions on the intercourse of the tarvalikartmokh with women.

FIG. 19.—THE ‘WURSOL’ OF NÒDRS CARRYING THE ‘ADIMU’ AND ‘PATATPUN’ TO FETCH WATER.

When the tarvalikartmokh rises in the morning, he leaves the dairy, raising one or both hands to his face as in Fig. 10 and saying Sami or Swami. He often also says this word when getting up from the sleeping-place. He first lets the buffaloes out of the pen (tu) in which they had been put for the night and then goes into the dairy to churn. He does not light the [64]lamp in the morning unless it is dark, nor does he pray. The milk poured into the patat overnight will have coagulated, so that it forms a solid mass called adrpars. The dairyman puts the churning-stick into the patat and churns for a little time till he has broken up the adrpars.1 Then he pours off most of the semi-fluid milk into another vessel (also a patat), leaving about one kudi2 in the churning-vessel. He adds to this some butter from a previous churning, which he takes from the parskadrvenmu, adds also some water, and churns the mixture till butter is formed. He pours out the buttermilk into the majpariv, keeping the butter in the patat, adds more coagulated milk and water, and churns again, transferring the buttermilk to its vessel when butter is formed. He continues in this way till all the milk has been churned, and he then transfers the butter which has been formed to the vessel called penpariv, also putting a small portion in the parskadrvenmu.

The palikartmokh then goes out to milk, with the irkarthpun and the wand called parskurs or ularwurthkurs. He puts into the milking-vessel some buttermilk, the buttermilk used for this purpose being called pep, and he also smears some butter on the edge of the vessel to put on the teats of the buffaloes. When he goes out, he salutes by raising the irkarthpun and parskurs to his forehead in the same manner as is shown in Fig. 27. When he has filled the milking-vessel, he goes into the dairy and empties the milk into the patat and returns to the buffaloes. This is repeated till all the buffaloes have been milked, after which the dairyman takes food and buttermilk, but with no prescribed ritual as in the case of more sacred dairies. He also gives out buttermilk to the people of the village. After the work of the morning is over, the palikartmokh may go out to look after the buffaloes, or may collect firewood, leaves, or other things necessary for his work. During the later hours of the morning the palikartmokh may often be seen lying down taking a rest before he begins the work of the afternoon, which is more ceremonial than that of the morning. [65]

FIG. 20.—THE ‘PALIKARTMOKH’ SALUTING THE THRESHOLD OF THE DAIRY AT KIUDR ‘PAVNERSATITI.’

About three o’clock in the afternoon he goes to the dairy, bows down and touches the threshold with his forehead (pavnersatiti, Fig. 20), enters and touches a vessel on the patat side, and then a vessel on the ertat side. He then lights the fire and inspects the milk drawn in the morning. If it has not become solid, he puts it on the fire for a few minutes to hasten the coagulation. He lights the lamp and prays, using the prayer of the dairy (see Chap. X), and then churns as in the morning. When he has finished churning, he clears the churning-stick of the butter clinging to it, and after holding it to his forehead and uttering the sacred word “Oñ”, he puts it in the stand called agar. He then goes out to milk as in the morning, taking buttermilk in the milking-vessel. When the milking is over, he shuts up the buffaloes in the pen for the night, and as he does so, he repeats the prayer of the dairy, the prayer being exactly the same as that used when lighting the lamp. He then takes food and [66]goes to sleep, often saying Swami as he lies down for the night.

The tarvali of the Melgars people is in some ways regarded as superior to the other tarvali of the Tartharol. The Melgars tarvalikartmokh may not go to the tarvali of another Tarthar clan, though the tarvalikartmokh of another clan may go to a Melgars tarvali. This was said to be due to the higher degree of sanctity of the Melgars dairy and office, but there do not appear to be any differences of ritual corresponding to this different degree of sanctity.

The special feature of the kudrpali is that it contains one or more of the bells called mani. This involves several additions to the ceremonial of the dairy, and these are accompanied by more stringent rules of conduct for the dairyman.

Whenever engaged in his work, the kudrpalikartmokh must be naked except for the kuvn. In the cold Nilgiri mornings it must often be a very unpleasant task to have to milk the buffaloes with no covering, and I was told that at some places, and especially at Nòdrs, the people gave up the maintenance of a kudrpali on account of the difficulty experienced in obtaining men to undertake the office of dairyman.

When the kudrpalikartmokh is taking his meals, he must hold his food in his hands till he has finished. He is not allowed to put it down on the ground, as may be done by the dairyman of the tarvali.

Soon after beginning to churn, the kudrpalikartmokh takes up some of the broken-up curd (adrpars) and puts it on the bell (mani) three times, saying “Oñ” each time, and milk from the vessel first brought into the dairy is also put on the bell in the same manner.

At the kudrpali of Kars, the dairyman puts the curd and milk on a board called pato. The bells of this dairy have been lost, and the dairyman puts the milk on the board on which the bells used to hang. The process of putting milk on the bells is properly called terzantirikiti, but the Todas [67]often speak of the process as “feeding the bell.” At the kudrpali of Kuzhu, belonging to the Kars clan, milk is put in the same way on a gold bracelet.

FIG. 21.—THE ‘KUDRPALI’ OF KARS, WITH THE ‘KUDRPALIKARTMOKH’ STANDING ON THE WALL. IN THE FOREGROUND IS THE MOUND CALLED ‘IMUDRIKARS’ IN THE BACKGROUND ON THE RIGHT IS THE CALF-HOUSE.

When making butter, it will be remembered that the dairyman of the tarvali makes a certain amount, and then pours away the buttermilk, and repeats this till all the adrpars has been converted into butter and buttermilk. Whenever the kudrpalikartmokh pours away buttermilk, he takes a piece of the bark of the sacred tudr tree (Meliosma pungens and Wightii) and beats three times on the patat, saying “Oñ” each time. This ceremony is called pepeirthti, and is the exclusive privilege of the kudrpalikartmokh. If this ceremony should be omitted, the buttermilk may not be drunk by any one.

The kudrpalikartmokh is allowed to sleep in the ordinary hut, but only on special days—viz., Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday—and on these days he must, like the tarvalikartmokh, [68]avoid touching anything in the hut except the sleeping-place and the floor on pain of losing his office. He is allowed intercourse with any Tarthar woman, but must have nothing to do with the women of his own division, the Teivaliol.

While in office, the kudrpalikartmokh is not allowed to visit the bazaar,3 and if he does so he becomes an ordinary person at once. One afternoon when I was working with Parkurs (8), one of the elders of the Kars clan, Sakari (7), who had been kudrpalikartmokh at Kuzhu, came to announce that he had visited the bazaar at Ootacamund. He was therefore no longer palikartmokh, and he came to tell Parkurs that a successor must be appointed. It seemed to me in this case that Sakari had visited the bazaar because he was tired of office and wished to become free. I had a suspicion also that he wished to become acquainted with my proceedings, for he came straight to me from the bazaar and was one of my most regular attendants for some time after his deprivation. The kudrpalikartmokh is prohibited from entering a tarvali, though the tarvalikartmokh may enter a kudrpali.

The milk of buffaloes connected with a kudrpali is more sacred than that of buffaloes milked at a tarvali. Any one may drink milk from a tarvali, but the milk of the kudrpali may only be drunk by the palikartmokh. If any one else drinks the milk of the kudrpali it is believed that he will die. I could learn of no case in which a man had taken this milk, but Kòdrner (7) had seen a cat die on the day it had drunk milk of the martir, the buffaloes of the kudrpali of Kars. Kòdrner was somewhat of a sceptic in connexion with many of the beliefs of his people, but he was very much in earnest on this occasion, and when my interpreter said he should like to drink some of the milk, Kòdrner offered to give him one hundred rupees if he drank the milk of martir for four days and remained alive.

The buffaloes tended at the tarvali and kudrpali are of several named kinds. According to tradition, each clan at the original distribution of buffaloes by Teikirzi (see p. 186) was given a certain kind. To Kars were given the buffaloes [69]called martir; to Nòdrs were given nashperthir; to Pan, pineipir; to Melgars, persasir; these buffaloes originally given being called in general nòdrodvaiir; lit. “buffaloes who rule.”

In various ways the buffaloes originally given to one clan have passed into the possession of other clans. This has happened when buffaloes have been purchased, but is chiefly due to the existence of several customs which involve gifts of buffaloes. The tradition also runs that soon after the buffaloes were originally given, the Nòdrs people built the kudrpali with seven rooms to which I have already referred and begged the Kars people for martir to milk at this dairy. Similarly the people of Kanòdrs borrowed martir from Kars to milk at their conical dairy, and similar transferences of buffaloes may have occurred between other clans. In these and possibly in other ways buffaloes have passed from one clan to another, and as the buffaloes have in many cases kept their original names, most clans now possess buffaloes of several kinds.

I was for a long time very doubtful about the relation of the kudrpali and tarvali to one another, and had very great difficulty in finding out which buffaloes belonged to each kind of dairy. Finally, it became quite clear that the same buffaloes might be milked either at a kudrpali or a tarvali, and that the possession of a mani was the chief point which determined whether a given dairy was a kudrpali or a tarvali.

The same kind of buffalo may be milked at one kind of dairy in one clan and at the other kind in another clan. The nashperthir of Nòdrs are milked at the tarvali of that place, but those of Kars are milked at the kudrpali together with the martir. Further, in at least one case, the same buffaloes might be milked in one village of a clan at a kudrpali and in another village at a tarvali. The Pan people now live chiefly at Naters and the chief villages of the clan in the Kundahs, Pan and Kuirsi, are deserted during the greater part of the year. When these villages are occupied the pineipir are milked at their kudrpali dairies, but when the people are at Naters the same buffaloes are milked at the tarvali. The mani is left at Pan, and I was told that if the bell were to be [70]brought to Naters a kudrpali would have to be built for its reception and the pineipir would then be milked at this dairy.

At the present time the only clan which has a kudrpali in constant use is that of Kars. The Pan clan only uses its kudrpali during the few months that the villages in the Kundahs are occupied. The Nòdrs clan is said to have had a kudrpali at one time, but the fact that they had to borrow buffaloes for it from Kars points to the especial connexion of the kudrpali with the latter clan.

Although the Karsol and Panol are the only clans which have a kudrpali, the special feature of which is the possession of a mani, these are not the only clans which own these sacred bells. In other cases the mani belongs to the next higher grade of dairy, the wursuli, and the Kars clan itself also possesses mani kept at this grade of dairy. Indeed, although the Kars kudrpali is said to have bells as its special feature, these bells do not really exist, having been stolen some years ago. The fiction of their presence is, however, kept up, and, as we have seen, the place where they should hang is still ‘fed’ with curd and milk.

In one case, that of the Kars kudrpali, I worked out in detail the ownership and care of the buffaloes called martir. There were altogether forty-eight of these buffaloes kept at six places and tended by seven dairymen, who were chosen from the Karsol or from the people of Nòdrs, Pan, Taradr or Keradr.

The distribution at the time of my visit was as follows:—

It will be noticed that in only two of the dairies did the palikartmokh belong to the Karsol, and in each case he looked after the buffaloes of his own father, Mutkudr also tending the buffaloes of Nudriki. Idjen was the son-in-law of [71]Kutadri, and Palpa had married a Kars woman, who was not, however, closely related to Potheners, to whom he was acting as dairyman. Kosners and Tidjkudr were given to me as examples of a practice in which a man of one clan works for one of another,4 and they received the same wages as in the case of the tarvalikartmokh (see p. 62).

These facts show clearly that the kudrpalir are not regarded as the property of the whole clan, but belong to different families, and the same is true of the buffaloes milked at the tarvali. Each family possesses its own sacred buffaloes as well as its ordinary buffaloes or putiir, and in some cases the buffaloes of each family have their own dairyman, even when the milk of two herds is churned in the same dairy.

Most of the Tarthar clans possess herds of buffaloes called collectively wursulir, each herd being tended by a dairyman called wursol at a dairy called wursuli or wursuli pali. The buffaloes of different clans have special names. At Nòdrs, they are called mersgursir; at Kars and Taradr, püdrshtipir; at Pan, kudeipir; at Keradr, miniapir; and at Nidrsi and Kwòdrdoni, keitankursir. The people of Päm, Kanòdrs, and Melgars have no wursulir; Päm and Kanòdrs both had buffaloes of this kind at one time, but they have been allowed to die out. Melgars, on the other hand, never had wursulir, the tradition being that none of these buffaloes were assigned to the clan at the original partition by Teikirzi.

The wursulir are said to have been given to most clans at the original partition of buffaloes, but no reason could be given for the creation of this special kind of buffalo. The Keradr clan are believed to have received their wursulir from Korateu (see Chap. IX), the buffaloes being descended from a sambhar calf given by this god.

A special feature of the wursuli is that the dairyman or wursol of this Tarthar dairy has to be taken either from the Teivaliol or from the Melgars clan of the Tartharol. The [72]Melgars people could hold the office of wursol, but had no wursulir themselves. At the present time the majority of men who hold this office are drawn from the Teivaliol, only two belonging to Melgars, and it seemed that it was only when the supply ran short among the Teivaliol that the Tarthar people had recourse to members of their own division. The Melgarsol do not share fully the privileges of the Teivaliol in respect of this office, for though they may perform the ordinary work of the dairy, there are certain duties of the wursol, such as those at the funeral ceremonies, which may only be performed by a Teivali occupant of the office.

The wursol has to go through more complicated ordination ceremonies than the palikartmokh, and has a distinctly higher degree of sanctity so far as one can judge from the rules for his conduct. He may not be touched by any ordinary person, and in general the rules regulating his conduct are more stringent than those for the ordinary dairyman.

The wursol has two dresses; one, the grey garment called tuni, which is worn at his dairy work and kept in the dairy; the other, the ordinary putkuli, which he wears when not engaged at his special work.

The wursol does not sleep in his own dairy, but in one of a different kind, a village which has a wursuli always having at least one other dairy. At Kars he sleeps in the kudrpali, and at Nòdrs in the tarvali. He is allowed to sleep in the hut of a Tarthar village on two nights in the week—viz., Sunday and Wednesday—and on these occasions he may have intercourse with any Tarthar woman. Except on these occasions he loses his office even if touched by a woman. He is not allowed to have intercourse with any Teivali woman, even with his wife if he is married, on pain of becoming an ordinary person.

He may go to any Tarthar village, but to no Teivali village—i.e., if one of the Teivaliol, he is allowed to visit none of his own people.

When he goes to the dwelling-hut, care is taken to remove from the hut the objects shown in Fig. 11—viz., the murn or sieve, the wask or pounder, and the kip or broom. It seems [73]as if these three objects are removed because they are used by women. The emblems of womanhood are not allowed to contaminate the house while the wursol is present, although, at the same time, he is not restricted from intercourse with the women themselves. On the mornings after he has slept in the hut he bathes from head to foot before going to the dairy, and prostrates himself at the threshold before he enters.

If the cloak of the wursol requires cleaning or mending, it may only be taken to the hut for these purposes on the same days as those on which the wursol may sleep there—viz., Sunday or Wednesday.

The food of the wursol is prepared for him by the palikartmokh of the dairy in which he sleeps. The wursol never prepares food either for himself or others, except on the occasion of the festival called irpalvusthi (see Chap. VIII).

Most wursuli have only one room, the exception being the poh at Nòdrs, and the wursuli of Nasmiòdr and Òdr. It is noteworthy that these, however, are three of the most ancient and important dairies of the Todas. The reason why the other wursuli have one room is probably the fact that the wursol is not allowed to sleep in the dairy, and consequently there is no necessity for an outer room. When these dairies have been rebuilt, or new dairies have been made, the Todas have probably not thought it worth while to keep two rooms except at the especially important and sacred places. I was also told, however, that each of the three places which have two rooms had been at one time a ti dairy, and, as we shall see later, dairies of this, the highest, grade always have two rooms.

Another indication of the special sanctity of these three dairies is that at them, and also at the wursuli at Kozhtudi, the wursol must never turn his back on the contents of the dairy—i.e., he must do all his work and go in and out of the dairy facing the place where the mani is kept. The Todas call this proceeding in which the back is never turned on the contents of the dairy “kabkaditi.”

The vessels of the wursuli are divided, like those of the ordinary dairy, into those of the patatmar and those of the [74]ertatmar. The following sketch of the arrangement was made by Kòdrner, but I do not feel confident of its accuracy.

FIG. 22.

• A. Patatmar.
• B. Ertatmar.
• C. The mani or bell.
• D. The pelk or lamp.
• E. Waskal or fireplace.
• F. The door.

The lamp is of iron, bought in the bazaar: it is called tudrkpelk or tagarspelk, according as it is hung by a hook or on a chain. This distinction probably holds for other village dairies.

The dairy work of the wursol is carried out on the same general lines as that of the palikartmokh, but the order and method of the various operations are more strictly regulated. Before the wursol goes into the dairy in the morning he washes his hands with water from the vessel called kepun,5 bows down at the threshold and enters the dairy; salutes the mani (kaimukhti), goes to the ertatmar and touches the majpariv; then to the patatmar and touches the patat. Then, after lighting the fire, he takes the mu off the patat, and, if the milk has coagulated, he begins to churn. After churning for a little while he puts some of the coagulated milk on the mani. After the churning is over, he milks, putting some of the first milk on the bell.

FIG. 23.—THE ‘WURSOL’ OF KARS, KERNPISI (56), STANDING BY THE SIDE OF HIS DAIRY.

After the milking is finished, buttermilk is distributed to the women, and a mixture of milk and buttermilk is given to the men, who come to drink it standing outside the dairy. The wursol then drinks buttermilk and eats. When taking [75]buttermilk he pours it from the vessel called ertatpun into the leaf6 from which he drinks. When he goes to attend to the buffaloes, he leaves the tuni in the dairy and puts on his putkuli in a special way which is only adopted by the wursol and only by him when engaged in looking after the buffaloes. Placing one end of the cloak over the left shoulder, he brings the other end under the right arm, and, taking this end in his right hand, throws it round the back of his neck so that it rests on the left shoulder. The result of this adjustment is that the front part of his body is uncovered as shown in Fig. 23. I could not ascertain why the wursol should wear his cloak in this special way, nor why this method of wearing the garment should be peculiar to his office.7 [76]

In the afternoon the wursol again washes his hands, bows down to the threshold and enters the dairy, salutes the mani, touches the majpariv and patat as in the morning, and lights the fire. He then lights the lamp, and prays, using the prayer of the village. Then he churns and “feeds the bell,” but his procedure differs from that of the morning in that he distributes the buttermilk at this stage of the proceedings. When he milks he puts some of the first milk on the bell, and when he shuts up the buffaloes in their enclosure (tu) for the night, he recites the same prayer as when lighting the lamp. He then takes his food, eating it outside the dairy, puts his tuni on the patatmar, and goes to rest.

The procedure thus differs from that of the tarvali and kudrpali in that the dairy vessels are touched ceremonially at the beginning of both morning and evening operations. The wursuli resembles the other dairies, however, in that prayer is offered in the evening only. The differences are less pronounced in ritual than in the rules of conduct.

The people of Taradr have a special institution which is in many ways intermediate between the dairies of the village and the institution to be described in the next chapter—the ti.

The buffaloes connected with this institution are known as the kugvalir. They are said to belong to the whole of the Tartharol, but this only seems to mean that they are so important that every Toda looks up to them and feels that they are in some measure his. It does not mean that every Toda has a voice in their management or share in their produce.

The people of Taradr are divided into six families (pòlm), and each family has charge of the kugvalir in turn for periods of three years, the head of the family having the chief direction. At the present time they are in charge of Siriar (20), having only recently passed to his family.

The head of the family in charge appoints the dairyman, who is called kugvalikartmokh. This dairyman must be a [77]member of the Taradr clan, but need not necessarily be a member of the family in charge.

FIG. 24.—THE ‘KUGVALI’ OF TARADR. ON ITS LEFT IS THE ‘KWOTARS,’ AND ON THE EXTREME RIGHT, UNDER THE TREE, IS THE ‘KUSH.’ THE FLAT STONE TO THE RIGHT OF THE ‘KUGVALI’ IS THE ‘PÜDRSHTIKARS’ (see p. 654).

Each of the chief Taradr villages has a special dairy for the kugvalir. It is called the kugvali (kugpali) or chief dairy (kug = etud = chief), and it was said to be the chief of all the dairies. All these dairies have one room only, except that at Taradr itself, where there are two rooms. These dairies do not at present differ in form or general appearance from dairies of other kinds. The kugvali at Taradr is shown in Fig. 24, and it is the dairy on the right-hand side of Fig. 5.

The kugvalir have one feature peculiar to themselves. They are never recruited from any other herd. Even the buffaloes of the ti often have additions to their number, especially through the ceremony of irnörtiti (Chap. XIII), but in no circumstances are any additions from outside made to the kugvalir.

There is a legend that the original buffaloes of this herd [78]were sent from Amnòdr8 by the god Ön to the people of Taradr. A long time after they came to Taradr the herd was on the point of dying out, only one cow buffalo remaining, which was so old that it had lost its teeth. This sole survivor was pregnant, and when about to calve the delivery was much delayed, and it seemed that the buffalo would die before the calf was born. Only women were present and they cut open the belly of the buffalo and took out the calf, which was tended very carefully and lived, and the existing kugvalir are descended from this calf.

This story preserves a tradition of the practice of women attending to the buffaloes at the time of calving, which is said to have been at one time the regular practice.

The kugvalikartmokh sleeps in the kwotars or calf-house, except at Taradr, at which place he sleeps in the outer room of his dairy. He is allowed to sleep in the ordinary hut on certain nights in the week, and may only have intercourse with Tarthar women.

He wears the grey garment, or tuni, which he ties round his waist when churning and wears over his shoulders when milking.

The work of the dairy is carried out on the same general lines as that already described, but with certain distinguishing features.

All the work is done kabkaditi; the dairyman never turns his back to the contents of the dairy. In those villages in which he sleeps in the calf-house he goes naked (except for the kuvn) to the kugvali, washes his hands, prostrates himself at the threshold, enters, and puts on his tuni which is kept on the patatmar. He salutes the mani which he feeds with curd and milk as in other dairies. He also knocks on the patat three times, saying “Oñ” each time.

As in the other village dairies, he only prays and lights the lamp in the evening. When he gives out buttermilk, he must use the vessel called pòlmachok. He drinks buttermilk (peputi) in a distinctly more ceremonial manner than in the ordinary dairy, sitting on the seat (kwottün) outside the dairy, and pouring from the ertatpun into a leaf-cup made of two [79]leaves of the kind called kakuders. He drinks three times only, raising the leaves to his forehead and saying “Oñ” each time.

In this more definite ceremonial when drinking buttermilk, we have a transition to the ritual of the ti, and this resemblance to the procedure of the ti is still more marked in the following features. In addition to the kugvalir, the kugvalikartmokh has certain ordinary buffaloes, putiir, to provide milk for his personal use, and these buffaloes are milked in a special vessel called kuvun (kupun). This vessel is also used to transfer butter and buttermilk from the patatmar to the ertatmar, i.e., buttermilk is not poured directly from the patatpun into the majpariv, but poured from the former into the kuvun and from this into the majpariv, and similarly the butter is transferred from patatpun to penpariv by means of the same vessel.

Another dairy-temple which occupies an exceptional position is the poh at Kanòdrs. This is a dairy of the conical form, shown in Fig. 25, which differs from that of Nòdrs in being surrounded by two walls (katu), both of which are shown in the photograph.

According to one account the people of Kanòdrs borrowed martir from Kars to be milked at this dairy, but at the present time, when the dairy is occupied, the cattle milked are those called nashperthir.

The dairyman at this poh is called pohkartpol and must be a Kanòdrs man. During my visit, the dairy was not occupied and the office of pohkartpol was vacant. At the present time a dairyman is appointed about once a year and holds office for thirty or forty days only. So far as I could ascertain, the failure to occupy the dairy constantly is due to the very considerable hardships and restrictions which have to be endured by the holder of the office of dairyman, and the time is probably not far distant when this dairy, one of the most sacred among the Todas, will cease altogether to be used. [80]

FIG. 25.—THE ‘POH’ OF KANÒDRS. THE TWO WALLS ARE SHOWN.

When a pohkartpol is in office he is allowed to have one companion, who is a perol, or ordinary person, i.e., he undergoes no special ordination ceremony. With the exception of the two men, no one is allowed to go near the building for any purpose. When I visited the place, my guide stayed a considerable distance away from and out of sight of the dairy while I went with my interpreter to inspect the building and its surroundings. The pohkartpol and his companion sleep in the kwotars, or calf-house, in which there is a bed (tün) for each. This building has no door and is a very flimsy structure, so that sleeping in it can differ very little from sleeping in the open air. There is a fireplace between the two beds, but its warmth can hardly be sufficient for any degree of comfort. Further, the pohkartpol may only wear the tuni, a very scanty garment as compared with the putkuli. The pohkartpol must be celibate while in office, and his companion, [81]must also be celibate while at the dairy. The pohkartpol must take his food sitting on the outer wall which surrounds the dairy. He must not put his hand to his mouth, but must throw his food in; nor must he put the leaf used as a cup to his lips, but must pour into his mouth from above.

Several of these rules and restrictions are even more severe than those for the palol, to be considered in the next chapter. The reason given for the strictness of ritual is that the god Kwoto or Meilitars “had done so many wonderful things on that side” (see Chapter IX).

One feature peculiar to the Kanòdrs dairy is that milk receives the special name persin. This is the name of the churning-vessel of the ti, but is not used for milk in any other dairy. Otherwise the names used at Kanòdrs are the same as at other village dairies.

The inhabitants of the ti rise before it is light, probably about five a.m., and on getting up from the bed some say “ekirzam meidjam.”2 The kaltmokh goes at once to open the tu in which the buffaloes have been penned for the night. The palol salutes with hand to forehead when he leaves the sleeping-hut and goes to the front of the dairy, where there is water standing in a bamboo vessel called papun, corresponding to the kepun of the village dairy. He washes his hands and face, and then washes out his mouth by taking up water with his right hand, pouring into his left, and taking the water into his mouth from the latter. It is noticeable that the palol uses his left hand for this purpose of personal cleanliness, and not the right hand, which is chiefly used in his sacred work. He then ties up his straggling hair at the back of his head, bows down at the threshold of his dairy and enters, in some cases saying “ekirzam meidjam” as he does so.

When the palol enters the outer room of the dairy, he transfers fire from the tòratthwaskal, where it has been burning all night, to the other fireplace, the pelkkatitthwaskal, and then takes off the kubuntuni, which has been his covering during the night and puts the pòdrshtuni round his loins. He lights the lamp by means of three pieces of wood of the kind called kid, taken from the pelkkatitthwaskal, and while so doing begins to pray, using the prayer of the ti. After lighting the lamp, and while still continuing to pray, he takes up the persinkudriki and knocks with it on the middle of the three vessels called persin, going from one persin to another, when he pauses to take breath. I had the greatest difficulty in finding out exactly what happened in connexion with this [93]prayer, but after I had settled on the foregoing description as correct I was allowed one day by the kaltmokh to go near the dairy while the palol was praying, and was able to hear the beating on the earthenware vessel with each word of the prayer.

The next step is to take up the pohvet and place it against the wall, and then the palol begins to churn the coagulated milk in the middle persin, milk in this state being here called kudabpol instead of adrpars, as in the ordinary dairy.

In those cases in which the mani is ‘fed,’ the palol puts kudabpol on the bell shortly after beginning to churn. This is done three times, the syllable Oñ being uttered each time. When the palol does anything three times in this way, he says that he does it mushtiu. This expression for ‘thrice’ is not used in the ordinary dairy.

The next steps are to pour into the kwoi and karitòrzum most of the coagulated milk which has been broken up by the churning, to add to the milk remaining in the persin some persinpen, or butter especially kept for the purpose in the peptòrzum, to add water, and to churn the mixture of coagulated milk, water, and butter in the middle persin. When the new butter is formed, the palol pours out the buttermilk into the vessel called idrkwoi, keeping back the butter with his hand. The buttermilk is transferred from the idrkwoi to one of the alug in the outer room. Some of the milk which had been put into the kwoi or karitòrzum is then poured back into the middle persin, more water is added, and the mixture is churned, after which the buttermilk is again transferred by means of the idrkwoi to the alug, while the butter is kept in the persin. This procedure is repeated till all the milk of the middle persin has been churned.

The persin on the right-hand side of the palol is then taken, and its position exchanged with that of the vessel hitherto used, and the churning is continued in exactly the same manner. The buttermilk is transferred to the alug, but the butter when formed is transferred to the persin, which had been originally in the middle. When the contents of the second persin have been churned, the third persin is placed in the middle and the same procedure is followed, so that when [94]the churning is over all the butter which has been formed will be in the persin which was originally in the middle. Some of this butter is put into the peptòrzum to act as persinpen on another occasion, and the remainder is transferred to the butter alug by means of the idrkwoi. The two tòrzum are then put on the tops of two of the persin as covers, the peptòrzum being placed on the middle persin and the palol takes the milking-vessel (kwoi) and wand (kwoinörtpet) in his right hand and goes out to milk, having first put some buttermilk, called pep, into the kwoi.

When the palol leaves the dairy, he raises the milking-vessel and wand to his forehead and salutes in the way shown in Fig. 27. The Todas say that he is saluting the sun and the buffaloes. It is probable that, in general, the palol faces approximately east as he salutes, but there is no doubt that, at the present time, his salutation is chiefly to the buffaloes. He salutes in the same direction both morning and evening, and certainly pays no attention to the direction in which the sun lies.

This salutation is now often done in a very perfunctory manner. The vessel and wand may be raised hastily to the forehead for a few seconds only as the palol goes towards his buffaloes, and I am doubtful whether the salutation is ever performed exactly as shown in the figure, for the vessel contains some of the buttermilk called pep, which might be spilt if the vessel were held quite horizontally.

When the palol salutes, he says “Oñ” three times, and repeats two or three clauses of the dairy prayer, usually the kwarzam of the more important gods of the dairy.

When going to milk and when going from one buffalo to another, the kwoi and kwoinörtpet are always held together in the right hand. When the kwoi is filled, it is taken into the dairy. If it is the custom of the dairy to put milk on the mani, this is now done three times, saying “Oñ” each time, and then the milk is poured into the middle persin, the kwoi being held in the left hand, and the palol goes out again to refill the kwoi. When all the persinir have been milked, the milk of the three persin is mixed together by pouring from one to the other. The reason for this is that the buttermilk, called pep, [95]is only taken out in the kwoi on first going to milk, and in consequence the pep would affect the milk of the middle persin only if its contents were not mixed with those of the vessels filled later.

FIG. 27.—THE ‘PALOL,’ KARKIEVAN, SALUTING AT MÒDR. HE IS STANDING IN THE ‘PEPKARMUS.’ THE BUILDING NEXT TO THE ‘PALOL’ IS THE ‘TI POH’; THAT ON THE RIGHT IS THE ‘KARENPOH,’ AND BETWEEN IT AND THE ‘TI POH’ CAN BE SEEN THE HUT WHERE THE INHABITANTS OF THE ‘TI MAD’ SLEEP.

The palol next goes out to milk the punir, taking for this purpose the vessel called karpun and an ordinary wand, the kwoi and kwoinörtpet being only used for the more sacred buffaloes. There was some difference of opinion as to what should be done with the milk of the punir. According to [96]some it may be used to fill the persin if these are not filled by the milk of the persinir; according to others it is wrong to do this, and the milk of punir should on no account be put in the more sacred vessels of the inner room. I think there is no doubt that at the Nòdrs ti at any rate the first procedure is followed. At this ti the punir outnumber the persinir by far, and it is probable that the milk of the former is used to supplement that of the more sacred buffaloes, although it is contrary to tradition that this should be done.

The three persin being filled, the tòrzum are again put on as covers, and the palol takes up the wand called pohvet, and prays, standing in front of the screen (patun) with his hands lying over one another cross-wise on the top of the stick as shown in Fig. 28. He recites the full prayer of the ti, then replaces the pohvet between the persinand the patun and this act of replacing the wand marks the end of the more sacred part of the dairy operations. If a Toda wishes to ascertain if the work of the dairy is over, he asks, “Has he taken the pohvet?”

FIG. 28.—TO SHOW THE ATTITUDE ADOPTED BY THE ‘PALOL’ WHEN PRAYING.

The palol now unties his hair, sees to anything necessary in connexion with his food, fills the uppun with buttermilk, and then leaves his dairy and goes to sit on the seat called pohvelkars on one side of the door of the dairy, viz., on the opposite side to that on which the mani is placed. At Mòdr he sits on the stone on the right side of the door when going [97]in (K in Fig. 26), and the fact that he does so is one of the reasons which make it probable that the arrangement of the poh of that place is as I have given it in the plan.

When the palol has seated himself on the pohvelkars, he calls out to the kaltmokh “Kaizhvatitva,” “Come here and pour buttermilk!” When the kaltmokh comes, the palol gives the uppun to the boy, who says three times “Kaizhvatkina”, “Shall I pour buttermilk?” and the palol replies each time, “Vat!” The kaltmokh pours from the uppun into a cup made of the leaf called kakuders held by the palol, who drinks after raising to his forehead. This is repeated till the palol is satisfied, when the leaf-cup from which he has been drinking is thrown away,3 and he goes again into the outer room to get food. He gives food to the kaltmokh, who eats it in the sleeping-hut, while the palol himself eats sitting on the pohvelkars. If any mòrol (see p. 107) are present, they are fed at this stage with buttermilk and food by the kaltmokh, who gives them the buttermilk out of the mòrpun, pouring it into leaf-cups as when giving to the palol.

The rest of the morning is passed in looking after the buffaloes, cutting firewood, plucking leaves used as cups and plates, or doing any other work connected with the ti.

In the afternoon the palol returns to his dairy and goes through the same operations as in the morning, except that he fetches water from the kwoinir early in the proceedings, usually bringing enough for the work of that afternoon and of the next morning. He churns the milk drawn in the morning, and when the time for milking has arrived, the buffaloes will have returned to the milking-place, and as soon as they arrive their calves are let out from the house (karenpoh) in which they have been kept.

When the churning and milking are over, the buffaloes are shut up in the tu for the night. The palol then takes buttermilk as in the morning, and both he and the kaltmokh take their food. The latter eats his food in the sleeping-hut as in [98]the morning, and the palol does not enter till the boy has finished. As the palol enters, the kaltmokh says “Oñ” thrice, takes the horn or horns, and standing at the door blows three times (if there are two horns, three times on each horn), and then re-enters the hut and all go to rest.

In the afternoon the palol prays three times; when lighting the lamp, and after milking and filling the three persin as in the morning, and again after shutting up the buffaloes in the tu for the night, when he stands in front of the entrance to the pen. In each case he uses the whole of the ordinary prayer of the dairy. He also utters a few clauses of the prayer when going out to milk. These prayers will be given in Chap. X.

The palol, who must belong to the Teivaliol, is chosen by the members of the Tarthar clan to which the ti belongs. He may hold office for as long as he pleases up to eighteen years, and, according to some accounts, he might continue in office even after this period, though there is no case known in which this has happened.

The usual duration of office seems now to be only two or three years, though a man may often be reappointed either to the same or another ti. At the time of my visit, one palol had been continuously in office for sixteen years, another for six years, and the rest for shorter periods. At the present time the office of palol is vacant at several dairies owing to the difficulty of obtaining qualified occupants.

During the whole time he holds office, the palol may not visit his home or any other ordinary village, though he may visit another ti village. Any business with the outside world is done either through the kaltmokh or with people who come to visit him at the ti. All business with the Badagas is transacted through a special man of this caste called the tikelfmav. If the palol has to cross a river, he may not pass by a bridge, but must use a ford; and it appears that he may only use certain fords; thus it is easy to cross the Paikara river just above the bridge, but the palol of the Nòdrs [99]ti was not allowed to do so and had to use a ford nearer to the dairy at Mòdr.

The palol must be celibate, and if married, he must leave his wife, who is in most cases also the wife of his brother or brothers. According to the account given by Finicio in 1603, the palol could send for his wife and meet her in a wood every week or so and might also send for the wives of any other Todas. It is possible that this may still happen, but I failed to obtain an account of it and understood that the palol was really celibate. According to Finicio the restriction to which the palol is subject is that he may not touch a woman in the house. We have seen that in the lowest rank of the dairyman-priesthood intercourse with women in the house is allowed at any time and in the higher ranks only on certain days of the week. It is quite consistent with this that in the highest rank intercourse in the house should be altogether forbidden, but might still be allowed in the forest, and it is quite possible that Finicio is correct. I was unacquainted with his account at the time of my visit, and all other writers had been so unanimous as to the complete celibacy of the palol that I did not press my inquiries on this point very closely.

If a death occurs in the clan of a palol, he cannot attend any of the funeral ceremonies unless he gives up his office. If he resigns he is not again eligible for the office till the second funeral ceremonies have been completed. When a man of one clan gives up his office in this way, his place must be taken by a man of some other clan. Karkievan of Piedr was palol of the Nòdrs ti eighteen years ago and resigned when his wife died, his place being taken by Tulchievan of Kusharf. Two years later Karkievan resumed office and has been palol continuously since that time. Though there have been many deaths among the Piedrol, he has not attended a funeral, and has not, therefore, had to resign his post again.

In old times, it seems probable that it was usual to give up the office of palol when there was a death in the clan. According to tradition, the division of the Keadrol into the Keadrol and Kwaradrol by Kwoten (see Chap. IX) was ordained in order that there might still be men to undertake the office of palol when there was a death in the clan, the men of the [100]Keadrol taking office when there was a death among the Kwaradrol and vice versa.

It has been stated by several writers on the Todas that the palol does not profit in any way by his sacred office. I made most careful inquiries on this point, and there seemed to be no doubt that the palol may often make a considerable income from the sale of the ghi made from the milk of the herd under his charge; one palol was stated to make six rupees a week in this way, and while he has been in office is said to have increased his own herd (i.e., that of his own family) by no less than twenty-five buffaloes. In one recent case, a man has resigned the post of palol to the Pan ti because he found the income was too small.

According to my informant, Kaners, a man used always to accept the office of palol unwillingly. When the offer came to him, he would say, “I cannot leave my buffaloes; I cannot leave my wife and my children.” Then the people would say, “You are born for the ti; it is your birthright; you must not refuse”; and the man would reluctantly consent. Now the Todas are in more need of money than they used to be, and there is no difficulty in obtaining candidates for those dairies at which the pecuniary advantages are sufficiently great, so that people will now beg to be appointed as palol to certain dairies, and it is even whispered that bribes have been offered in order to obtain office. There is no doubt whatever that the pecuniary reward is the chief inducement to people to undertake the charge.

The Nòdrs ti has the largest herd of buffaloes, and I was told that this ti is very much coveted, while others which have few buffaloes are unable to obtain a palol at all. My Teivali friends invariably talked about the ti in exactly the same kind of way that an Englishman talks about a benefice.

At the present time there are several instances in which the office of palol is vacant, and there seems to be a growing difficulty in filling many of these places. There is little doubt that the chief reason for this is that the herds have become very small, so that the resulting profit does not offer sufficient inducement; but there is also no doubt that the exclusion from the home and the limitation of intercourse [101]with the world in general act as deterrents to those who are thinking of becoming candidates for the vacant places.

Another point about which several writers have erred is in supposing that the palol is important in the general government of the Todas and in stating that the Todas go to him for counsel and advice. I inquired into this very carefully, and there seemed to be no doubt whatever that the palol has absolutely no functions outside the management of his dairy and of ceremonies connected with it. He has no place on the naim, or council, and only appears before it as defendant or witness in matters connected with the ti. I could not ascertain that any one ever consults the palol on any business except that of the ti, and outside his office he has nothing whatever to do, and is little thought of by the Todas. The sanctity attaching to the palol and the reverence paid to him are attached and paid wholly to the holder of the office and not at all to the man.

The ordinary Toda may only approach the palol on two days of the week, Monday and Thursday. On other days, if he wishes to communicate, he must stand a considerable distance from the ti—it was said as much as a quarter of a mile—and carry on his conversation from this distance. I had, however, the opportunity of observing that the distance was diminished on some occasions.

On no account may a palol ever be touched by an ordinary person. A palol becomes himself an ordinary person, or perol, if either he or his dairy should be touched by any unconsecrated person. Recently Nòdrners (67) lost the office of palol to the warsir at the Nòdrs ti, because a Tamil man went to his dairy while he was out looking after his buffaloes; he was soon reappointed, but to another ti.

The Toda who approaches the palol must go kevenarut, i.e., with his right arm out of the cloak, and there is a definite form of salutation which is different for Tartharol and Teivaliol. When one of the former approaches, the palol says “Bañ,” and the Tarthar man replies “Ir kaûdâ,” literally “Buffalo, calf, have you?” To one of the Kuudrol, the chief Teivali clan, the palol says the kwarzam, or sacred name of Kuudr, followed by the word idith, i.e., he utters the words Ivikanmokh [102]kûtmeil teu idith. When any other Teivali man approaches, the palol says “Pekein,” but all the Teivaliol reply with the same formula as the Tartharol. If a Tarthar man and a Teivali man approach the palol together, the former will be greeted first. The palol greets the man to whose division the buffaloes belong before the man of his own clan or division.

If a Toda is in the condition called ichchil, i.e., has been defiled in connexion with funeral or other ceremonies, it was said that he might not approach the palol. I had an interesting example, however, of the way in which a regulation of this kind is observed. While Teitnir(52) had ichchil, owing to the fact that the funeral ceremonies of a relative had not been completed, he went with me to the Mòdr ti one day and approached within a few yards of the palol. He had taken off the semi-European clothing he often wore, and had his right arm bare, but no greeting of any kind took place between him and the palol; the latter did not recognise his presence in any way and behaved as if Teitnir were not there. On this occasion Teitnir was ichchil on account of the death of a more or less distant relative. Later his wife died, and then there seemed to be no doubt that he would not under any circumstances have approached the ti or the palol.

There are several regulations concerning the food of the palol. Any grain he eats must be that provided by the Badagas. At the present time more rice is eaten than was formerly the case. This is not grown by the Badagas, but nevertheless the rice for the palol must be obtained through them. The palol may drink milk, but only that from the buffaloes called punir. He must take his food sitting on the seat, or pohvelkars, outside the dairy, and, as we have seen, he uses for this purpose the seat which is not on the same side as the mani. He usually prepares the food himself and cooks it on the fireplace called tòratthwaskal in the outer room of dairy; but there is also a fireplace outside the dairy which is used sometimes, especially when food has to be prepared for many people, and then the palol may be assisted by the kaltmokh. If food is prepared by the kaltmokh, the fireplace outside the dairy must be used. [103]

The only food which the palol is altogether forbidden is chillies.

The palol wears garments of the kind called tuni, of a dark grey material made at Nulturs in the Coimbatore district. They are brought to the palol by the Badaga called tikelfmav.4 Each palol has two of these garments. One is worn as a loincloth and is called pòdrshtuni. It is only worn when definitely engaged in dairy-work and on certain ceremonial occasions, and at other times is kept in the outer room of the dairy. The other garment is called kubuntuni, and is worn like the ordinary cloak, but always with the right arm out (kevenarut). It is worn when not engaged on sacred business, and on a few occasions is worn together with the pòdrshtuni. The small perineal cloth ordinarily called kuvn is made of the same material as the tuni and is called kagurs at the ti, while the string which passes round the waist and holds the kagurs in place is called kwainur or kwoinur.

I was told that the palol should never cut his hair or his nails while he is in office.

If a palol has held office for eighteen years without a break, he performs a special ceremony. The essential feature of this ceremony is that the palol has intercourse in the day-time with a girl or young woman who must belong to the Tartharol. The woman is chosen by the palol and the matter is arranged by the clan to which the ti belongs. On the appointed day the woman is brought to a village near the dairy at which the palol is living; if he is at Mòdr, for instance, the woman will come to the adjacent village of Perththo. She must bathe carefully and be adorned with all possible ornaments and fine clothing. After the work of the morning is over, the palol gives rice and milk to the kaltmokh and tells him to have food ready for him when he returns at night. He then goes covered with his kubuntuni to a wood near the village, where the woman will be awaiting him. Later the woman returns to the village and the palol remains in the [104]wood completely naked till sunset, when he dresses and returns to the neighbourhood of his dairy, but remains in an adjoining wood till midnight. He then bathes in a stream and going to the dairy calls “Kaltmokhia!” twice. The kaltmokh comes out of the sleeping hut and brings a stone resembling the pohvelkars, on which the palol sits, and the kaltmokh pours buttermilk (kaizhvatiti) for the palol according to the customary ritual. Then the kaltmokh brings the papun, and the palol washes his hands and goes to rest. There was some difference of opinion among the Todas as to whether the palol would continue to hold office after this ceremony. He undoubtedly returns to his work, but it seemed probable that he would retire after a short time and his place be taken by another. In this ceremony the celibate priest after eighteen years of office has intercourse with a woman belonging to the division not his own. This takes place in the day-time, the palol thus committing an act which is ordinarily regarded by the Todas as immoral.5

The last occasion on which this ceremony was performed was when it was done by Kodrizbon, who lived before the time of the grandfather of Kaners, who is himself an old man. Karkievan has now been palol of the Nòdrs ti for sixteen years, and there was already at the time of my visit much talk among the Todas about the ceremony which he might be expected to perform two years later.

A man who has given up the office of palol is known as patol. It was quite clear that, on resigning office, he entirely lost his sanctity, and it did not seem that he derived any great social importance from having held the sacred office. I could find no instance of a man who had been palol having any special influence or power either in his clan or among the Todas generally. Only in one way are the patol important, and that is as repositories of the knowledge of the dairy ritual, and any man about to enter on the office of palol will learn the details of the ritual from those who have held office before him.

I could learn of one privilege only pertaining to a patol. [105]He is allowed to go to the ti mad on the day called upkarvnol, after the ponup ceremony (see Chap. VIII), and on that occasion he receives food from the palol.

The kaltmokh is usually a boy, but he may occasionally continue to hold office till he is about twenty years of age. He must belong either to the Teivaliol or to the Melgarsol. He is a general assistant to the palol, and has also certain definitely assigned duties, such as giving buttermilk to the palol and blowing the horns at night. He also takes part in several important ceremonies.

When away from the dairy and its immediate surroundings he wears an ordinary cloak, but always with his right arm outside. When engaged in his work at the dairy or in the pül of the ti, he must be naked except for the kuvn. When he has been away from the ti he may not return by the path used by the palol, but must use a special path, carrying the cloak folded and hung over his shoulder. At the Mòdr dairy, however, I noticed that the kaltmokh sometimes kept his cloak in a tree just outside the ti mad, and then went in and out by the same path as the palol.

The kaltmokh sleeps in the same hut as the palol, from whom he receives his food. When there are two palol and only one kaltmokh, the two dairymen divide the duty of feeding the boy between them.

The kaltmokh never goes into the dairy, but he may put his hand into the outer room to take out those vessels which he is allowed to touch. He may never touch the vessels of the inner room.

There are two grades in the office of kaltmokh, a lower called perkursol and a higher called tunitusthkaltmokh or full kaltmokh. The latter wears a piece of tuni called petuni on the left side of the string (kerk) supporting the perineal cloth.

The perkursol is allowed to go to certain places and do certain things which are not allowed to the full kaltmokh. Whenever it is necessary that the kaltmokh should do any of [106]the forbidden things, or even if he is likely to be in such a position that he may have to do these things, he becomes perkursol. This he does by throwing off the petuni and dipping one leg either into the pool of water called tarupunkudi (see p. 177) or into the dairy stream (pali nipa) of an ordinary dairy (if he dipped his leg into the ars nipa, or part of a stream used for ordinary household purposes, he would at once lose his office entirely and become an ordinary person). As soon as he has dipped his foot, he becomes perkursol and may do the following things summed up in the general expression tarskwarârkûdthodi. He may pass a village where there is a woman in the seclusion-hut (puzhars), or where the relics of the dead are being kept between the two funeral ceremonies; he may go to a place where the people have been in communication with a village in which either of these conditions exist; he may pass a river by a bridge, and he may go to the wursuli of a Tarthar village. If the full kaltmokh does any of these things, even unwittingly, he would at once become an ordinary person (perol). The kaltmokh degrades himself to the rank of perkursol even when there is merely the danger that he may infringe any of the restrictions; thus, one day when there was a woman at Karia who was in seclusion after childbirth, the kaltmokh at Mòdr, Katsog (55), was going to the hut of the forest guard near Paikara. He would not have to pass Karia, but there was a chance that the forest guard might have been in communication with the people of Karia, and therefore Katsog became perkursol. A perkursol is regarded as of the same rank as a wursol, and the people spoke of perkursol as a ti word for wursol—i.e., a wursol at the ti was called perkursol, just as a madth (churn) at the ti was called kòghlag. In order to regain his rank as full kaltmokh, the perkursol has to perform the same ceremony as that which takes place at the end of the ordination to this office (see Chap. VII).

While the kaltmokh is degraded to the rank of perkursol he may not touch any dairy vessels; he may not pour buttermilk for the palol, nor may he blow the horns—i.e., he may do none of the more important and sacred duties of his office. [107]

I have said that no ordinary Toda is allowed to approach the palol except certain days, and then may only go to a certain place in the surroundings of the ti. There is, however, one very remarkable exception to this rule, the members of certain clans having the privilege of going to the ti at any time and taking buttermilk (mòr). Owing to the latter privilege they are always known as mòrol.

The most important mòrol are the members of the Melgars clan, and at the Nòdrs ti they are the only people possessing these peculiar rights. A Melgars man may go to the ti on every day of the week, when he enters the small enclosure in which the dairy is situated, going, however, by a special opening at the back so that he does not actually pass the dairy and sits down in front of or may enter the sleeping hut. He is given buttermilk by the kaltmokh after it has been given to the palol, and he also receives food. At the Nòdrs ti the two palol divide the responsibility of providing food between them; if four mòrol come, each palol gives food for two men.

The rights of the Melgarsol appear to be exercised very constantly. I rarely visited the Mòdr ti without finding several mòrol present, and so far as I could observe they made the most of their privileges and enjoyed themselves well. It was very remarkable to see several Todas making themselves quite at home at the ti, while other Todas were standing outside wholly prohibited from entering into the life of the place. On one occasion when I visited Mòdr, the brother of one palol was standing without at the appointed spot waiting till the business of the morning was over, while several mòrol were within enjoying their privileges to the full.

The Melgarsol have certain other rights and duties in connexion with the ti, and especially on the occasion of the procession which takes place when the buffaloes migrate from one place to another (see Chap. VI), after which ceremony the mòrol sleep at the ti mad. At some dairies members of other clans may act as mòrol, but in no case do they occupy quite so privileged a position as the people of Melgars. Thus, at [108]the Kars and the Pan ti the people of Kars are mòrol, but they may only visit the ti and take buttermilk and are not allowed to sleep there, nor have they any of the special ceremonial duties of the Melgarsol.

When the dairy of a ti mad needs to be repaired or rebuilt, this is done by Melgars men, who must previously undergo an ordination ceremony of the same character as that for the office of wursol, and the men rank as wursol while engaged in the work. The hut of the ti mad is also repaired or rebuilt by the Melgarsol, but in this case the work is done without any special ceremony. In either case the Melgars men are not allowed to leave the ti mad, and they sleep in the living hut while the work is being done.

Another duty of the Melgarsol is to assist in carrying the corpse of palol who has died in office.

On the occasion of the teutütusthchi ceremony in 1902, when the palol and kaltmokh left the dairy at Mòdr for several hours, I found a Melgars man in the neighbourhood of the dairy, and it seemed to me that he was watching the dairy while the regular guardians were away. I was told however, that this was not one of the recognised duties of a mòrol, and I suspected that he was stationed at Mòdr at the time of my visit, because it was feared that I might take advantage of the absence of the palol to make a closer inspection of the dairy than was allowed.

The earthenware vessels of the inner room (persin and tòrzum) are procured from Hindus through the Badagas. They were formerly obtained from a place called Kulpet (Kundapeta), near Nanjankudi in Mysore, and I was told that the Todas used to go down to fetch them.

The earthenware vessels of the outer room (alug) are obtained from the Kotas like those of the ordinary dairy. The churn or kòghlag is made by the Todas themselves from the slender bamboo growing on the hills.

The material out of which the bamboo vessels (kwoi, idrkwoi, karpun, uppun) are made, is procured from a place [109]called Ebenput(?) near Musinigudi. When new vessels are required, and there is only one kaltmokh, a second is appointed, who goes to Ebenput, where he cuts bamboo called kôli, which is large enough for the dairy vessels. The bamboo is taken by the kaltmokh to the ti, and the new vessels are manufactured by the palol.

It is possible for the kaltmokh to go to Ebenput and back in one day, but if unable to do this he may stay the night at Taradr, the nearest etudmad to Musinigudi. The bamboo for the new vessels, however, must not be taken to Taradr, but must be left in a wood near the village, and taken on to the ti mad on the following day.

Any new vessels or implements must be purified before being used. The earthenware vessels of the inner room are taken from the Badagas who bring them, and are rubbed over, inside and out, with the bark of the tudr tree, after which the bark is put inside the vessel, water is poured in three times, saying “Oñ,” and the contents rinsed round and poured out. Water is then put in the vessel, which is placed for a time on the fireplace to make it look old, the fireplace used being the pelkkatitthwaskal. The kòghlag or churning stick is purified by rubbing tudr bark over it and pouring water all over it three times. The churning stick and the earthenware vessels of the inner room are both purified in the outer room of the dairy, and the purification must be performed on a Sunday.

The kwoi is purified on the same day of the week in front of the buffalo enclosure or tu. After churning, the palol takes the new kwoi, and a tòrzum full of water, and purifies the former with tudr bark and water three times in the way already described. He then milks into the new kwoi for the first time, and on this occasion he must be careful not to fill the vessel completely.

The idrkwoi is purified in the same manner as the other vessels and also on a Sunday, but the purification is performed at the junction of the inner and outer rooms of the dairy.

New vessels and other objects belonging to the outer room are purified with the same procedure in their own room, but on a Tuesday or Wednesday. [110]

The kwoi or milking vessel is the only vessel which is not purified inside the dairy. With the exception of this vessel all the other objects used in the dairy are purified in the outer room or at the junction of the inner and outer rooms.

All old, broken or worn-out vessels or implements are thrown away except the kwoi, which must be buried in a wood near a dairy. Thus this vessel is treated unlike other contents of the dairy, both when being purified and when rejected as of no further use. I could obtain no explanation of this, and can only suggest that the exceptional treatment is due to the fact that it comes into actual contact with the sacred buffaloes.

At present there are only five ti in existence, belonging to the clans of Nòdrs, Kars, Pan, Kwòdroni, and Nidrsi. The Keradrol are said to have had a ti at one time which was spirited away by the god Kwoto (see Chap. IX) and the name of one of its places, Tîkîrs, is still preserved.

The most important ti belongs to Nòdrs and this is one of the original institutions, the ti of Kars and that of Kwòdrdoni being the others. The Pan ti is derived from that of Nòdrs (see story of Kwoten), and the Nidrsi ti is an offshoot of the Kwòdrdoni institution.

Of these five ti, that of Nòdrs is the only one which still has two palol. The Kars ti has only one palol, and similarly that of Pan. The ti of Kwòdrdoni and Nidrsi are at present unoccupied. At the Kwòdrdoni ti the office is filled once a year for a limited period in order to satisfy certain requirements of the Kotas.

No ti is allowed to be vacant when the final funeral ceremonies are performed for any member of the clan to which the ti belongs, and it is only on the occasion of these ceremonies that palol is now appointed to the Nidrsi ti.

Each ti has certain features of organisation and procedure peculiar to itself. There are certain differences of ritual and differences in the names and kinds of the buffaloes and sacred objects. The history and special features of each ti will now be considered. [111]

The goddess Teikirzi lived at Nòdrs and was its ruler, and Nòdrs was in consequence especially favoured when the various buffaloes were distributed by this deity. When Püv died and Ön went away to Amnòdr (see p. 185), the Nòdrs ti and its buffaloes went with him. Teikirzi, who remained behind, found after a time that it was not good to rule a country without a ti, so she complained to Ön and asked him to send the buffaloes back. He consented and people were sent from Nòdrs to Amnòdr to fetch the buffaloes. Ön gave them the buffaloes and all the things of the ti, and he also gave a milking vessel and a churning stick made of gold. When the men started to bring back the buffaloes, they went some way and then found that they had forgotten the gold vessel and churn given to them by Ön. So they went back and asked Ön for the two things. Ön refused to give them up as they had not been taken at first, and it is believed that they are still in the dairy at Amnòdr.

Ön told the men who returned to ask for the things they had forgotten that the Todas were to make the vessel and churn of bamboo. They were to go to the hill called Teikhars or Kulinkars, where they would find a flower called kavulpuv, and he told them to make a new kòghlag of the same shape as that flower. They did so, and ever since that time the churning-stick both at the ti and at the ordinary village has been made so that it is like the flower kavulpuv.

Another incident which occurred during the journey of the ti buffaloes back from Amnòdr was the birth of a mani. One of the two palol was carrying the dairy vessels of the inner room, and the other was carrying the mani called Keu. When they were about half-way back to this world, the palol who was carrying the dairy vessels found that they had become very heavy, so he put them down, and, taking off the tòrzum which was covering one of the persin, he found a bell in the milk of the persin. So they called the bell Persin because it was the son of a persin, and to this day the bell is fed with milk because it was born in milk. It is the mani which is kept in the ti poh of the Nòdrs ti, while the other [112]mani Keu, carried by the other palol, is kept in the wars poh and this bell, Keu, is not fed with milk.

When the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti returned from Amnòdr, they talked like men. One day when the palol told the kaltmokh to bring the calves, the buffaloes used bad language such as may not be uttered before women; they would not obey the palol, and refused to allow him to milk them. Then Teikirzi found that it was bad that buffaloes should have the tongues of men, and she dragged the tongues out of the mouths of the buffaloes and made them new tongues of tudr bark. The buffaloes could then talk no longer, and they allowed themselves to be milked.

Originally the Nòdrs ti had three places, or ti mad, given to it by Teikirzi: Anto, Òdrtho, and Kulâdrtho. Later the people made other ti mad, and at one time, in addition to the three, they had the following places:—Mòdr, Kudreiil, Majòdr, Mûkòdr, Tidj, Pûth, and Pòos. Several of these are now disused or have disappeared altogether, but are still mentioned in the prayer of the ti. Of the three original places, Kulâdrtho has disappeared and its place is occupied by the Prospect tea estate. The sites of Tidj and Pûth are also occupied by tea estates. The way to Pòos has been blocked by a Kota village, so that the buffaloes would be unable to reach it without being defiled by going through the village, and, in consequence, this dairy is not used. Mukòdr is very close to another ti mad, probably Majòdr, and the palol “were lazy” and allowed it to fall into ruins. There is a conical dairy, now in ruins, near Makurti Peak, which belonged to the Nòdrs ti, and it is possible that this is the dairy of Mukòdr.

The herds now spend the greater part of the year at Mòdr, but still go in most years to Anto, Òdrtho, Kudreiil, and Majòdr at certain seasons.

The Nòdrs ti has two kinds of persinir, the tiir and the warsir, each of which has its own palol. There are also the punir for the special use of the palol. The tiir have three subdivisions, the unir, the atir, and the teirtir, so called because descended from certain buffalo ancestors, or nòdrkutchi, who were connected with Anto, Tidj, and Teir. The warsir, [113]are divided into two groups, the kulatir and the perithir, so called because their nòdrkutchi were connected with Kulâdrtho and Perithi respectively. Teir is close to Mòdr, but does not seem at any time to have been itself a ti mad, and I could not ascertain why it should have given its name to one group of the buffaloes. Perithi is near Gudalur, and in the prayer of Anto (see p. 225), there is a reference to a ti dairy at this place from which the buffaloes evidently took their name.

At most of the dairies the buffaloes stand together and the two palol occupy the same ti mad, though each has his own dairy; but when one herd, that of the tiir, goes to Òdrtho, the other herd, that of the warsir, goes to another place called Kudreiil. These two places are quite close to one another, but are regarded as separate ti mad. The reason given for this separation was that at one time the warsir did not behave properly at Òdrtho, and Teikirzi ordered that they should not stand there again, but should go to another place. I could not ascertain what the buffaloes did to merit this punishment.

I obtained a full account of the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti at the time of my visit. There were seven unir; four adult buffaloes, called Kôzi, Perith, Kâsimi, and Uf, and three young buffaloes not yet named; five atir, Persuth, Enmars, Tòthi, and two unnamed; three teirtir, Pülkoth, Köji, and one unnamed. Of kulatir there were four, Köji, Keirev, and two young buffaloes; of perithir five, Kâsimi, Kiûd, Persv, and two unnamed. Thus the ti palol had fifteen persinir, and in addition about thirty punir, while the wars palol had nine persinir and about fifteen punir.

The dairy of the tiir is often called the ti poh, and that of the warsir, the wars poh, and every dairy has also its special name; thus, at Anto the dairy of the tiir is called Medrpoh, and the dairy of the warsir is called Kadpoh or Kadvoh. One of these dairies is of the conical form, but my record does not tell me which. According to Breeks the name of the conical dairy is Kiurzh. This is possibly the same word as Kad(poh), the name of the dairy of the warsir. The two dairies at Mòdr are Pänpoh and Känpoh. The name of the ruined conical dairy near Makurti Peak [114]which belonged to the Nòdrs ti was Kateidipoh (Breeks, Katedva).

The palol of the Nòdrs ti must be chosen either from the people of Piedr or from those of Kusharf. Originally it was ordained that the palol should be chosen from the Piedrol, but later the Kuudr people obtained the right of becoming palol. This lasted till about seven or eight generations ago, when there is a story that the people of Kwurg (Coorg) came to fight the Todas and drove off the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti, which were standing at Mòdr. The palol was touched by the Kwurg people and in consequence ceased to be palol, but instead of pursuing the invaders, he sat down by the ti waiting till he could be reinstated in his office. The kaltmokh, who belonged to Piedr, followed the Kwurg people, who had carried off a large mani called Kän, and some people of Nòdrs and Kusharf also followed with the boy. The Kwurg people saw the kaltmokh and told him that he might have the buffaloes back if he would give them as many rupees as Kän would hold. The kaltmokh had inside his loincloth a little gold coin called pirpanm, which he took out and put into Kän and immediately the bell became full of rupees and the gold coin fell out. The Kwurg people took the rupees, and the kaltmokh took the bell and drove the buffaloes back to Mòdr.

As the Kwurg people were making their way home, they suddenly found that all the rupees had disappeared, so they turned and pursued the kaltmokh and the buffaloes. Then the kaltmokh prayed:

Per wadrth vêdrmâ, kârs wadrth vêdrmâ, män mas vêdrmâ.

“May the high hills be broken, may the rocks be broken, may the trees fall down.”

Directly there was a loud noise, the hills were divided, stones rattled, and trees fell down. Then the Kwurg people were afraid and returned to their own homes.6 The Todas held a council, and it was decided that, as the palol had not [115]followed the buffaloes, the Kuudr people should no longer have the privilege of becoming palol of the Nòdrs ti, and that in future the palol of this ti should be taken either from Piedr or Kusharf.

At the present time7 the palol of the tiir is Karkievan of Piedr, who has now been continuously in office for sixteen years, having also had a previous period of office as palol. The palol of the warsir is Nerponers of Kusharf (66), who had been in office for about a year at the time of my visit. The kaltmokh is Katsog of Kuudr (55).

Although now one palol belongs to Piedr and the other to Kusharf, it is not necessary that this should be so and it has happened frequently that both palol have belonged to the Piedrol.

The mani of the tiir, which is said to be made of iron, is that called Persin, of whose miraculous birth an account has been given. The mani of the warsir is called Keu, and is said to be made partly of gold, partly of silver, and partly of iron. Milk is put on the former bell by the palol at every churning and milking, but Keu is not ‘fed.’

In addition there are four mani of the kind called kudrs, which are tied to the punir and kept outside the door of the dairy. Three of these belong to the punir of the ti palol, and are called Arvatz, Kiûdz, and Kerâni, and should be tied to buffaloes named Püthiov, Peires, and Nersâdr respectively. The fourth bell belongs to the punir of the wars palol, and is called Kerâni. It should be tied to a buffalo named Tâlg.

The lamp of the wars poh is one of those made of iron, and is said to have come from Amnòdr. It is called Önâvpelk, the lamp of the seven holes. The ti poh had a similar lamp at one time, but it has been lost.

Three horns are kept in the sleeping-hut of the Nòdrs ti. Two belong to the tiir, and are called Kiûdrkûdr and Pudothkûdr. The third belongs to the warsir, and is called Teigun. (For the origin of these horns see the story of Korateu or Kuzkarv in Chap. IX.)

One feature of the ti poh at Mòdr, which is certainly not [116]general, is the presence of a screen in front of the door. The effect of this screen is to protect the palol from the gaze of the ordinary Todas when they are standing in their appointed place. When I visited Mòdr I was allowed to go into the enclosure where the buffaloes are milked, but this privilege was not accorded to my Toda guides, and in consequence I was often able to observe the doings of the palol when they were hidden from my guides by the screen.

The wars poh, on the other hand, has no such screen, but the wall surrounding this dairy is much higher than at the ti poh and effectually screens the palol from the public gaze. The door of the wars poh faces between north and north-east, and that of the ti poh south-east, but owing to the presence of the screen the palol has on coming out to turn to the left, and therefore faces north-east when saluting.

The following story gives the traditional origin of the ti mad at Makârs, one of the chief places of the Kars ti, but I could not ascertain definitely whether it was supposed to give the origin of the ti as a whole or only of the ti mad at Makârs. The story runs that Anto created buffaloes, one of which came to Makârs, where a tudr tree was standing. The buffalo rubbed against the tree and part of the bark came off, and that is why the place became a ti. When the buffalo found that there was no palol at Makârs and no kaltmokh, it was very angry and raged about furiously. While it was doing this, it jumped some stones and fell into the river called Kitheri, and it also jumped a stream called Warwar. In spite of its falling into the river, however, it did not die, but got out and pushed stones together with its horns so as to make a tu. Later a dairy was built near the tudr tree. Whether this was the origin of the ti or only of the ti mad of Makârs, it seemed quite clear that the Kars ti is believed to be one of the very early institutions of the Todas. Its two ancient places were Enòdr and Makârs. At each there were two dairies, and one [117]at least of those at Enòdr was of the conical variety and had the special name of Medrpoh. Enòdr has now fallen into disuse. It was a few miles to the north-east of Ootacamund, and it was no longer visited because the buffaloes would have had to pass through Ootacamund in going from Makârs to Enòdr and would have been defiled. Makârs, which is near the Nanjanad valley, is now the chief place of the ti, and the buffaloes were there at the time of my visit.

Another important and ancient place of the Kars ti is Kòn (Lingmand) in the Kundahs. In the story of Kwoto (see p. 204) the buffaloes were going to Enòdr from Kòn when the boy showed his miraculous knowledge of the buffalo kwarzam. Two other places are Nerâdr and Pars. Both Kòn and Nerâdr are still used, but Pars, which is not far from Ootacamund, is no longer used, having been given up because Badagas went to live near it.

As at the Nòdrs ti, there are two kinds of persinir in addition to the punir. The two kinds are called pürsir and parsir, the former being also sometimes called enòdrir. Although there are two kinds of sacred buffalo with their corresponding dairies, there has never been more than one palol. When a palol is appointed to this ti, he is ordained to the office of palol to the parsir, and, for the first month, he attends to these buffaloes only and enters their dairy, the parspoh, only. At the end of the month, he becomes palol to the pürsir, with certain ceremonies, to be described later, and from that time to the end of his period of office he works in the pürspoh only and never enters the parspoh, although he continues to attend to the parsir as well as to the pürsir. The milk of the parsir is mixed with that of the pürsir in the vessels of the dairy belonging to the latter kind of buffalo. This dairy, which is usually called pürspoh after the buffaloes, has also the special name of Kakanmudri.

There is one bell belonging to the pürsir which has three names, Perner, Uner, and Persagan, but it is also often called Ner. Koboners told me that this bell is usually quite black, but that he had once rubbed off the thick layer of soot and dust with which it is covered and had found that it was made of gold. It seems to have been of a light colour and [118]may have been made of bronze. There is also a bell belonging to the parsir called Talg.

Formerly the palol of the Kars ti was chosen from the Melgarsol, but this clan lost the privilege owing to the misbehaviour of one of their number when holding the sacred office. The buffaloes were standing at Enòdr, and the Melgars palol was milking a buffalo, when he saw a honey-bee. He got up, left the buffalo, and went after the bee, leaving his milking-vessel behind. He followed the bee, found the nest, took the comb, ate some of the honey, gave the remainder to the kaltmokh to put in the hut, and then went back and continued to milk the buffalo, whose name was Kän. When he had finished milking, he was taking the milk into the dairy when a plank fell on his head and he was killed. Then it was decided that Melgars people should no longer be palol, and that the office in future should be filled from the Teivaliol. Whenever the Todas wish to refer to the fact that the Melgars people have lost the right of being palol, they say, “Kän kârvûk kiûztheniz ûpi vûchi,” or, “Kän milking, bee he followed after.”

The palol is now taken from Piedr, Kusharf or Kuudr, and the present holder of the office is Nòdrners (67) of Kusharf. The dairies of this ti are always near those of the Pan ti, and the two palol share one kaltmokh between them, the present holder of this office being Teitun (64) of Piedr.

The legend of the origin of this ti will be given in full in the story of Kwoten (Chap. IX). When this hero was reproved by his wife because the Pan people had no ti, he obtained buffaloes from the Nòdrs ti, so that the Pan ti appears to have been later in origin than those of Nòdrs and Kars, and to have been derived from the former.

Certain of the buffaloes are reputed to be descended from an ancestor made by Teikhars or Kulinkars (see the story of this god in Chap. IX).

The most important dairy of this ti appears to have been situated at Tarsòdr or Tazòdr in the Kundahs, which is the [119]place to which the buffalo created by Teikhars found its way. Tarsòdr is about two miles from Kòn, and there is still a dairy of the conical kind at this place which is probably one of those mentioned by Breeks under the name of Tarzhva. Its special name was Pôhûjpoh or Pûverizpoh, and it belonged to the group of buffaloes of the ti called tarsir. It is now falling into ruins, having been disused for about twenty years. The last palol who went there was Pethovan (70) of the Kwaradr division of the Keadrol. He died at Tarsòdr soon after going there in perfect health from Kudòdr. His son, Kiudners, later became palol to the tarsir, but was afraid to go to Tarsòdr because his father had died there. Like his father, Kiudners died in office at Kudòdr, and the death of both father and son while holding the office of palol so alarmed the Todas that no one has been to the dairy of Tarsòdr since. I was told that the dairy had been given up because the gods of Tarsòdr were so severe, i.e., it was assumed that both father and son had been killed by the gods for some infringement of dairy regulations. New dairies have since been built near Kòn, the seat of the Kars ti in the Kundahs.

The place at which the buffaloes were standing at the time of my visit was Kudòdr, near Makârs, and this is the ti mad which is occupied during the greater part of the year. Another dairy is at Nerâdr, again near the ti mad of the same name belonging to the Kars ti.

A fourth place, Uterâdr, is now rarely visited, since the buffaloes may only go there when there are two palol.

There seems to be a very close association between the ti institutions of Kars and Pan. The buffaloes of the two always move about together, and the dairies are so close to one another that, at present, they are able to share the same kaltmokh.

The Pan ti has two kinds of buffalo in addition to the punir, viz., the tarsir and the warsir. At one time the warsir belonged to one division of the Pan clan, called the Panol, and the tarsir belonged to the other division, the Kuirsiol. At Kòn there are two dairies, one for each kind of buffalo, and each kind should also have its own palol. At the present time there is only one palol, who looks after the tarsir. [120]The dairy of the warsir, or the warspoh, is closed and may not be entered by the palol, and he is not allowed to milk the warsir, though he may milk the punir belonging to the warspoh.

Formerly the palol of the tarsir was chosen from the Kwaradr division of the Keadrol and the palol of the warsir from the other division of this clan, this arrangement being said to have been ordained by Kwoten.

The Kwaradr division is now extinct and the remainder of the Keadrol are not very numerous, and the present palol of the tarsir is Peilet (64) of Piedr. A few years ago both dairies were occupied, the palol of the tarsir being Naburs (64) of Piedr, and the palol of the warsir, Pichievan (69) of Keadr. The latter is said to have thrown up his office because the income was not large enough.

If there should be a death among the Panol, the second funeral ceremonies (the marvainolkedr, or so-called ‘dry funeral’) could not take place unless both dairies were occupied. Since Pichievan resigned, no Pan man has died, but when this happens a second palol would have to be appointed before the marvainolkedr could be held.

The tarsir have two bells, called Kòsi and Pongg. The former is tied on a buffalo called Kòsi, and Pongg on one called Enmars. Milk is only put on the bell called Kòsi. At the dairy of these buffaloes there is an iron lamp of the ancient kind with seven cavities and seven wicks, and the horn is called Kwatadr. The warsir have one bell, called Keituzan, which is put round the neck of a buffalo called Kòjiu. The old iron lamp belonging to these buffaloes has been lost and an earthenware or bark lamp is used in its stead. The horn is called Persagan, but as these buffaloes have no palol, this horn is not now blown.

The people of Pan are mòrol at this ti.

There was some difference of opinion as to the origin of this ti, which is often called the Arsaiir ti by the Todas. According to one account, given to me by Kwòdrdoni people, [121]the buffaloes called arsaiir came from the sea and were the mothers of all the tiir. Another account, which seemed to be more generally accepted, was that the Kwòdrdoni ti was instituted by Ön, like those of Nòdrs and Kars, but that one day, when the palol was milking, the mani, called Pushodipongg, came from the sea and sat on the side of the milking-vessel.

The chief place of this ti is Pursâs, situated between Kwòdrdoni and Kotagiri. The other dairies in the past were at Kakwai, Karküln, Pobkars, and Kadrin, but only the first of these, which is close to Kwòdrdoni, is now used.

At the time of my visit there was no palol, and the buffaloes, only about eight in number, were standing at Kakwai, but were not being milked.

A palol is appointed every year shortly before the ceremony in honour of the god Kamataraya, which is celebrated by the Kotas in January. When the Kotas announce that they are about to hold this ceremony, a palol and kaltmokh are appointed who go to Pursâs. The buffaloes are milked and the ghi which is obtained from the milk is given to the Kotas. The palol remains in office for about twenty days, and his appointment is made altogether on behalf of the Kotas, who would be very angry if it were not done. It seemed that the success of the Kota ceremony would be seriously impaired if there were no palol at the Kwòdrdoni ti.

A palol would also be appointed if it were wished to hold the second funeral ceremonies, or marvainolkedr, of a Kwòdrdoni person.

The Kwòdrdoni ti has never had more than one kind of buffalo, and never more than one palol or kaltmokh. The buffaloes, or arsaiir, are those which disobeyed the commands of Ön (see Chap. IX), and are said to be responsible for the dangers suffered by buffaloes from tigers.

The people of Nòdrs and Kars have the privilege of taking buttermilk and food at the ti, and are known as mòrol, but they may not sleep at the ti mad, nor do they take any part in the buffalo migration. According to one account, the people of Pan are also mòrol, and may even sleep at the ti. [122]

My account of the ceremonial accompanying the migration from one village to another is unfortunately very incomplete. The following accounts were given by Teivali men, and I cannot guarantee that they hold good for both divisions and for all clans.

FIG. 29.—TO SHOW THE METHOD OF CARRYING THE CONTENTS OF THE DAIRY. THE BOY KALMAD (64) IS CARRYING THE ‘PATATPUR’; KARSÜLN (15) THE ‘ERTATPUR.’ IN FRONT OF KALMAD IS THE ENTRANCE OF THE PEN AT KARS CALLED ‘ALTHFTU’ (see p. 649).

When it is decided to move to a fresh village certain men are chosen to help in the removal, and are told to come on the appointed day, which must not be one of the sacred days of the village (see Chap. XVII). On the morning of this day [126]the palikartmokh abstains from food. He does the ordinary work of his dairy, and gives out buttermilk and butter to the women as usual. He then calls to the chosen men who have come to the village, and they stand outside the door of the dairy. The palikartmokh comes out, holding in his right hand the milking-vessel (irkartpun) and churning-stick (madth). He stands facing the sun, and salutes holding the vessel and churn to his forehead, and says “ekirzam meidjam,” the kwarzam of Teikirzi and Tirshti. Then all present pray, using the prayer of the dairy. The palikartmokh puts the milking-vessel and the churning-stick at the back of the dairy (the palimerkal), and then brings the other dairy things, carrying out those of the patatmar first and then those of the ertatmar. Two stout sticks are prepared, each called pütusht, and the various objects of the patatmar are fastened on one stick and those of the ertatmar on the other, in the way shown in Figs. 29 and 30.2 When the things have been fastened on the sticks, all go to the front of the huts of the village and take food, after which the procession starts. It is headed by the buffaloes, followed by the dairyman and the men carrying the dairy vessels. Each of the latter carries the staff on his left shoulder and has the right arm out of the mantle. The man carrying the things of the patatmar walks in front of the man carrying those of the ertatmar, as shown in the figures. After the buffaloes, the dairyman, and the dairy vessels, there follow any men who are accompanying the procession, and if all the inhabitants of the village are migrating, the women and children follow the men.

On leaving the village the women and girls may have to go for a certain distance by a different path from that taken by the buffaloes, but during the greater part of the journey there does not seem to be any regulation to prevent the women following in the wake of the sacred animals.

FIG. 30.—1. A. The madth. B. A patat. C. Another patat. D. The parskadrvenmu. E. The irkartpun. 2. A. The axe. B. The fire-sticks. C. The majpariv. D. The pòlmachok. E. The ertatpun. F. A tek. G. The lamp.

On reaching the new village, the palikartmokh purifies [128]the dairy by throwing into it water mixed with tudr bark.3 The dairy things are taken off the sticks at an appointed spot. The palikartmokh salutes the sun with irkarthpun and madth as in the morning, and then all pray. After the prayer, the palikartmokh takes some ferns (taf) and puts them on the place within the dairy where the things of the patatmar are to stand, and these are put in their places on the ferns. The things of the ertatmar are then arranged in the same way. The palikartmokh makes fire by friction, lights the lamp, and then goes to milk the buffaloes. If he has brought milk with him, he will churn it. Meanwhile a ceremony called nòtiteiti will have been performed by a little girl about six or seven years of age in those cases in which all the inhabitants of the village are migrating. Before leaving the village from which the people are coming this girl will have been given food in the dairy. On reaching the new place, the girl plucks three blades of the slender grass called kakar and goes to the front of the dairy and sweeps the threshold with the grass. She does this with her right arm outside her cloak, and when she has swept she bows down with her forehead to the threshold three times. If there is more than one dairy, she sweeps the threshold of each. The palikartmokh then gives her a small handful of butter and the girl goes to the huts. Up to this time the women will have been waiting near the village, but when they see that the girl has performed her ceremony, they go to the huts and prepare the food called ashkkartpimi.4

When the palikartmokh has finished milking, he also prepares food, and when it is ready he throws some into the fire, tòrtütrsersthi, “food into the fire he throws,” and then gives out the food to the people, and they eat both this and that prepared by the women.

FIG. 31.—THE DAIRY OF KIUDR WITH THE ‘PALIKARTMOKH’ ETAMUDRI (58); ON THE RIGHT OF THE DAIRY ABOVE AND TO THE LEFT OF THE HEAD OF ETAMUDRI IS THE STONE CALLED ‘NEURZÜLNKARS,’ BY WHICH THE ‘PATATMANI’ IS LAID.

At some places the ceremonial is more complicated than at others, the degree of elaboration depending on the sacredness of the dairy to which the buffaloes are going. When they migrate to the especially sacred village of Kiudr the extra [129]complexity seems to depend on the presence of the bells of the dairy of that village. When the palikartmokh reaches Kiudr, he puts the dairy things he has brought with him at the back of the dairy. Another palikartmokh goes into the inner room and brings out the bells called patatmani and lays them by stones called neurzülnkars at one side of the dairy (see Fig. 31). He enters again and brings out four ertatmani, which he lays by the side of another group of stones called neurzülnkars (see Fig. 32). The second palikartmokh then purifies the dairy with tudr bark and puts the vessels which have been brought to Kiudr in their places on a bed of ferns in the way which has been described. After all the vessels are in their places, he takes the patatmani to the dairy stream, while the first palikartmokh brings tudr bark. The tudr bark is pounded and the juice squeezed over the bells. The two patatmani, having thus been purified, are then put on a forked stick and carried to their usual place in the dairy. The same [130]procedure is repeated with the ertatmani, which are strung on a piece of bamboo and hung on another piece of bamboo which projects from the wall on the ertat side of the dairy. Then milk is put on the patatmani and buttermilk on the ertatmani as usual.

FIG. 32.—THE ‘NEURZÜLNKARS’ OF KIUDR, BY THE SIDE OF WHICH THE ‘ERTATMANI’ ARE LAID.

The ceremony of ordination of the palikartmokh is called pelkkodichiti and very often muliniròditi, the latter being derived from the muli leaves used in the ceremony. The ordination may take place on Sunday, Wednesday, or Saturday. On the day before the ceremony the candidate goes to the dairy, takes his food there, and sleeps at night in the outer room. His food is prepared and given to him either by the outgoing palikartmokh or by some other man holding this office.

On the morning of the ceremony the candidate washes his hands in the pali nipa and goes to the front of the dairy, having a piece of the ordinary mantle round his waist. The assisting palikartmokh will have placed a small piece of the dark cloth called tuni on the threshold of the dairy, this small piece being called petuni. The candidate bows down (nersatiti), as in Fig. 20, at the threshold to the petuni, which he then raises to his forehead and puts in the string of his kuvn on the left side.

The candidate then plucks seven leaves of the kind called muliers—i.e., leaves of a plant called muli (Rubus ellipticus). This plant is also often called pelkkodsthmul, after the ceremony in which it is used. He also plucks a handful of young shoots or nan of the same plant, and takes the leaves and shoots to the dairy stream. At the stream he pounds the shoots with water on a stone, takes up some water from the stream with the pounded shoots, drops this water into one of the leaves three times, raises the leaf to his forehead, drinks (see Fig. 34), throws the leaf over his head and puts the shoots down on one side. When he squeezes the water from the shoots into the leaf-cup he holds the former in his right hand and the latter in his left, but when about to raise the leaf-cup to his forehead and drink he transfers it to his right hand. The candidate then takes a fresh piece of the pounded shoots and repeats with a second leaf, and so on till the seven leaves are [146]finished, throwing the leaf over his head in each case after drinking.

He then takes all the pounded shoots which he has placed on one side, dips them in water, rubs them over his face and body three times, and puts them in his back hair, whence they are allowed to drop anywhere. In the only case in which I saw this ceremony I noticed that they remained in the hair till the end of the day.

FIG. 34.—PUNATVAN (53) DRINKING DURING HIS ORDINATION AS ‘PALIKARTMOKH’ OF KARIA.

The candidate then goes to the dairy, bows down at the threshold as in Fig. 20, and enters. If there are two rooms, he bows down in the same way at the threshold of the inner room. If there is a mani, he salutes it (kaimukhti) with hand to forehead. He next bows down to the patatmar and to the ertatmar, and finally touches a vessel of the ertatmar, usually the majpariv, and a vessel of the patatmar, the patat, and by doing this becomes a full palikartmokh. He proceeds to light the fire and the lamp and goes to milk the buffaloes. [147]

There are a few small points in which the ordination of a Teivali dairyman differs from that of the Tartharol. The Teivaliol use three pieces of the grass called kakar, with which the candidate sweeps the threshold of the dairy before bowing down and entering, the grass being left on the threshold. Among the Teivaliol also the place of the petuni may be taken by the special kind of cloth called twadrinar, which is manufactured by the Todas, and in the case in which I saw the ceremony, the candidate wore this instead of petuni. The Tartharol must use petuni.

In the only case in which I saw this ceremony the ordination was to a Teivali dairy and the candidate was completely naked except for the kuvn. The Tarthar tarpalikartmokh wears part of an ordinary mantle as a loincloth during his ordination. The ceremony is the same for the kudrpalikartmokh as for the tarvalikartmokh, except that the former is quite unclothed except for the kuvn and that he alone has a mani to salute.

The ceremony begins either on Tuesday or Friday and lasts two days. On the first day the candidate goes early in the morning to the ordinary dairy of the village at which he is to be wursol; at Kars he goes to the kudrpali. He receives food from the palikartmokh and eats it sitting on the seat (kwottün) outside the dairy. He stays near the dairy till the afternoon. When the palikartmokh has finished his afternoon work and has distributed butter and buttermilk, one of the men of the village comes to the candidate and says, “Niròd!” The candidate throws off his cloak and is given either a full tuni or a piece of this garment called petuni. The palikartmokh then stands in front of the door of his dairy, and the candidate stands opposite to him and asks three times “Tunivatkina?”—“Shall I put on the tuni?” The palikartmokh replies each time “Vat!”—“Put on!” Then the candidate raises the garment to his forehead and if he has been given a complete tuni he puts it on; if only a petuni he puts it in the string of his kuvn. This string is [148]ordinarily called pennar, but is now called kerk, and this part of the ceremony is called kerkatiti. The fact that this name is given seems to indicate that properly the complete garment should not be given till a later stage of the proceedings.

The candidate then finds seven leaves called muliers and seven shoots or nan of the same plant and goes through exactly the same ceremony at the stream as in the ordination of palikartmokh, putting the shoots in his back hair at the end. This part of the ceremony is called muliniròditi, and its object is to make the candidate a palikartmokh as a step towards becoming wursol. He is taken through the lower degree on his way to the higher.

After muliniròditi the candidate goes to the wall of the dairy and stands outside it. The palikartmokh brings a firebrand from the dairy and lights with it a fire of muli wood, at which the candidate warms himself. The firebrand must be one of the three following kinds—kid, pasòr or kiaz. After warming himself, the candidate goes to fetch bark of the tudr tree, which must not be cut, but knocked off with a stone. He also brings seven perfect tudr leaves, and goes again to the dairy stream. He pounds the bark on a stone and dips it in water, squeezes the water into one of the tudr leaves, drinks, throws over his head and puts the bark on one side exactly in the same way as before, but using tudr bark and leaves instead of the shoots and leaves of muli. After doing this seven times he dips the pounded bark in water, sprinkles his head and face three times, puts the bark in his hair, and, going a little way off, shakes his head.

The candidate then goes again to find bark and leaves of tudr, and repeats the whole ceremony and continues to repeat it till he has done it seven times—i.e., he drinks out of the tudr leaves seven times seven. After this he goes to the wood near the stream (at Kars, called Tarskars) and the palikartmokh comes to him there with the ertatpun filled with buttermilk, and with four leaves of the kind called kakuders. Two leaves are given to the candidate and two kept by the dairyman, and each folds the leaves in the usual way to make a cup (ersteiti). The dairyman then puts the ertatpun between his [149]thighs and, holding it there, depresses it so that he can pour buttermilk into his leaf-cup; from this he pours into the leaf-cup of the candidate who then drinks, and this is repeated till the latter is satisfied. The palikartmokh brings food and fire from the dairy and both stay in the wood for the night, being allowed to have companions. The place where they sleep is called tavarpali.

In the morning the candidate again goes for tudr bark and leaves, and carries out the whole ceremony seven times as on the previous evening. He then goes to the tavarpali and waits there till the palikartmokh has finished his morning work, when the candidate again receives buttermilk and food. Then both go out together to look after the buffaloes.

When they return in the afternoon the candidate goes to the dairy stream and bathes from head to foot. This bathing is called tudraspipini (tudr I have washed), its object being to wash off the tudr bark previously used. After this he takes a piece of the cloth called twadrinar and, using it as a girdle in addition to that he already wears, he goes to the wall of the dairy while the palikartmokh digs up a vessel called mu which is buried in the buffalo pen. (At Kars the mu which is used is that of the tarvali.) The palikartmokh then puts the mu on the ground and stands by it. The candidate asks three times, “Muvatkina?” “Shall I touch the mu?” and the palikartmokh replies each time “Muvat!” The candidate then touches the mu, and by doing so becomes a full wursol. The mu is reburied by the palikartmokh.

All the ceremonies so far have taken place at or near the ordinary dairy, either tarvali or kudrpali, or at the stream belonging to one or other of these dairies. The candidate now for the first time goes to the dairy in which he is to be wursol (the wursuli) and prostrates himself at the threshold. He next enters and prostrates himself to the patatmar and then to the ertatmar. He takes up and puts in its place one of the vessels of the ertatmar and then one of the vessels of the patatmar. He salutes the mani (kaimukhti), lights the fire and the lamp and prays, using the prayer of the village. He then cleans the vessels and goes to milk, doing mani terzantirikiti with the first milk as usual. [150]

I was especially told that if the candidate for the office of wursol wishes to scratch his head during his ordination ceremonies he must do so with a stick, but this is probably a feature of all ordination rites.

In the case of the wursol, it seemed that there is a difference in the ceremonial according to whether the dairy is occupied or not when the new dairyman enters upon office. The foregoing account applies to the case in which the dairy is already occupied and the new dairyman replaces another, so that there is no break in the continuity of the dairy proceedings. If the dairy should be unoccupied, I was told that the candidate would have to sleep for two nights in the wood, and there would almost certainly be additional purifications, but I did not learn the exact nature of the proceedings in this case.

Though I was only told of this difference of procedure in the case of the wursol, it is not unlikely that there is a corresponding difference of procedure in the case of other dairies when the dairy has been unoccupied. There will certainly be a ceremony of purification of the dairy, such as takes place when the buffaloes migrate to a new village, and probably the dairy vessels will also have to be purified.

The ordination ceremonies of these two dairymen appear to be almost identical. So far as I could ascertain, the feature which the kugvalikartmokh of Taradr and the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs have in common is that they serve institutions to which a high degree of sanctity is attached. The ritual of both dairies bears some resemblance to that of the ti and, as we have already seen, the regulations for the conduct of the pohkartpol are, in some respects, even more stringent than those of the palol.

The kugvalikartmokh is ordained either on Wednesday or Sunday, the pohkartpol on Tuesday. On the night preceding the ordination the candidate sleeps in the wood. Seven [151]leaves are used of the following kinds: pelkkodsthmul,1 puthimul, änmul, takmul, kadakmul, tòrimul, and pathanmul. One leaf of each kind is taken and the leaves pounded together and used in the same way as the shoots of muli or the bark of the tudr tree, water being dropped from them into leaves of puthimul. The pounded leaves are then placed in the back hair as usual. This is followed by the ceremony of drinking water three times out of a leaf containing water and some buffalo-dung. The bark of the tudr tree is then rubbed all over the body, though no tudr leaves are used for drinking. The candidate attains his full office by touching a mu, prostrates himself at his dairy, enters and begins his work as in the dairies of a lower grade.

The ordination of the kaltmokh begins either on Sunday, Wednesday or Thursday. In the case of a kaltmokh of the Nòdrs ti, the first part of the ceremony takes place at the village of Nòdrs, while in some cases it seems that the candidate may go to the same village of Òdr which is visited by the palol during his ordination. I have no information about the place of ordination in the case of the other ti dairies.

A boy who is to become kaltmokh of the Nòdrs ti goes to Nòdrs either on Sunday, Wednesday, or Thursday, and, going to the ordinary dairy of that place (tarvali), he is given water by the palikartmokh in the vessel called pòlmachok. The boy washes his hands with this water and puts on a tuni which the palikartmokh gives him, after saying the same formula as in the ordination of wursol. He then does muliniròditi and so reaches the grade of palikartmokh. This and the following ceremony are done at a special stream at Nòdrs called niròdigudr. The purification ceremony is then performed with tudr bark and leaves till the candidate has drunk seven times seven. Food and buttermilk are given by the palikartmokh, and then the boy together with the [152]palikartmokh and the wursol of Nòdrs pass the night in the wood near that place.

The next morning the candidate goes to the ordination stream and washes himself from head to foot. This is called tudraspipini, its object being the same as in the ordination of the wursol. The boy next goes to the front of the tarvali, where the palikartmokh gives him a special string made of twadrinar, which he puts round his waist as kerk, and then warms himself at a fire of muli wood. The palikartmokh brings a mu, which the candidate touches with the same formalities as in the ordination of wursol, and by so doing reaches the grade called perkursol, which is of the same rank as that of wursol. The perkursol then takes the mu into the tarvali, prostrating himself at the threshold before entering. He prostrates himself to the patatmar and to the ertatmar, puts the mu on the patatmar and comes out. He then goes to the poh, or conical dairy of Nòdrs, prostrates himself at the threshold, enters, and prostrates himself before patatmar, ertatmar and, finally, before the mani. Up to the point of saluting the bell in this way he keeps on the tuni but at this stage he throws it down and comes out of the dairy naked (except for the kuvn), puts on the ordinary cloak and goes to the dairy at which the ti buffaloes are standing.

When he reaches the ti mad, the candidate goes to the palol, whom he salutes with the words “îr kar ûdâ,” this salutation being called pîrwadrikpini. He goes to the sleeping hut, prostrates himself before the horns which are kept in this building, and then goes to the front of the dairy. He is now perkursol, and in order that he shall become full kaltmokh or tunitusthkaltmokh, the palol gives him a piece of tuni (petuni). The boy asks three times, “Tunitusthvaskina?”—“Shall I go to wash the tuni?”—to which the palol answers each time “Tusthva!”—“Wash, go!” The boy takes the petuni to the stream for ordinary use (not the kwoinir) and bathes from head to foot. He puts to himself three times the question, “tunitoikina?” and laying the piece of tuni on a stone, he pours water on it three times and returns with the petuni in his hand to the palol who will be sitting on his [153]pohvelkars in front of the dairy. The palol asks three times, “Tunitusthpacha?”—“Have you returned from washing the tuni?”—and each time the boy replies, “tunitusthpuspini”—“I have come from washing the tuni.” Then both palol and boy go to the front of the kadr in which the calves are kept and the palol puts into the gate three bars (tasth), which shut the opening of the enclosure. The boy asks three times, “Tasthvatkina?”—“Shall I touch the tasth?”—and each time the palol replies “Tasthvat!” The boy, who hitherto has been perkursol, now touches the tasth, and by so doing attains the full rank of kaltmokh, and at once goes and pours buttermilk (kaizhvatiti) for the palol.

The latter parts of the ordination ceremonies of the kaltmokh, from the point at which he receives petuni from the palol to the touching of the tasth, are always performed whenever the kaltmokh returns to the ti after a journey in which it has been necessary to degrade himself to the rank of perkursol (see p. 106). The initial stages of becoming a kaltmokh are known in general as niròdibudnudr.

In accordance with the fact that the palol belongs to the highest and most sacred grade of the dairy-priesthood, we find that the ceremonies preceding his entrance upon office are far more elaborate and prolonged than for the minor grades.

In order that a Teivali man may become a candidate for the office of palol he must first have gone through a preliminary qualifying ceremony called tesherst. When the office of palol becomes vacant, the people of the clan to which the ti belongs are restricted in their choice to those men who have been through this ceremony. When one of these qualified men has been selected, he then goes through the proper ordination ceremonies, known as niròditi.

In the case of a palol of the Nòdrs ti, the niròditi ceremonies are performed partly at Nòdrs, partly at Òdr, one of the most sacred villages of the Nòdrs clan, and finally at the ti mad where he is to hold office. [154]

This qualifying ceremony for the office of palol is always performed by a number of men at the same time. The number taking part must be three, five, seven or nine. There seemed to be no doubt that it was not permissible for four, six or eight men to perform the ceremony together. One or two Todas told me that an even number of men might do the ceremony, but all the more trustworthy witnesses were agreed that there must be an uneven number, and on all the occasions of which I could obtain records of actual ceremonies, an uneven number of men had done tesherst together. The ceremony may not be performed while the funeral ceremonies of any Teivali person are uncompleted.

At the time of my visit there were only nine or ten men who had been through the tesherst ceremony, including those who were holding or had held the office of palol. It was proposed that a number of the younger men should perform the ceremony about this time, but it had to be delayed till the second funeral ceremonies of two Teivali women had been held.

The tesherst ceremony always begins on a Monday after the new moon. It takes place at certain villages where people are living, and in all the cases of which I obtained records it had been done at Kudrnakhum, belonging to the Nòdrsol, or at Pushtar, belonging to the Taradrol. People must be living at the village at the time the ceremony is performed.

The candidates go to the village on Monday evening, accompanied by two or three Nòdrs men. All go to a stream by a wood and the ceremony begins after sunset, when all the candidates throw off their cloaks and stand in a row. A man of the Nòdrs clan has a tuni in his hand and each candidate asks three times, “Tunivatkina?”—“Shall I touch the tuni?”—and each time the Nòdrs man replies, “Tunivat!” The first man in the row touches the tuni and then the others in order. The Nòdrs man then gives the tuni to the first man who touched it, and he tears it into as many pieces [155]as there are candidates, giving a piece to each man, who puts it in the string of his kuvn. All then go in search of the leaves of muli and each plucks seven leaves and seven shoots. They go to the stream, one by one, and each drinks and rubs himself with the shoots seven times, as in the ordination ceremony, and puts the shoots in his back hair.

While they are doing this, the Nòdrs man will have made fire by friction, using the wood of muli, and the men warm themselves at the fire. Each man then goes in search of seven tudr leaves and tudr bark and carries out the usual purification ceremony once only, drinking out of each of the seven leaves, after which the men take food prepared by another of the Nòdrs men, and all pass the night in the wood. Next morning the men fetch tudr bark and leaves and repeat the drinking and rubbing ceremony of the previous evening, but on this occasion each man says “Teshniròdinem,” as he throws the leaf over his head after drinking. All then bathe completely in the stream.

While they are doing this, the Nòdrs men have been cooking a large amount of food, more than the candidates can readily eat, and an old woman of the Tartharol who is to take part in the ceremony has bathed and dressed in her best clothes and put on all the ornaments she can procure: gold earrings, necklace, bracelets, and rings. When the men have bathed, they wait till the message comes that the food is ready, and then each man takes off his piece of tuni and his pennar and his kuvn, so that he is completely naked. The Nòdrs man portions out the food and puts it on tudr leaves, the portion for each man being more than he can possibly eat at one sitting, and the portions of food are given to the old woman, who sits down with her back to the men. Each man goes up behind the back of the old woman, and she gives him his portion of food by putting her hand behind her back so that she does not look at him, and in doing so she says three times “Teshtòrtudenk?”—“Tesh food have I not given?” The men take the food, go into the thickest part of the wood and eat it. None of the food prepared on this occasion may be eaten by the Nòdrs men or by the old woman, but though the amount is excessive, the whole of it must be eaten by the [156]candidates during the day. After each man has eaten to the full he may put on his cloak. The Nòdrs men and the old woman go back to their villages and they must hold no communication of any kind with the candidates after the food has been given. The men remain in the wood all day, and when it is getting dark they go to the nearest village at which any of them live, taking care that no one sees them on the way.

One of the most remarkable features of this ceremony is the part taken by the old woman. She must be one of the Tartharol; she must be past the age of child-bearing, and she must never have had intercourse with one of her own clan. In the last particular the word of the woman is trusted, for it was said that she would never deceive in such a matter. Every woman believed that if she did not speak the truth she would die, and all those concerned in the ceremony would either die or have serious illness. I was told that it was by no means easy to find a woman who fulfilled this requirement, and in each of the cases of which I have records the same woman officiated—viz. Naspilthi of Taradr (21).

Other remarkable features of this ceremony are that the men should be given more food than they are readily able to eat, as in the ceremony connected with the kaltmokh after the migration (p. 139), and that they receive this food in a condition of complete nudity, a condition which only occurs in one other dairy ceremonial.

The tesherst ceremony is one in which candidates for the office of palol go through certain of the rites which ordinarily form part of the process of ordination, with the addition of special ceremonies, in which a superabundant portion of food is given by a woman who fulfils certain peculiar conditions.

When the office of palol becomes vacant, the clan to which the ti belongs chooses from among those who have been through the tesherst ceremony, and the chosen man has then to undergo the ordination ceremonies proper, or niròditi. [157]

In the account of the daily work of the dairy, it will be remembered that whenever the dairyman goes out to milk for the first time he puts some buttermilk into his milking vessel. This is done in every dairy, and the buttermilk so added is called pep. The milk of every day has mixed with it some of the buttermilk from the milking of the day before, and in this way continuity is kept up in the dairy operations. Under certain conditions this continuity is broken and new pep has to be made, and the process of doing so is the ceremony called pepkaricha, pepkarichti, or pepkarichanudr—i.e., “pep he purifies,” or, “if pep is purified.”

In some cases new pep has to be made for the whole clan [167](madol); in other cases it has only to be made for one of the dairies of the clan.

The ceremony is performed for the whole clan whenever anything goes wrong with a certain dairy vessel called mu, which is buried in the buffalo pen at the chief village of the clan. We have seen that this vessel is used in the ordination to certain dairy offices, and it is also inspected as a matter of routine about once a year. If it is broken or has been stolen or tampered with in any way, it becomes necessary to make new pep for the whole clan.

Among the Tartharol, new pep has also to be made after the funeral of a male on account of the defilement of the mani involved in its exposure to the ordinary people at the funeral ceremonies.

The conditions which necessitate the making of new pep for a single dairy are, (1) if a Tamil or other “foreigner” has entered the dairy, (2) if an ordinary Toda (perol) has gone into the dairy at night, (3) if the dairyman has used tobacco. In these cases the people of the village at which the offence has been committed procure a new mu, and, after purifying it, go to some other dairy of the clan, where they procure some buttermilk to act as pep and take it to their own dairy. It is only when new pep has to be made for the whole clan that the prolonged ceremony of pepkarichti has to be carried out. This ceremony differs in its details for each clan, and is more complicated in some cases than in others. As an example, I will give the proceedings for the Kuudr clan.

When it becomes necessary to make new pep for the whole group of dairies belonging to the clan it is necessary to take the buffaloes to one special dairy. The Kuudr people go to the dairy of Kwirg near Sholur. On the day of going to Kwirg, a feast is held at which the food called ashkkartpimi is eaten.

Whenever new pep is made it is necessary to have a new palikartmokh, and the man who is to undertake the duties goes to Kwirg with the milking buffaloes of the pasthir and is accompanied by a number of Kuudr men. The men take with them a new and complete set of dairy vessels, and reach Kwirg in the early morning of a Sunday after the new moon. [168]The buffaloes are at once penned in the tu. The first business is the ordination of the new palikartmokh, which is carried out as usual. When at the stream for the purification ceremony, the palikartmokh has with him a new mu, which he fills with water at the stream. He takes this vessel to the tu in which the buffaloes are penned, and knocks one of the buffaloes on the back with his wand (pet), so that it moves to one side. Then with the wand he digs some earth from the spot where the hoof of the buffalo had been resting, and mixes this earth with tudr bark. He places part of the mixed earth and bark in the mu and puts the rest on one side; this part of the ceremony is called mukatchkudrspini, or purification of the mu, literally “mu purification I have purified.”

The palikartmokh then brings all the other dairy vessels and implements, beginning with the patat, and purifies them by throwing on them mixed earth and tudr bark, sprinkling them with water from the mu three times, saying “Oñ” each time. The things of the patatmar are purified first and then the things of the ertatmar, and the purified objects are placed in the dairy. Fire is made by friction and the palikartmokh goes out to milk. Buttermilk is not put into the milking-vessel as usual, and the lamp is not lighted. The milk is poured into the patat, and the palikartmokh then prepares food, which he gives to the people who have come with him, but he himself fasts. All the men then go away except one or two, who are to remain as companions of the dairyman. In the evening the palikartmokh takes off some of the cream,1 which has risen to the top of the milk, and puts it into the lamp which he lights, and then prays, using the kwarzam of Kwirg2 and the kwarzam of the pep only.

If the milk has coagulated it is now churned, and then the buffaloes are milked as usual, but if the milk has not coagulated, it is left till next morning. In the evening the dairyman takes food as usual.

On the following day, it seems that the milk has always [169]become solid and is churned. Immediately after churning and without taking food, the dairyman puts together the dairy things according to the usual method followed when going from one village to another, and goes with his buffaloes to the village of Kiudr. The dairy vessels are carried in the usual manner, the new buttermilk called puthpep being in the patat and the butter in the mu.

The people living at Kiudr leave the village, and the man who has been filling the office of palikartmokh there throws away all the old dairy things and takes the mani to the stones by the side of that dairy called neurzülnkars (see p. 129). After leaving the bells there for a little time, the dairyman takes them to the pali nipa, and then his office ceases and he becomes perol.

The new palikartmokh, who has come from Kwirg, purifies the dairy and his new dairy vessels and the mani in exactly the same way as when reaching a new dairy, and then places the bells, vessels, and other objects in the dairy. During the next month, till the following new moon, the dairyman and his companions stay alone at Kiudr doing the ordinary business of the dairy. During this time they may be visited by men of the Kuudr clan, but neither by women nor by men of other clans. At the end of the month, on the Sunday after the new moon, the palikartmokh drives the buffaloes (now called ponir, festival buffaloes) to Kuudr, taking with him the puthpep and the dairy vessels. When the people at Kuudr see the dairyman coming with the ponir, they leave the village and all go to Kiudr, which the buffaloes have just left. There they hold a feast to which many people of other clans, both men and women, are invited.

When the palikartmokh reaches Kuudr, he purifies the dairy as he had done at Kiudr and puts the vessels in their places.

Certain men of the clan then come, each with a new mu, and these vessels are laid by the side of the stones called keinkars and tashtikars in the wall of the pen. At Kuudr fifteen new mu should be brought by the fifteen heads of families of the Kuudr clan. The palikartmokh then purifies each mu with tudr bark in the usual way and places the [170]vessels on the patatmar of the dairy, after which he gives food to those who have provided the vessels.

The palikartmokh with his companion or companions then stay at Kuudr for a month, when, again on a Sunday after the new moon, all the Kuudrol assemble at Kuudr and hold a feast. On that day a new palikartmokh is appointed for each dairy of the Kuudr clan. Each man goes through the usual ordination ceremony and then receives one of the new mu containing some of the new pep, which he takes to his dairy. Each new dairyman also provides new dairy vessels, and, when he reaches his dairy, purifies the mu and the new dairy things in the way already described. He puts the vessels into the dairy and then goes to milk, taking some of the new pep in his milking-vessel, and thereafter matters go on as usual. Each new dairyman fasts while going to his dairy with the new pep, although the rest of the people are feasting.

Those who remain at Kuudr bury the mu in which the pep was brought from Kwirg. It is buried by the side of the pen, under a tree called teikhkwadiki.

The ceremony of making new pep is carried out on the same lines in all dairies, but usually it is less complicated and fewer villages have to be visited than in the case of the Kuudrol. It seems that there is a tendency in some clans to perform the ceremony less rigidly than of old. Thus, the Kars people used to go to Keshker for new pep, but now they perform the ceremony at Kars itself, so that the migration to a new place with its attendant ceremonial is avoided.

There are certain differences in the procedure in the case of Teivali and Tarthar clans. One, the necessity for new pep after the funeral of a male, has been already mentioned.

Another difference is that there is a buried mu for each kind of dairy, so that a clan which has two or three kinds of dairy will have two or three mu buried in the pen. If it is the mu belonging to the wursuli which is broken or tampered with, the ceremony is performed by the wursol, who takes earth from the footprints of one of the wursulir. If the mu of the kudrpali is injured, the kudrpalikartmokh performs the ceremony, taking earth from the footprints of one of the other [171]kinds of sacred buffaloes. Thus at Kars he takes it from the prints of the martir.

At Kanòdrs new pep has to be made at a place called Kautarmad, which I could not identify. It is a long way from Kanòdrs, but the people have to go there because the god Kwoto used to make pep there. There is one feature peculiar to the ceremony for this clan. Earth has to be taken from a certain spot from which it was taken by Kwoto, and this earth is mixed with that taken from the footprints of the buffalo.

Another special feature of the Kanòdrs dairy is connected with the buried mu and is probably the result of the fact that this dairy is now only occupied occasionally. When the pohkartpol leaves the dairy on vacating office, he takes up the buried mu, pours into it a small quantity of pep, and reburies the vessel, covering it on the top with a stone. When he resumes office, he takes up the mu and purifies it with the two kinds of earth used in the full ceremony, and puts the pep which has been buried into his milking-vessel when he goes out to milk for the first time. As in other Tarthar clans, the full ceremony of pepkaricha is only carried out when the mu is broken or stolen, and after the funeral of a male.

A characteristic feature of Toda dairy procedure is the coagulation of the milk before it is churned. This coagulation occurs in a few hours without the addition of rennet or other special coagulating agent, the milk drawn in the morning being nearly always solid at the time of the afternoon churning. This rapid coagulation of the milk is almost certainly assisted By the added buttermilk or pep, the curdling being probably an acid coagulation set up or hastened by the addition of the sour buttermilk. If this were the case, it might be expected that habitual failure of the milk to coagulate might be regarded as a reason for making new pep, and I therefore inquired carefully into this point. It was quite clear, however, that delay in the coagulation was not looked upon as a reason for the ceremony. If there was habitual delay, it was customary to consult the diviners, and they always gave one of two reasons for the delay: either that it was due to the action of a sorcerer, or that the dairyman had committed one [172]of the offences against the dairy of which a list is given on p. 295.

If delay were said to be due to the first cause, the sorcerer would be invited to the village, entertained with food, and induced to remove his spell; if to the second cause, the dairyman would have to perform the irnörtiti or similar ceremony; but there was never any question of making new pep, the necessity for this ceremony being entirely dependent on the condition of the buried dairy vessel.

The ceremony of irpalvusthi (buffalo milk he milks) is performed about the fifteenth day after the birth of a calf. It only takes place when one of the sacred buffaloes has calved, and is not performed in ordinary villages for putiir, nor at the ti for punir. It is performed after the birth of both male and female calves. The ceremony is carried out in the same fashion at the wursuli, the kudrpali and the tarvali, but has different features at the kugvali of Taradr and at the ti.

There are special days for the ceremony. At the tarvali, it must be performed on Sunday, Wednesday, or Saturday; at the kudrpali and wursuli, on Sunday or Wednesday; at the kugvali on Saturday. The ceremony is performed at the ti, but I omitted to obtain any account of the proceedings at this grade of dairy.

When this ceremony is held at the village of Kuudr, a man from Òdr belonging to the Nodrsol must attend, and similarly a man from Kuudr must be present when the ceremony is performed at Kuudr, this regulation being the result of certain events in the histories of the buffaloes of these places (see p. 647).

At each of the three kinds of dairy which follow the same procedure, the chief part is taken by the dairyman. At the wursuli, the wursol officiates, and at the kudrpali and tarvali, the palikartmokh.

The first appropriate occasion after the fifteenth day from the birth of the calf is appointed and the dairy is purified with [173]dried buffalo-dung. Contrary to the general rule, the lamp is lighted on the morning of this day. All the buffaloes are milked as usual; one or two pun of milk being poured into the patat and all the rest into the ertat.

The dairyman then puts some milk into the milking-vessel, and, carrying his wand, he leads the fifteen-day-old calf to its mother to be suckled. While the calf is being suckled, the dairyman strikes the mother on the right side of the back three times with the wand, saying “Oñ” each time. He then puts the wand on the top of the milking-vessel and, holding both in his left hand, milks the buffalo once or twice with the other hand, so that the milk splashes on the wand as it falls into the vessel. The vessel and wand are then laid at the back of the dairy, which the dairyman enters to prepare food, boiling grain or rice with milk in a special vessel (ertat) kept for the purpose. While the food is being cooked the dairyman takes some of the grass called kakar and the plant called kabudri, and sweeps the interior of the dairy with them, beginning at the patatmar. While doing this and during his other operations on this day, he must not turn his back to the contents of the dairy. After having swept the dairy, he lays the kakar and kabudri by the wall of the building, again takes the milking-vessel and wand from the back of the dairy, and, having called the people of the village, he salutes by raising the vessel and wand to his forehead and prays, all present praying with him. I am not certain whether it is the prayer of the village or a special prayer which is used on this occasion. After praying, the dairyman lays the wand on the top of the patat and pours the milk which he obtained from the buffalo into the patat over the wand. He puts the latter in its appointed place and then goes to the ertatmar, where he prepares a large number of leaves on which he portions out the food (tòrkisthiti) which he has prepared, and all the people present take this food outside the dairy. On the following day, the buffalo which has calved is milked with the rest.

When this ceremony is performed at the wursuli dairy, it is the only occasion on which the wursol prepares food; at all other times, the food of this dairyman is prepared by [174]the palikartmokh. On this occasion the wursol not only cooks food for himself but for all those present. Another distinctive feature of this ceremony is that it is the only occasion on which the milk of the wursulir is ever drunk.

The day of irpalvusthi is the only day on which the dairymen of the three kinds of dairy, with the exception of the wursol of certain dairies, do their work kabkaditi, i.e., do not turn their backs to the contents of the dairy.

At the kugvali of Taradr, the ceremony is more elaborate. It begins in the afternoon, when the dairy is purified with dried buffalo-dung. Three large pieces of the wood called kid are brought, and the dairyman ties the small piece of cloth called petuni to the milking-vessel and to a special wand called irpalvusthpet.3 He also ties petuni in the form of rings round the ring and little fingers of his right hand and round the ring finger of his left hand. He then goes out with the milking-vessel and wand, and after saluting by raising them to his forehead, he goes to the place where the buffaloes are milked and prays there.

The kugvalikartmokh then takes the calf to its mother and milks as at the other dairies, but in this case he milks the buffalo completely, and if, by doing so, he has not filled his milking-vessel, he fills it with the milk of putiir. He pours this milk into the majpariv, which has been carefully cleaned, and puts the three pieces of kid wood in the fireplace. He puts into the milk three measures (ak) of rice, but adds neither salt nor jaggery. When the food is ready, he portions it out on leaves and gives to those present, who must on this occasion be limited to the people of the village. This ceremony occurs on Saturday evening.

On the following day, the ceremony is repeated, being called on this occasion îrpatadûthti, i.e., “buffalo milk he uses publicly.” When preparing food on this day the kugvalikartmokh puts into the milk eleven ak of rice4 and adds both salt and jaggery. The number of pieces of wood used is not limited to three, but any quantity may be burnt. When the food is ready, he goes out of the dairy and finds [175]assembled a large number of people, including guests from other villages and clans. Among them a Melgars man must be included or there could be no ceremony. When the dairyman sees the people, he says “Ol pudra?” “People, have you come?” They answer “Pudspimi,” “We have come.” The dairyman then brings the stirring-stick (put), and, taking up some of the food on the stick, says “Tütr erkina?” “At the fire shall I throw?” and the people answer “Tütr eri!” “At the fire, throw!” The dairyman then throws the food on the stick into the fire, and portions out the rest of the food among the people, who eat it outside the dairy.

From the birth of the calf until this ceremony, the buffalo is not milked and the calf is kept, when not with its mother, in the small enclosure called kush. After the ceremony, the buffalo is milked like the rest of the herd, and the calf joins the others in the ordinary calf-house, or kwotars.

Salt is given to the buffaloes five times a year, both at the ti mad and the ordinary village. At the ti the salt is given with buttermilk, and the ceremony is known as mòrup. At the ordinary village buttermilk is not given, and there is no general name for the ceremony, though there are special names for three of the five occasions on which salt is given. These special names are also used at the ti. The first occasion is kòrup, or ‘new grass salt,’ which takes place in the month Nalani (February-March). The second is marup or ‘again salt,’ a month later in Ani. The next two occasions have no special names, but in the ordinary village are known as arsup, ‘house salt,’ given in the months Ovani and Kirdivi (June-July and September-October). The last occasion is in the month Emioti (November-December), and is known as paniup, meaning ‘frost salt.’ In the case of kòrup and paniup, it seemed that salt was given shortly before the time at which the young grass and frost respectively were expected.

At the ti the ceremony is performed on the Sunday or Tuesday following the new moon. At the Nòdrs ti it should [176]be done for the tiir on Sunday and for the warsir on Tuesday, but this now only happens when the buffaloes are at Òdrtho and Kudreiil, where the dairies of the two kinds of buffaloes are at some distance apart. At Mòdr and Anto and other dairies, the ceremony is performed for both kinds of buffalo on a Sunday. At the Pan ti the day for the ceremony is Tuesday, and at the Kars ti, Sunday.

On the day before the ceremony each palol5 digs a round hole called the upunkudi at a prescribed spot, or more commonly enlarges the hole remaining from a previous ceremony. On the following day each palol carries out the usual morning churning and milking, but before drinking buttermilk the dairy is cleansed with buffalo-dung. The palol then pours into the vessel called alug two kudi of buttermilk and takes the vessel and some salt to the upunkudi. He throws bark of the tudr tree three times into the hole, three times into the buttermilk and on the salt, and going to the spring he throws the bark three times into the water, saying “Oñ” each time. The palol then fills the alug with water from the spring, mixing it with the buttermilk already in the vessel. He adds salt, saying “Oñ” three times, and the whole is poured into the upunkudi. A special buffalo is then brought to the upunkudi; at the Nòdrs ti the ti palol first leads up the buffalo belonging to the unir which is called Enmars and the wars palol takes the buffalo of the perithir called Òrsum, this act of sending a special buffalo first being called îrpârsatiti. After this all the buffaloes are taken to drink in groups of five or six. When the hole has been emptied, it is refilled with salt and water, but this time no buttermilk is added. When all the buffaloes have drunk, each palol pulls some of the grass called kargh and throws it into the hole three times and returns to his dairy to take buttermilk from the kaltmokh as usual.

At the ordinary village the salt-giving ceremony is performed about a week after it has been done at the ti. Any day may be chosen except the madnol, palinol, or arpatznol.6 Thus at Kuudr the ceremony may be performed on any day [177]except Tuesday and Friday; at Kars, on any day except Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

On the three occasions with special names, kòrup, marup, and paniup, guests come from other villages, but at the arsup this does not happen. As in the case of the irpalvusthi ceremony, a man from Kuudr must be present at the salt-giving ceremony of Òdr and a man from Òdr must be present at Kuudr.

The ceremony is performed by the palikartmokh after the people of the village have made the hole or upunkudi.7 The palikartmokh takes from the dairy the vessel corresponding to the alug of the ti, viz., the tat, but does not take buttermilk. Tudr bark is used in the same way as at the ti.

At a Teivali village, the pasthir drink first. At a Tarthar village at which there is a wursol, the wursulir drink first, the act of sending certain buffaloes first being called irparsatiti as at the ti. After the buffaloes have drunk, kargh grass is thrown into the hole, first by the dairyman and then by all the others present, but it is only thrown once by each person, who says “Oñ” as he throws.

The object of this ceremony is said to be that the buffaloes shall give a plentiful supply of milk.

This god is the earliest of whom any tradition is preserved. His name is Pithi or Püthi, and he is often called Pithioteu. He was born near the sacred dairy of Anto in a cave which had the same shape as the ordinary Toda hut. According to one account, Pithi created Todas and buffaloes, but there seemed to be little doubt that this is not the correct tradition, which assigns the act of creation to his son Ön. There is a suggestive resemblance between the name of this god and the Sanscrit word for earth, Prithivi, which is in common use in Southern India.

Ön was the son of Pithi. He created the buffaloes and the Todas and became the ruler of Amnòdr, the world of the dead, where he now lives.

One day Ön went with his wife Pinârkûrs to Mêdrpem (the top of the Kundahs). There he put up an iron bar which stretched from one end of the pem to the other. Ön stood at one end of the bar and brought forth buffaloes from the earth, 1,600 in number. Then Pinarkurs tried to produce buffaloes and she stood at the other end of the bar and produced 1,800 buffaloes.

Behind Ön’s buffaloes there came out of the earth a man, holding the tail of the last buffalo, and this was the first Toda. Ön took one of the man’s ribs (parikatelv or magalelv) from the right side of his body and made a woman, who was the first Toda woman. The Todas then increased in number very rapidly so that at the end of the first week there were about a hundred.1

The descendants of the buffaloes created by Ön became sacred buffaloes, while the descendants of those created by his wife are the ordinary buffaloes. [185]

Ön had a son called Püv. One day when Püv was acting as palikartmokh at Kuudr, he was churning in the dairy with a ring on the little finger of his right hand. When the dairyman goes to fetch water he should always take the churning stick out of the patat or vessel in which the milk is churned. On this occasion Püv left it in the patat and went out to fetch water. As he was going a black bird called karpüls tried to check him, saying “tîs, tîs, tîs,” meaning “Don’t go to the water,” but Püv paid no attention and went on. When he was taking the water the ring dropped from his little finger into the spring. Püv saw the ring in the water, but could not reach it, and so he got into the spring. The water was not deep, and yet as soon as he stepped into the spring it completely covered him and he was drowned. When Ön found that his son was lost he cried very bitterly and covered himself with his cloak (tuni). (Ön is said to have been a palol at this time.) When Ön covered himself he looked downwards and saw, as through a veil, his son in Amnòdr playing with the ring, putting it on and off his finger.2

When Ön saw that his son was in Amnòdr he did not like to leave him there alone and decided to go away to the same place. So he called together all the people and the buffaloes and the trees to come and bid him farewell. All the people came except a man of Kwòdrdoni named Arsankutan. He and his family did not come. All the buffaloes came except the arsaiir, the buffaloes of the Kwòdrdoni ti. Some trees also failed to come. Ön blessed all the people, buffaloes and trees present, but said that because Arsankutan had not come he and his people should die by sorcery at the hands of the Kurumbas, and that because the arsaiir had not come they should be killed by tigers, and that the trees which had not come should bear bitter fruit. Since that time the Todas have feared the Kurumbas, and buffaloes have been killed by tigers. All the Todas and all the buffaloes appear to have suffered for the evil deeds of Arsankutan and the arsaiir.

Then Ön went away to Amnòdr, taking the buffaloes [186]and the palol of the Nòdrs ti with him, and since that time Ön has ruled over Amnòdr, which is sometimes called Önnòdr after him.

This goddess is perhaps the most important of the Toda deities. She is said to have been the sister, and probably the elder sister, of Ön. I could learn very little about the story of her life, but nearly all the customs of the Todas were referred to her, and it seemed clear that when Ön left this world Teikirzi became the ruler or nòdrodchi of the Todas. Whenever I tried to obtain from the Todas an explanation of any ceremony or custom I nearly always received the reply, which was regarded as final, that it had been so ordained by Teikirzi.

It seems doubtful whether Teikirzi dwells in any special hill like other Toda deities, though there is a hill near Nòdrs especially connected with her. I was told that she lives everywhere in this world, and in answer to a question it was said even that her influence extends to London, where she dwells as she dwells everywhere else.

She is regarded as the ruler or nòdrodchi of all the Todas, and this world is often spoken of as Eikirzinòdr. At the same time Teikirzi is especially connected with Nòdrs, and she is the special nòdrodchi of this clan.

Five customs, or sets of customs, are ascribed especially to Teikirzi. These are:—

(i) Madol pâkht kwadrt vai, “Who divided and gave madol (clans).” Teikirzi is also said to have divided the Todas into their two chief divisions.

(ii) Ir pâkht kwadrt vai, “Who divided and gave buffaloes.”

Below Nòdrs, near a swamp called Keikudr, there is a small stream which at the present time Todas will not cross at a certain spot, and Teikirzi stood in this stream. According to one account she beat the water with a wand, saying “Ir padri ma” (“May buffaloes spring”), and buffaloes sprang out of the stream; but it seemed to be more generally accepted that she only divided the buffaloes on this spot by touching each animal on the back with a wand and saying [187]the name of the clan to which it was to belong. The first portion went to Nòdrs, the second to Kuudr, the third to Kars, and the fourth to Taradr. Up to this point she used a wand of kid wood (kidkurs). For the next clan, that of Keadr, the kidkurs was put away and she used a wand of tavat wood, and several other kinds of wand were used. Teikirzi was also said to have ordained at the same time that wursulir should be milked by Teivaliol and to have settled the general regulations concerning the different kinds of buffalo.

(iii) Püliol pâkht kwadrt vai, “Who divided and gave püliol.”

Teikirzi is said to have ordained that certain people should be the püliol of a man, and that püliol should not marry one another (see Chap. XXI).

(iv) Ir patz id vai, “Buffalo catch who said.” Teikirzi ordained that buffaloes should be caught at the funeral ceremonies (see Chap. XV).

(v) Kwarzam pep ostht ad vai, “Who told the kwarzam and gave pep.”

Teikirzi gave to each village its kwarzam, or sacred name, and settled the method of making new pep.

The name of Teikirzi occurs frequently in other legends. One story not mentioned elsewhere is the following:—

When Teikirzi was living at Nòdrs the people of Mysore came to fight her, but as they approached, the woods made a great noise. When the Mysore people heard the noise they stopped, and then Teikirzi cursed them and said, “Let them become stones,” and they were turned into stones, which are still to be seen below Nòdrs.

I know very little about the life-history of this deity, but he is very widely mentioned in the prayers and incantations of the Todas, and is one of their most important gods. He was the brother of Teikirzi, and differs from most other Toda deities in being a river god, Teipakh being the Toda name of the Paikara river.

Teipakh is the nòdrodchi of the Piedr and Kusharf clans.

Although there was considerable agreement that Teipakh [188]and Tirshti were one and the same god, there was some doubt about it, and, according to one account, Tirshti was only another name for Teikirzi.

I am very doubtful about the name and identity of this god. There seemed to be little doubt that he had the same name as the chief dairy of the Nòdrs ti and was the chief deity connected with this dairy. According to one account he was the son of Ön, but it is possible that the two deities were identical, Anto being Önteu. His name was sometimes pronounced Anteu or perhaps more correctly Änto or Änteu.

I have only a few incidents from the life of Anto. He once rolled a huge stone with the hair of his head from Nelkòdr in the Wainad to the top of a hill called Katthvai near the dairy of Anto. The god now lives near this dairy, resting his head on a spot called Ködrs, and stretching his legs on a spot called Tudrs. These places are about two furlongs apart so that Anto is evidently a god of a large size.

Anto is said to have made buffaloes, and the buffalo which founded the ti mad of Makars (see p. 116) was one of his creation. The fact that Anto created buffaloes increases the probability of his identity with Ön, but this is far from conclusive for there were undoubtedly several independent creations of these animals.

This deity is the nòdrodchi of the Kars clan. His original name appears to have been Kulin, and this was changed to Kulinkars. He is also called Teikhars. He inhabits a hill near Makurti Peak, which is so steep and rocky that “no man has ever climbed it.”

The following story is told of Kulinkars or Teikhars:—He once knocked on the ground and so made two buffaloes. He then told the monsoon (kwadr) to drive the buffaloes to the place to which they were to go, saying, “you must push them on.” As the buffaloes were being driven on by the monsoon, [189]a tiger went after them. When they reached a certain hill, the hill divided into two and the buffaloes went between the two parts, but still the tiger followed them. Then the buffaloes came to Kwaradr and went into the pen, and the tiger also went into the pen. When the buffaloes saw that the tiger had come into the pen, they kicked it and it died. Then one of the buffaloes said to the other, “You stay here in the pen; I am going to Tarsòdr.” Then the monsoon drove on this buffalo to Tarsòdr, which is one of the dairies of the Pan ti. The descendants of the buffalo which stayed in the pen are the pasthir of Kwaradr and the descendants of the other are among the buffaloes of the Pan ti.

Kulinkars was connected with the erkumptthpimi ceremony (see Chap. XIII) and was the mokhthodvaiol or paramour of Nòtirzi. His relation to Nòtirzi is said to have been the origin of the mokhthoditi custom (see Chap. XXII), but I was not able to obtain any detailed account of this part of the history of the god.

Kulinkars has a son called Teikhidap, who lives on Makurti Peak, and the proper Toda name for this hill is Teikhidap.

I have no details of the history of this female deity. She is the nòdrodchi of the two important clans of Melgars and Kuudr, and lives on the hill now known as Snowdon, the Toda name of the hill being the same as that of the goddess. This hill is especially sacred, and any Toda who visits it has to salute with hand to forehead (kaimukhti) in all directions. Like her mokhthodvaiol, Kulinkars, Nòtirzi is connected with the erkumptthpimi ceremony. She is said to have had a son called Tikuteithi or Teukuteithi. It is possible that this is the same as Teikuteidi, who appears in the story of Kwoten (see p. 193), but they are more probably two different deities.

A stone which is said to have been thrown by this goddess from her hill is shown close to the village of Pòln, under the tree known to English visitors to the Nilgiris as the ‘umbrella tree.’ [190]

Korateu was the son of Teikirzi. One day when Teikirzi was going from one village to another she went into a cave called Teivelkursh, by the side of a stream called Kathipa, near Kakhudri, and there gave birth to a son, who was called Azo-mazo. The afterbirth dropped into the stream and was carried down to Teipakh (the Paikara river). It travelled down the river as far as a place called Marsnavai, where there were growing two plants called tib and purs in which it became entangled. The afterbirth then slowly arose and became a boy, and the boy was Korateu. When Azo-mazo became a man he went to live at Pernòdr in the Kundahs, but Korateu lived in the river till he was eight years old. The river Teipakh was the brother of Teikirzi. As he sat in the lap of his uncle Korateu used often to play at making the buffalo horns called tebkuter (Fig. 35).3 When he was eight years old he founded a ti and created a male and a female buffalo, making both out of earth. He also built a dairy and a buffalo pen and made the garment called tuni. As soon as the buffaloes had a calf, he went to fetch a churning-stick from Kaiers, beyond Makurti Peak, and took it to Nerva, near Mòdr, where his buffaloes were standing. He then went to Kurkòdr, a bamboo grove near Meipadi in the Wainad, and made a kwoi or milking vessel. He next made the persin and the [191]mani and all the other things of a ti and became palol of the buffaloes at Òdrtho. There was a buffalo here of the kind called kughir, with the horns growing downwards. Korateu cut off these horns and gave them to the kaltmokh at Òdrtho and they are now the horns of the Nòdrs ti. Korateu then made a law that the people of Piedr should fill the office of palol and that the kaltmokh should be taken from the Melgarsol. He appointed a palol and a kaltmokh from these clans, handed over the charge of the ti to them, and went away to the hill Korateu, where he lived in an iron cave which he called a poh. He used to bathe in a pool near the hill.

FIG. 35.—IMITATION BUFFALO HORNS.

At this time Korateu was not recognised as a teu, and when the gods held council he was not summoned as a member. This made him very angry.

Near Korateu there was a wood in which there stood a tree of the kind called mòrs (Michelia nilagirica) which was about 80 feet high. Korateu ordered that honey bees (peshtein) should come to the tree, and after a time there were about 300 nests, which made the tree bend down with their weight. One day about twenty men came to collect honey, Todas, Irulas, and Kurumbas. The Todas made a fire under the tree, while the Irulas and Kurumbas climbed and collected honey from the nests. When they had collected the honey from all except three or four nests, the tree became so light that it sprang back and killed the Irulas and Kurumbas, and the Todas went home.

At this time Korateu was unmarried and he carried a stick of iron. One day a Kurumba woman came to the mòrs tree in search of honey. Korateu knocked her on the head with the iron stick and at once she became pregnant. That evening she gave birth to a daughter, who was very beautiful, and Korateu decided to marry the child and sent away the mother that night. (According to another version, the child was so beautiful that the mother was frightened and went away to her own village, and Korateu fed the child with milk and fruit and honey, and when she grew up he married her.)

Soon after the death of the Irulas and Kurumbas a sambhar calf came to Korateu, who caught it, tamed it, and [192]kept it for a month. Then certain Todas went to Korateu and asked him for a place. Korateu gave them a place and said that it should be called Keradr. The people of Keradr then asked for buffaloes. So Korateu gave them the sambhar calf and said that it should become buffaloes for them, and he ordered that the buffaloes should be called miniapir, and that the calves should be called mâvelkar—i.e., calf from a sambhar. This was the origin of Keradr and of its wursulir, which are still called miniapir, and they are the only buffaloes of the Todas which were made from sambhar.

After these things had happened the gods recognised that Korateu was a teu, and calling him asked him who he was. He answered that he was the son of Teikirzi, and the manmokh or sister’s son of Teipakh. He was then admitted as one of the gods and now lives on the hill Korateu, but still sometimes sits in the lap of Teipakh. He is the nòdrodchi of the Keradr and Keadr clans, and the chief villages of these clans are near his hill. He is called Kuzkarv when mentioned in prayer.

Another god, called Etepi, is said to be the same god as Korateu. It appeared, however, that Korateu lived on one hill and Etepi on another, and I could not ascertain the true relation of the deities to one another.

Azo-mazo is mentioned in the prayer of the Kars ti as two deities, Azo and Mazo.

I am very doubtful as to the identity of Puzi. According to some accounts Puzi or Purzi was merely another name for Teikirzi; according to other accounts Puzi was a male deity and the husband of Teikirzi. In the following story Puzi is a female deity, inhabiting a hill near Nòdrs. She gave birth to a son called Kurindo. As soon as Kurindo was born he became fire. Puzi did not approve of this, as it seemed to show that the boy was too powerful, so she took a leaf of the kind called kwagal, pounded it and mixed it with water and sprinkled it on the fire. The fire then turned back again into a boy who was bent to one side. [193]

Puzi said, “I will put you on a hill opposite to me.” So she put him on the hill called Mopuvthut, near the village of Naters, and in order to make the hill higher she put three baskets of earth on the top, so that her son might be seen by everybody.

When Kurindo was on his hill he thought to himself, “My mother has treated me badly; she sprinkled me with water and quenched my power, and she has made me bent to one side; I do not like to be opposite to her.” So he went away to a hill near Kanòdrs. This was before the time of Kwoten and before the Kamasòdrolam had run away (see p. 195). While Kurindo was living on this hill a strange tribe came to the hills, so Kurindo again moved and went away to the hill of Arsnur on the Mysore side, where he still lives.

There is a hill called Puthi on which a fire is lighted at certain times (see p. 291) and the god inhabiting this hill was, according to one account, the husband of Teikirzi. It is possible that Puthi and Puzi are the same, but I think it more probable that they are two separate gods, each having his own hill, Puthi being the husband of Teikirzi, and Puzi being the deity of this legend.

The following legends differ from the preceding in that they appear almost certainly to record the lives of deified men. The first legend deals with three men of different clans, but the sons of three sisters. The second deals with the life of Kwoto, and professes to be the history of a being of miraculous birth who came to be accepted by the gods, not only as one of their number, but as superior to themselves. These two legends were known far more thoroughly and universally than any of the preceding. It seems most probable that they are records of men who really lived, and that the life of each has become a nucleus round which have grown various miraculous and portentous incidents.

There were once three men, the children of three sisters. The eldest was Kwoten, who belonged to Pan, the second was Teikuteidi, who belonged to Taradr, and the youngest [194]was Elnâkhum of Nòdrs. (According to one account the father of Kwoten was Purten, and his mother was Tiköni of Keradr. They lived at Pan and Kiursi, and Kwoten was born at Pan. Purten died when Kwoten was thirty years old and Tiköni died six years later.)

Kwoten had a wife called Kwoterpani. She did not like her husband, but preferred a man of Kanòdrs called Parden. One day Kwoten took his wife to a place called Timukhtar (near the spot where Sandy Nullah toll-bar now stands). He gave her only the loin-cloth called tadrp to wear, hoping that she would be cold and uncomfortable and would sleep with him, but she refused. Kwoten then took her to Kûdrîdjpül near Mulòrs, where there was a large wood. In this wood there was a tree of the kind called külmän, into which Kwoten climbed and made a bed. Below him, about three feet above the ground, he made a small bed for his wife, and under the tree, close to his wife’s bed, he tied a big male buffalo. He did this because he thought a tiger might come to take the buffalo during the night when his wife would be frightened and would climb up the tree to his bed. During the night a tiger came and took away the buffalo, but even this did not induce the woman to go to her husband. Next morning Kwoten took his wife to Pòlâdri, which belonged to the Panol. This village was near Miuni, and there Kwoten became a palikartmokh. One day Kwoten was in the dairy and his wife in the hut when Parden came from Kanòdrs. Kwoten’s wife knew that her husband was in the dairy, and endeavoured to prevent Parden from going into the hut by giving him buttermilk. Kwoten found that Parden had come, and sharpened a big knife to kill him, and when he came out of the dairy, Parden ran away towards Kanòdrs and Kwoten followed with the knife.

Kwoten’s sister had married a Kars man and was living with him at Nasmiòdr, and at this time Kwoten’s mother was staying at this place. As Parden ran away, pursued by Kwoten, they had to pass Nasmiòdr, and Kwoten’s mother saw them, and said, “How is it that my son does not catch Parden?” Then she cursed Parden, saying “On sati udairnùdr, Kârkaḍith mul uḍith pâtmâ”—viz., “If I have reverence [195]to the village, may he be checked by the tree with thorns in the Kark wood.” When Parden reached a stone now called Pardenkars, Kwoten caught him up and tried to kill him, but the knife struck the stone instead and split it into two pieces. Then Parden ran on to the wood called Kark, where he was caught by a tree with thorns (brambles) so that Kwoten was able to kill him.

When the news of the death of Parden reached Kanòdrs all the people were very much afraid, and all ran away except one old man and his wife. As the people were going, they sent a message to the Kotas at Tizgudr. Two Kotas took a grain pounder (wask) and went to Pòladri. When Kwoten was told that the Kotas were coming he went and hid himself. The Kotas came and stood near the village and were told that Kwoten had gone away. Then they told Kwoten’s wife, who at this time was pregnant by Parden, to come out of the hut. She came out and went to the Kotas, who asked her where Kwoten was. She said she did not know, whereupon the Kotas were vexed, and pierced her belly with the pounder, so that she died. Her funeral took place at Tadendari, and that of Parden at Arâdr.

The people of Kanòdrs ran away to a place called Penasmalpet, near Malmathapenpet, and are known as the Kamasòdrolam. They have never been seen since, but the Todas have heard from various wandering tribes that they still exist and that they live on a hill from which they can see Kanòdrs, and that when the Kamasòdrolam see a fire at Kanòdrs they shave their heads and make a special kind of food called ashkkarthpimi.

When the Kanòdrs people ran away there remained behind one old man called Muturojen and his wife Muturach,4 who were living in a village near Kanòdrs called Mîtâhârzi. When the people left, the old man went to the Kanòdrs dairy to churn the milk left there by those who had run away, and he stayed there, sleeping in the kwotars or calves’ hut, as the dairyman should do at Kanòdrs. His wife used to come every day as far as a place called [196]Pîtipem, where she rubbed a place with buffalo-dung and sat down.

While sitting there one day an eagle (kashk) sat on her head, and she became pregnant, and went back to the village and gave birth to a son. When Kwoten heard of this he wished to kill the child and set out to do so. The old woman’s daughter, who had married a Kars man, sent her husband to warn her parents that Kwoten was coming to kill them. The Kars man met Kwoten and ran away from him towards Kanòdrs, followed by Kwoten’s dog. When he came to a hill above the village he called out that Kwoten was coming. When the old man heard him, he cursed Kwoten and those with him; the latter became stones and Kwoten himself (according to the story as told by the Kanòdrs people) was stung by honey bees and died. The people of Kanòdrs are descended from the son born to the old woman. If this old woman was not a Toda, as her name and that of her village suggest, this would seem to point to a tradition that the people of Kanòdrs are descended from an ancestor of a different race from the other Todas (see p. 640).

Owing to the behaviour of Kwoten to the Kanòdrs people there has ever since been karaivichi (trouble) between the people of Pan and Kanòdrs. They do not intermarry and no Kanòdrs man may go to one of the chief villages (etudmad) of the Pan people nor may a Pan man go to an etudmad of Kanòdrs.

According to the above account Kwoten died after being cursed by the old man, but this is only a feature of the story as told by the Kanòdrs people, and in the account given by others Kwoten had many other adventures and finished his life in this world in a very different manner. He married a second wife, who, like the first, objected to her husband and preferred a man of Keradr, whose name was Keradrkutan. Kwoten lived with this wife at Kazhuradr, near Isharadr. At that time women wore the garment called än, which is dark grey like the tuni of the palol, and is now only used as a funeral garment. [197]

Keradrkutan used frequently to come to Kazhuradr, and this vexed Kwoten, who told his wife to have nothing to do with the man. She encouraged Keradrkutan, however, and this vexed Kwoten so much that he took off her än and brought a thorny bush called peshteinmul and beat her all over with the bush, so that she became covered with blood. Kwoten at this time wore the garment called tuni, which he then took off, dipped it in water, and rubbed it all over his wife so that she became the colour of tuni, and then he gave her back her än and went to his dairy. While he was in the dairy Keradrkutan came stealthily to the village. When the woman saw Keradrkutan she cried very bitterly and said, “Kwoten has beaten me very severely so that I shall die; come and see me.” When Keradrkutan went into the hut, the woman died.

Before this time, when Kwoten was one day beating his wife, she abused him, saying, “Talrs ti oditha vai, Kòlrs kûv oditha vai; en puspad”—“You have no ti, you have no Kotas: why do you beat me?” This was to reproach Kwoten because the Pan people had no ti buffaloes and had no Kotas to make things for them. So Kwoten went and complained to his brother Teikuteidi. Teikuteidi was very sorry, and in order to remove the reproach he persuaded Elnâkhum of Nòdrs to give certain buffaloes of the kind called unir from the Nòdrs ti. Elnâkhum gave a two-year-old calf (pòl) and a one-year-old calf (kar), and also two bells (mani) to put on their necks. The two bells were called Tarskingg and Takhingg. The calves were then standing at Kuladrtho and were taken by Kwoten to the tars poh of Pan. He tied the two bells to one of the calves called Kazhi. These bells ought properly to have been tied to the buffalo called Enmars which remained behind at Kuladrtho. Then Enmars went to Anto and complained as follows:—

“kî mêdr, “inferior neck, kî kevi, inferior ear, ninkûtth to your council pòrâni”5 I will not come”

i.e., “I will not come to your presence with naked neck and [198]ear.” Anto told him not to grieve because he had lost the mani, and that instead

Melgarsol Melgars man teirpülk pül of Anto to mudâ mâ in front go may nî pud you come Antosh at Anto pep ûn pep drink

i.e., “When you go to Anto, a Melgars man shall go in front of you to the pül of Anto; when you come to Anto you shall drink pep.” To this day, when the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti go in procession to Anto a Melgars man goes in front and the buffalo called Enmars drinks pep at Anto. At the same time Anto prophesied to Enmars that a misfortune would befall Teikuteidi, saying

“wûrâdr “whole year nols day Teikuteidi tan himself ennâth without numbering piriedkin, I will divide, at vokh!” go away!”

When Teikuteidi heard of this prophecy he was much grieved, and was very careful to do all the following ceremonies:—erkumptthiti, upatiti, punkudrtiti, tatmadthkudrtiti, petkudrtiti, mukudrtiti, adikudrtiti, parivkudrtiti, tatòtiti, muòtiti, ponkastiti and irpalvusthi—viz., sacrifice of calf, salt-giving, purification of pun, tat and madth, pet, mu, adi, and pariv, etc.6 He performed all these ceremonies to escape the prophesied evil, for if he had succeeded in doing them all for the whole twelve months the prophecy would not have been fulfilled. On the very last day he forgot the prophecy and did not perform the ceremonies, but went to a place called Kirspem, where he sat under the shade of pülmän. There is a flower which blossoms on this tree in the rainy season only, and then the bees come. When Teikuteidi was sitting under the tree it was not the rainy season and he was very much surprised to hear the humming of honey bees in the tree. The noise was being made by a kazun7 which had taken the form of a [199]bee. He looked up to see if there were any flowers to attract the bees and could not see them, neither could he see any bees. Then he thought for a little while and remembered Anto’s prophecy, so he did not remain under the tree, but went away to Kirsgòrs to attend the funeral of a wursol of Nòdrs (see p. 439). When the funeral was over Teikuteidi set out with companions to go to Kerkars (a place near Paikara). On the way they passed Kwongudrpem (near Kuudi). There he stopped and began to count his companions; he counted them, but forgot to include himself, saying that there were twenty when they started and now only nineteen, and he thought for a long time who the lost person could be. When he was looking in the direction of the funeral-place for the lost companion, he saw a lame man named Keikarskutan, who had a purs and ab (bow and arrow). Keikarskutan lay down and shot the arrow8 and it came towards Teikuteidi with a sound like a bird’s voice. Teikuteidi was looking to see what sort of bird it was when the arrow pierced both his eyes9 and he died. When his companions found that he was dead, they held the funeral at Kerâs, and at the place where he died they made a mark with four stones like a cross, one for his head, one for his legs and one for each hand.

Kwoten was responsible for various features of the organisation of the Pan people. He divided them into two parts, the Panol and Kuirsiol, and also divided the ti into two parts, the wars ti, which was to belong to the Panol, and the tars ti to the Kuirsiol. He settled that the palol of the ti should be chosen from the people of Keadr. When there is a funeral in any clan a palol belonging to that clan must give up his office; hence, in order that his ti should never be without a palol, Kwoten separated the people of Keadr into two divisions, the Keadrol and the Kwaradrol, so that a member of one division might be palol if a member of the other division died. [200]This was the origin of the division of the Keadr people into the Keadrol and the Kwaradrol.

One day Kwoten went to the wars ti of Pan and took buttermilk and slept there, and he did the same at the arsaiir ti of Kwòdrdoni, and since that day the people of Pan have had the privilege of taking buttermilk and sleeping at the places of each ti.

Kwoten also made two teiks (stones or wooden posts at which buffaloes are killed at the funerals), the parsteiks for the Panol and the kirshteiks for the Kuirsiol.

It is owing to the example of Kwoten that the Todas now take meals in Kurumba villages. Before his time they had never done so, but Kwoten one day went to a Kurumba village and took food, and since that time all Todas have done so.

Kwoten was also the first Toda to go to a Kota village. He wanted one day to go to Mitur in the Wainad, and as it was getting dark and he was still on his way, he went to the Kota village of Kulgadi (Gudalur). He sat on their tün, or bed, got new pots and food from them, and, taking both to the stream called Marspa or Marsva, he cooked and ate the food there, and then, returning to the village, slept on a Kota tün. Since that time Todas have gone to that village, and have done as Kwoten did, but they will not go to any other Kota village.

One day Kwoten went with Erten of Keadr, who was spoken of as his servant, to Pòni, in the direction of Polkat (Calicut). At Pòni there is a stream called Palpa, the commencement of which may be seen on the Kundahs. Kwoten and Erten went to drink water out of the stream at a place where a goddess (teu) named Terkosh had been bathing. When Kwoten was about to drink from his hands, he found in the water a long golden hair; he measured the length of the hair and found it was greater than his height; he had a long stick in his hand called pirs, and found that the hair was longer than this stick. Then he asked Erten about it. Erten knew it was the hair of a teu, but thought it best not to tell Kwoten, and tried to persuade him that it was of no importance, and proposed that they should return home. [201]Kwoten, however, insisted on finding out from whom the hair came, so they went along the stream. Kwoten went first and Erten had to follow him. As they went they met the bird called karpüls going from the right side to the left,10 uttering its cry. Kwoten asked Erten why they met the bird, why it went from right to left, and why it made a cry. Erten replied as follows:—

“Nòdr udoi “Country (God) if there is kwudrpedrshai; Naraian sami kaipedrshai.” you will die; Naraian will kill you.”

In spite of this warning, Kwoten persisted in going on, and finally they came to Terkosh, who said to Kwoten, “Do not come near me, I am a teu.” Kwoten paid no heed to this, but said, “You are a beautiful woman,” and went and lay with her. Then Terkosh went away to her hill at Pòni, where she is now, and to this day the Kurumbas go there once a year and offer plantains to her and light lamps in her honour.

Kwoten and Erten returned home. Kwoten went to Kepurs, a village now in ruins, close to Nanjanad, and Erten went to a village called Kapthòri belonging to the Keadrol. Kwoten had about five hundred buffaloes grazing at Pazhmokh, near Kepurs. That night Kwoten slept on the idrtul over which he had spread a sambhar skin. He had on his finger a thick silver ring, which may still be seen at Naters and is used in the funeral ceremonies of men of the Pan clan. When the people awoke next morning they found that Kwoten had disappeared and that there only remained, lying on the sambhar skin, the silver ring and some pug.11 Kwoten had been carried away by Terkosh and it was found that his five hundred buffaloes had also disappeared.

When Erten got up next morning he went to Kepurs and called out to the wursol of that place, “Wursolia, tar tûrshoḍthrska”12—“O wursol, is the man up yet?” The wursol [202]replied, “Pülmâv tars pògh udisvichi”—“On the sambhar skin blood is lying.” Erten replied, “Aroth pun pârs Pâlmän kwark putvai, nadrtivadr”—“Take sixty vessels of milk to the wood of Palmän and pour out.” So the wursol took sixty pun of milk and poured it out in the wood as Erten had ordered him.

Then since Kwoten had gone away, Erten did not want to live any more; he took a large creeper called melkudri, and tied it round his neck and tried to strangle himself, but when he pulled the creeper it broke into several pieces. He was much disappointed, but took another kind of creeper called kakkudri, but this broke in the same way. He then tried teinkudri, which also broke. Finally he took kakhudri,13 and with this he succeeded in strangling himself. Then the wursol and all those who had helped in pouring out the milk also strangled themselves with kakhudri. Since this time it has been a custom among the Todas to commit suicide by strangling.

Kwoten and Terkosh are now living on two hills near Pòni, which face one another, and Erten has also become a teu and lives on a smaller hill near those of Kwoten and Terkosh. Whenever a Toda sees Kwoten’s hill for the first time, he lies down on his right side and sings twice the following words: “Seizâr zon, Kwoten âr zon, Seizâr zon, Terkosh âr zon.” I could not discover the meaning of these words, and fancy that the Todas themselves do not know exactly what they mean. It is possible that âr is the word meaning six.

The history and fate of Teikuteidi, the second brother of Kwoten, has been given in the story of Kwoten. He belonged to Taradr, and according to one account the kugvalir of that place were sent to him. Very little is related about the third brother, Elnâkhum. He had 1,800 buffaloes, but though he had so many, he was always going to other Todas and saying “I have nothing to milk; lend me a buffalo to milk,” and all his life he used to beg. It is owing to his example that the Todas have begged ever since, and are not ashamed to do so even when they are rich. [203]

Elnâkhum is said to have built the long wall which still exists at the village of Nòdrs.

The story of Kwoten reads very much like that of a man who really lived and was deified after his death. The minute detail with which several of the natural incidents of his life are known might be held to point in this direction, but perhaps more important is the fact that his ring can still be seen, and that his spear was, according to Breeks, in existence not long ago. It looks as if Kwoten was a man who raised Pan from a comparatively insignificant position among the Todas to be one of their chief clans, and was the means of introducing several innovations in Toda custom. It is probable that he was deified after his death, and that some of the incidents of his life have acquired miraculous characters.

There was once a man belonging to Melgars who married a woman of Kanòdrs and took her to Melgars. When she became pregnant, the woman was taken by her husband to Kanòdrs. On the way back to Melgars they passed Ushadr, the place where the funeral ceremonies of Melgars men took place. They were standing in front of the funeral hut at that place when the man found a good twadri tree,14 and, cutting three or four sticks from it, brought them to his wife, who stripped the bark from the sticks. While she was doing this, the pains of labour came on, and soon after she gave birth to a gourd (kem). Both husband and wife were very much ashamed, and they decided to say that a child had been born and had died, and the man went round to all the villages to say that this had happened and that the funeral would be held at Ushadr. Accordingly they had the etvainolkedr (first funeral ceremony) at Ushadr, the gourd being covered with putkuli (cloak), so that it was taken to be the body of a child.

First the buffaloes were caught and killed, and then the supposed corpse was taken to the burning-place, where a fire [204]was made and the gourd in its mantle was put on the fire. The fire first burnt the cloak, and when it reached the gourd, this broke into two pieces. One piece became a little baby, a boy, which took a piece of the burnt cloak and went away in the air to Neikhârs, where there is a big tree, under which it alighted. The other piece of the gourd was split into many fragments by the heat of the fire, and some of the fragments were driven with such force that they killed a kite which had come to the funeral. (To this day the kite does not eat the buffaloes at funerals at Ushadr, though it does so at other places.) The father and mother followed the child to Neikhârs, where they found it sitting on the tree.15 The father and mother said to the child “Ena, itvâ”—“My son, come here,” and the boy came down and went to them, and was taken away by his parents to Melgars.

As the parents and child were on their way to Melgars they met the buffaloes of the Kars ti going from Kòn to Enòdr. At that time the buffaloes of Melgars and Kars used to go with the ti buffaloes as far as a place called Irgûdrval, on the way between Kars and Enòdr. A Kars man went with the buffaloes, and he wore on his right wrist a gold bracelet (which is still kept at Kuzhu). At Irgûdrval there is a stone called Pidûtkars, and it was the duty of the man with the bracelet to sit on this stone and to make the Melgars buffaloes pass on the right side, the Kars buffaloes on the left side, and the ti buffaloes in the middle. When he had done this, the palol prayed at the stone, and then the buffaloes of Melgars and Kars turned back and the ti buffaloes went on to Enòdr. When the man and his wife saw the buffaloes coming, they waited near Pidûtkars, and while they were waiting the baby laughed. The father asked the boy, “Why do you laugh?” The boy answered, “I know the kwarzam16 [205]of the ti buffaloes, perner persagun; I know the kwarzam of the Melgars buffaloes, narsüln natüln nâkh; also I know the kwarzam of the Kars buffaloes, inâtviḍshti inâtvan; that is why I laughed.” After the buffaloes had gone on to Enòdr, the parents and child went on their way to Melgars. After they had been at Melgars fifteen days, they noticed that the child grew so rapidly that they could see him getting bigger from day to day, and he was soon grown up. He was called Kwoto.

One day Kwoto went into the buffalo pen and played there with the buffalo-dung, so that he was covered with the dust of the dung. His father rebuked him and was blowing on him to get rid of the dust when the boy changed into a kite and flew away. The next day he resumed human form, but from that time he only stayed in the village at times, and at other times stayed in the woods. This went on for about eight days, and then he refused to take food from the village and became a companion of the gods.

At this time the gods used to hold councils on the slopes below a hill called Tikalmudri. The place where they sat was called Pòlkab. When the gods were holding council at Pòlkab, Kwoto went and sat on the top of the hill Tikalmudri. Then the gods said to one another, “How is it that he sits on the top of the hill while we sit below? It is not at all good.” They consulted together and decided to kill him. So three or four of the gods went to Kwoto and said in a cunning way, “We will show you your country” (i.e., the place which should belong to him; each of the gods had his appointed place). So they took him to a steep precipice called Teipâper, and having deceived him that they would show him his country, they threw him down. Kwoto, however, was not killed, but took the form of a kite and flew back to Tikalmudri. Then all the gods were surprised that he was not dead, but decided to try and kill him again, and they took him to the hill Kòdrtho, near Nidrsi, and threw him down. (The hill Kòdrtho was inhabited by the god Kòdrtho.) Kwoto was not killed, but pulled up a bamboo tree with its roots, and flew back and struck Kòdrtho on the head, and Kòdrtho’s head split into three pieces. One of these pieces is now the well-known [206]hill, the Drug, seen from Coonoor, while the other two pieces are eminences on the ridge running out to the Drug.

Kwoto then returned to Tikalmudri. The gods said, “We cannot kill him; he has some power; let us try his power.” So they gave him the following task:

“Peivoi Low tirikvâ, turn pîdâr high pîrichvâ?” fill?

i.e., “Can he turn the low stream and fill the high stream?” (According to another account the words in which the task was given were, “Alvoi tiriki, Kalvoi pîrsvôka,” i.e., “Can he turn the stream Alvoi and fill the stream Kalvoi?”)

Kwoto then took a huge stone, which may still be seen near Kanòdrs, and put it in the stream so that it flowed upwards. Then the stream begged Kwoto, “We are going upwards according to your order, but it is very difficult for us; we wish to be allowed to go our ordinary way.” So Kwoto took away the stone and the stream resumed its natural course.

The gods saw what Kwoto had done and decided to try his power in another way, so they said:

“Kânêr Sun ât, tie, kutei stone kurs chain ütia?” can he do?

i.e., “Can he tie the sun with a stone chain?” Kwoto then took a stone chain and tied it to the sun and brought the sun down to Nern, near Kanòdrs, and tied it to a tree. When the sun wanted to drink, Kwoto took it to the stream Kalvoi, from which the sun drank, and there is now to be seen a hole in this stream at the place where the sun drank.17 Then Kwoto took the sun to a pool surrounded by trees called Nerpoiker, also near Kanòdrs. While the sun was tied in this way, it was dark both in this world and in Amnòdr. Then the people of Amnòdr came to the gods and asked why they allowed Kwoto to do these things, and said that they were now living in thick darkness, and they begged that Kwoto should be allowed to put the sun back in its right place. Then the gods went to Kwoto and asked him to put the sun [207]back, and they acknowledged that he was a god and the most powerful of the gods. They said that he should no longer be called Kwoto, but that his name should be Meilitars, because he was superior to all the gods; also that he should go “parnur nòdr, putnur nòdr”, “to 1,600 places, 1,800 places,” i.e., he should not belong to one place only, like the other gods, but should go everywhere.

Then Meilitars put back the sun in its proper place.

(According to another version, the task of tying the sun was given in the words:

“Kânêr Male buffalo ât, tie, pîrsagun sun patrôkâ?” can he catch?

The sun was said to have been at this time sitting on the back of a male buffalo, and Kwoto was told to tie the buffalo and catch the sun. According to this account Kwoto first used an iron chain, kabantagars, which was melted by the heat of the sun. Next he tried a bronze (?) chain called kuchtagars, which also melted. Then he used a stone chain, or karstagars, which did not melt, and he succeeded in tying the sun with this. (This version of the story corresponds with that given by Breeks.)

Kwoto or Meilitars was closely connected with two clans, those of Melgars and Kanòdrs. It is said to be owing to the fact that Kwoto was a Melgars man that Melgars people have the special privileges and duties which are peculiar to that clan. At any rate, this is the view held by the people of Melgars. At Kanòdrs, the name of Kwoto occupies a prominent place in the prayer of the dairy, and several of the special features of the ritual of the Kanòdrs dairy are said to exist in consequence of the many wonderful things which Kwoto had done in its neighbourhood. When new buttermilk has to be made for Kanòdrs, it is made at a place called Kautarmad, far away, because Kwoto made new buttermilk there, and in the ceremony at this place earth is taken from certain places from which Kwoto took it.

Kwoto or Meilitars is the hero of several stories, in none of which does he play a very creditable rôle.

At one time the Todas used to go to and fro between this [208]world and Amnòdr. Those who were dead stayed permanently in Amnòdr, but living people could go to visit them and return. One day Punatvan of Kars went with Meilitars to Amnòdr. They stayed there two days and two nights, and then Meilitars came away without Punatvan’s knowledge. At that time the people of Kars were living at Nasmiòdr, so Meilitars went to Nasmiòdr and said that Punatvan intended to stop in Amnòdr, and wished the Kars people to perform the funeral ceremonies for him, killing thirty buffaloes. So the Kars people caught thirty buffaloes, the chief one being called Enmon. Round the neck of Enmon were hung the two bells (wursuli mani) called Karsod and Kòni. They cut a piece of stick and put it in a putkuli to represent the dead body and then killed the thirty buffaloes. As the buffaloes were on their way to Amnòdr, they met Punatvan on his way back. Punatvan asked the chief buffalo, Enmon, “Why do you come here?” Then Enmon told him what Meilitars had done. The man and buffalo put their heads together and cried, and their tears became a pool of water.18 Then Punatvan took the two bells from the neck of Enmon and sent them back to Nasmiòdr, where they are kept to this day, but he returned to Amnòdr with the buffaloes. Then Ön, the ruler of Amnòdr, ordered that in future no one should return to the world of the living from Amnòdr, and since that day the Todas have not been able to go to and fro between the two worlds as they used to do.

At the present time the people of Keradr have no ti. Once they had a ti which they lost through the action of Kwoto, who went one day to their dairy at Tîkîrs, near Mòdr, and, hiding the kaltmokh in the wood, took his place. When the palol milks, it is the duty of the kaltmokh to let out the calves and send them to the palol. Kwoto did not do this properly, but sent more calves than were required, so the palol became angry and took his stick (kwoinörtpet) to beat the supposed kaltmokh, but the stroke missed and fell on the palol himself.

Another day the palol told Kwoto to pour out the remainder [209]of the buttermilk at the appointed place. Instead of doing this Kwoto poured it into the stream, and the buttermilk so poured became a god called Mòraman, who sends smallpox.19 Then the palol became very angry and said he would no longer be palol, if he had to keep such a kaltmokh. Then Kwoto revealed to the palol and to the real kaltmokh that he was a god, and gave them a medicine called mûvòmad, which has the property that anyone who takes it will never grow old.

After giving mûvòmad to the palol and kaltmokh, Kwoto sent them into the air, together with the dairy and the buffaloes and everything belonging to the ti, and they all went in the air to Kupars, near Pan; they stayed there for some time and then disappeared, and now nothing can be seen of them, but if people go near Kupars, they hear the voices of the palol and kaltmokh when they are talking to one another.

Since that time the people of Keradr have been without a ti.

Another story in which Kwoto played a prominent part is connected with the custom of eating flesh. I received several versions of this story and was unable to satisfy myself which was correct.

According to one account Kwoto once went to Mitur in the Wainad, where Kurumbas live. Kwoto played with these people, and one day caught and killed a wild buffalo. He said to the Kurumbas, “I have killed this buffalo; let us eat its flesh”; and he gave to each a portion. The Kurumbas ate their portions, but Kwoto only pretended to eat; he held out his putkuli in front of him and instead of eating dropped his portions inside the cloak. When the Kurumbas had finished, Kwoto got up and all saw on the place where he had been sitting the flesh which he had pretended to eat. Then the Kurumbas were angry and went to beat Kwoto with sticks, asking why he had not eaten the flesh, and they insisted that Kwoto should eat some of it. Kwoto ran away, and when the Kurumbas pursued him he [210]pretended that he was lame and consented to eat some of the flesh of the buffalo. He also told them that he was a god and said that he would dance before them, and did so like a lame man. He told the Kurumbas that whenever he came in the future, he would dance to the Kurumbas first and then to the Todas; and now the Kwoto teuol, or diviner (see Chap. XII), when he dances, does so first to the Kurumbas, and when he dances before them he does so as if he were lame.

After this Kwoto disappeared and since that time has not been seen. He is said to live in a temple at Mitur, but “wherever there is a god, there also is Kwoto, or Meilitars.”

According to another account, this story was told of the people called Panins (Panyas), but in this version Kurumbas were also said to be present, though it was the Panins who were made to eat the flesh.

According to a third account, obtained, however, from an untrustworthy informant, Kwoto practised this deception on the gods themselves, and made them eat the flesh of a calf while only pretending to eat himself. This was said to have been the starting-point of the erkumptthpimi ceremony, and Kwoto was said to have killed the calf with the same formalities as are now used in this ceremony. All other Todas strenuously denied that Kwoto made the gods eat flesh. There was, however, so much reticence about the erkumptthpimi ceremony and its history, that I am not confident that Kwoto was not in some way connected with its origin, and that the version of my untrustworthy informant may in this case have been correct.

The following are the kwarzam of the prayer used in the dairy of the village of Kuudr, the etudmad of the Kuudr clan. On the left-hand side of the page are given the kwarzam, each of which is followed by the word idith when the prayer is uttered. On the right-hand side of the page are given the objects, beings or incidents to which the kwarzam refer.

Thus, the prayer would run, “Atthkâr idith; òners idith; palitûdrpali idith; .….” and the translation would run, “For the sake of the village and clan of Kuudr; for the sake of the village of Kuudr; for the sake of the large dairy of Kuudr;.…” as far as the end of the kwarzam given above, and then would follow the prayer proper, “tanenma, tarmama,.…”

This prayer begins with two kwarzam of the village or clan, followed by others referring to the dairies and dairy vessels, buffalo pens and buffaloes. Then follow certain kwarzam of the pep or buttermilk which is of so much importance in the dairy ritual, and those of stones which play a part in the ceremonies attending purification of the dairy vessels. After the kwarzam of the dairy spring, there follow a number of kwarzam referring to certain incidents in the [219]history of the dairy. Eikisiov is the kwarzam of a buffalo which was one day being milked at Kuudr when some of the milk was spilt on the ground. From that day the ground became swampy, and on digging, a spring of water was found which has ever since been used as the dairy spring and is called kiznîr. The two following kwarzam refer to incidents of which I have no record. Karstum is the kwarzam of a buffalo which was one day grazing on the hill Kakathûmûk when it began to bellow and could not be induced to stop; the people tried to take it back to the pen, but it would not go and died on the hill, and has ever since been remembered in the prayer. These kwarzam are followed by two referring to trees of ceremonial importance—one the tree by which is buried the mu on the integrity of which the continuity of the dairy procedure depends, while the other is connected with the sacred bell.

Then follow the kwarzam of a hill on which there are cairns and that of the sacrificial place of the village. The prayer concludes with two kwarzam of a different kind. The first refers to the act of the goddess Teikirzi, who portioned the buffaloes and assigned to each clan its share. In so doing we have seen that she touched each buffalo on the back with her wand, saying in each case to whom the buffalo should belong, and this act is commemorated in the prayer in the form, “for the sake of the dividing of the chief buffaloes with the wand.” The last kwarzam is that of the calf, from which the ordinary buffaloes or putiîr of Kuudr are descended, but I was unable to ascertain the meaning of the words, except nakh, which is the name of a three-year-old buffalo.

In the Kuudr prayer several of the kwarzam refer to incidents of a more or less miraculous nature which are believed to have happened at the village where the prayer is used, while the last kwarzam but one refers to one of the chief events of Toda mythology.

It will be noticed that many of the kwarzam used in this prayer correspond very closely to the names in ordinary use. Some, such as keitnòdi and teikhkwadiki, are the same words as those in general use, while others differ from [220]the ordinary words in the reduplication of part of the name, tûdrpali becoming palitûdrpali and kiznîr becoming nîrkiznîr.

The following are the kwarzam of the prayer used at Kiudr, which is one of the most sacred of Toda villages.

		Kwarzam of
Kîlvòh		the dairy at Kiudr.
kerâni		one of the patatmani of Kiudr.
mêdrâni		the other patatmani.
pongg		one of the ertatmani.
nongg		another ertatmani.
pelteirzi		the lamp of the dairy.
îrtîrzi		also the lamp.
känmûv		the way by which the dairyman goes from the dairy to milk; the punetkalvol.
nîrtâkh		the dairy stream.
nîrtîrshki		also the dairy stream.
keitu		the buffalo-pen.
tülivaners		the posts at the entrance of the buffalo-pen.
tashtpâlûv		the bars of the entrance of the pen.
kadrtûlikkadr		the calf enclosure.
arkatchar		the household stream.
inerti		also the household stream.
ârsvitchkârs		the house (ars) at Kiudr.
eivitchâv		also the house.
nersâdrvel		the milking place.
keikûdr		the stream which runs between the house and the dairy (see 307).
kwoteiners		all of Kiudr village.
kwelthipushol
etamûdri
eraikin
kârmus
pârvakûdr
arspem		slope of hill (pem) near Kiudr.

The special features of the Kiudr prayer are the large number of kwarzam of the village and the inclusion of the kwarzam of the house and household stream. The prayer of Kiudr is the only Toda prayer in which either the house or household stream is mentioned, and this fact is in accordance with the high degree of sanctity which has become attached to this village. It will be noticed also that [221]the buffaloes are not mentioned, and that nearly all the clauses of the prayer apply to the buildings and their contents or to other parts of the village or to the village itself. Only the last kwarzam of the prayer applies to a place not actually in the village itself, and I could not ascertain why this place was so favoured. With this exception, the Kiudr prayer is one in which the kwarzam are entirely limited to those of the village and the dairy.

It will be remembered that when the buffaloes of the Nòdrs ti migrate from Mòdr to Anto they pass by the village of Kiudr, and that the occasion is observed in various ways by the people of the village (see p. 135). I was told that certain kwarzam referring to this occasion are used in the Kiudr prayer. According to one man, these kwarzam are always recited in the prayer before those which have been already given, but others denied that they were so used. It is possible that these kwarzam are only said on special occasions, such as the day of migration, or it may be that they were formerly used, but are now being forgotten.

These kwarzam are as follow:

Then follow the kwarzam already given.

These kwarzam are of a different form from those used in the general form of prayer, and the various persons or objects mentioned are referred to either by their usual names or by slight modifications of them, as in eupalol or euvalol and eutuni. There seemed to be no doubt that these words were abbreviations of teupalol and teutuni, the omission of an initial t being not uncommon in the Toda language. Thus in this prayer the dairyman is called “god palol,” and his garment “god tuni.” [222]

Kwirg is one of the villages of the Kuudrol and is the place to which their buffaloes go when it is necessary to make new pep for the whole clan.

Kwatakwirg		Kwirg village.
kûlpudshol		Kwirg village.
palikeithiolv		the dairy.
tûmadshû		the pen.
kadrkeiri		the kadr (calf enclosure).
nîrtiûdsh		the dairy stream.
pinpunûv		a hill.
pilkârs		a hill.
âtthpep		see Kuudr prayer.
känpep
mutchudpep
keishkvet
tarskivan
petüt pati pethût îr
pûthion nâkh tarzâr maj

It will be seen that many of the clauses are common to this prayer and that of Kuudr.

The three kwarzam of pep were said to be used in every dairy of the Kuudrol, but it did not appear that they were used at Kiudr. The third, mutchudpep, is not included in the Kuudr prayer, but mutchudkars appears in its place. Two hills are mentioned in the Kwirg prayer, but there are none of the references to special events connected with the village such as exist in the prayer of Kuudr.

When I was staying at Pishkwosht and visited the conical dairy at Kanòdrs with Neratkutan, he told me that the prayer of this dairy had forty kwarzam referring to the gods, as well as many of other kinds, but on going into detail I could only obtain the following:—

Pâr nûr teu	the 1600 gods.
pût nûr teu	the 1800 gods.
Kwoto	Kwoto or Meilitars (see p. 203).[223]
Atioto	Atioto (see p. 210).
Kurindei teu	Kurindo (see p. 192).
Konteu	Konteu or Konto (see p. 211).
Anteu	Anto (see p. 188).
Pòrzo	Pòrzo		see p. 211.
Kòdrtho	Kòdrtho
Kârzo	Karzo
Teikhunteu	Teikhun
mänpóh	Kanòdrs village.
mutîrshpóh	ditto.
tûnertû	the pen.
kânêr	the sun ? (see p. 206).
kuteikurs	the stone chain used by Kwoto (see p. 207).
aners	Kuzhu village.
tûtashki	Pishkwosht village.

This prayer is quite unlike those of the other village dairies and was much more like that of a ti dairy. As we have seen, the poh of Kanòdrs resembles a ti dairy both in the elaborateness of its ritual and in the high degree of sanctity of its dairyman, and this resemblance is now seen to extend to the prayer used in the dairy ritual.

Other dairies of the Tartharol which have an especial degree of sanctity are the kugvali of Taradr and the conical dairy of Nòdrs. I made great endeavours to obtain the prayers used in these places, but without success.

The prayers offered at the ti dairies are as a general rule longer and more complex than those of the ordinary village dairy. The latter portion of the prayer, or the prayer proper, does not seem to differ from that of the ordinary dairy, the differences being in the kwarzam recited at the beginning. The different dairies of the same ti may have different prayers; thus, at the Nòdrs ti there is a special prayer for the dairy at Anto which is longer and more complicated than that used at Mòdr, but it is probable that this is exceptional and is owing to the great antiquity and sanctity of Anto. The other dairies of this ti probably use much the same prayer as at Mòdr, though there may be certain slight modifications at each. [224]

This prayer is characterised by a very large number of kwarzam referring to the dairy, its contents and surroundings. On ordinary days a shortened form of the prayer is used which consists wholly of kwarzam of this kind. On special days, such as the occasions of ponup and irnödrthiti, other kwarzam are said, including those of gods and buffaloes.

The following kwarzam are those in daily use, each being followed by the word idith as in the village prayer:—