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.
Kwoto or Meilitars
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.