Nòtirzi
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 or Kuzkarv
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.