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.

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Prayer of Kiudr

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.