FIG. 44.—THE ‘NERSATITI’ SALUTATION.
After the feast all the men belonging to the kudr of the irnörtpol must again leave the village, but the only one of their number who is subject to any special restrictions is the boy who has acted as ponkartvaimokh, who must avoid women and must sleep in the dairy of some village until the end of the whole business. He is spoken of as being in the condition called pon and derives his name from this.
The wursol and the palikartmokh of the village at which the ceremony has taken place must stay there for another month, but the men of the kudr which has received the calf may stay there or not as they please. No women and no [[305]]people other than men of the same kudr may visit the village during this time.
At the end of the month the people who have been occupying the village rub the dairy or dairies thoroughly with buffalo-dung (palikâratiti, dairy he purifies). All the people of the village then return and another feast takes place, in which the food is rice boiled in milk. Then the usual inhabitants of the village return to their houses, and if any men of the receiving kudr have come from another village, they return and life resumes its normal course.
The ceremony of irnörtiti may thus involve the removal of the usual inhabitants from a village for about two months, and the giving of two feasts, while the man who has offended also loses a calf. The Todas probably think little of the inconvenience of removal, though probably they are more troubled by it now than in former times, especially when they have to leave a village like Kars, which is, under normal circumstances, always inhabited at the present time. It seems that the inconvenience, together with the expense of the feasts, is sufficient to render the ceremony a very unusual incident in the lives of the Todas.
Tuninörtiti
The smaller importance of this ceremony as compared with irnörtiti is shown in several ways. The ceremony may be performed at any village at which there is a dairy, and it is not necessary for the people of the receiving kudr to stay at the village for a month before the ceremony is performed.
The prescribed day is Sunday, and on the previous day all the people of the same kudr as the giver of the tuni leave the village, and the men of the other division come and sleep in the dairy as before the irnörtiti ceremony. The man who gives the tuni is called the tuninörtpol, and he procures the garment from a Badaga, paying for it about 1 rupee 4 annas.