The Tersamptpimi Ceremony
This is a ceremony closely connected with the naming of a child, but only performed after the second funeral (marvainolkedr) of a Tarthar man. It seemed probable that at one time the name was actually given during the tersamptpimi ceremony, but as the marvainolkedr of Tartharol now occur only at considerable intervals, it has become the custom to bestow the name in connexion with the ceremony of uncovering the face.
The ceremony of tersamptpimi is performed on the day after the funeral, this day being called karvnol, and as in the ceremony of naming, the chief part is taken by the child’s maternal uncle. The uncle comes to the village where the child is living, bringing a stake of wood of the wild rose[21] called kadakmän. He splits the piece of wood into two pieces, each of which is called ketkark, and putting the hair of the child between the two ketkark, he cuts off a lock. If the child is of the Tarthar division, the hair is cut with a piece of sharpened iron called kanab,[22] while the hair of a Teivali child is cut with an ordinary knife (turi), but both kanab and turi on this occasion receive the special name of tersampki. After cutting the lock of hair, the uncle puts it on one side together with the ketkark and the tersampki, and if the boy has not already been named, the name is now given by the uncle and a calf promised.
Before this ceremony, the bangle of bone and stone, put [[334]]round the wrist of the child when it was shaved, is taken off and replaced by a piece of creeper called peival.[23] After the ceremony the peival is removed.
There was some doubt as to what was done with the lock of hair. Mr. Natesa Sastri states[24] that the hair is carefully preserved, but my informants did not confirm this, and it seemed as if they did not even adopt the precaution of hiding the hair, which is generally practised (see p. [268]).
The Ear-piercing Ceremony
The ceremony of piercing the ears is called kevi kûtiti, and may be done at any time from infancy up to even twenty years of age. The ceremony is often delayed until it can be performed for several members of a family at the same time in order to avoid the considerable expense connected with it. The ceremony must be done on a Sunday or Wednesday, and there must be no kedr in the clan, i.e., it must not be performed if the funeral ceremonies of a member of the clan are still unfinished.
On the day appointed for the ceremony many guests assemble at the village, and the boys whose ears are to be pierced are dressed in their best clothing. The piercing is performed by two men, one for each ear. One is the mother’s brother (mun) of the boy, while the other is a man of the division to which the boy does not belong—a Teivali man if the boy is one of the Tartharol and vice versa.