FIG. 54.—SALUTING THE DEAD BUFFALO.
Within the group of mourners there is much going hither and thither. After two people have mourned together for a while they separate, and each seeks a new partner with whom to lament. When separating, the salutation of kalmelpudithti often takes place, and, as in general, it is the younger of each pair who bows down his head and raises each foot of the other so that it touches his forehead. It seemed to be the duty of everyone to salute certain of the older men in this way; and round these men there would be a continual coming and going, each person saluting by placing his head beneath the feet of the elder. At times the band of mourners would [[358]]form a confused mass of struggling people, some crying forehead to forehead, others saluting head to foot, while others would be struggling through the mass to seek partners with whom to mourn ([Fig. 55]).
The Cloth-giving Ceremony
During or after the lamentation a ceremony is performed which is known as kachütthti[12] (kach, cloth, ütthti or ütiti, he puts). The essential feature of this ceremony is that a cloth is given by a near relative of the dead person to those who have married into his family, and the cloth is placed on the dead body by the wives of those to whom it is given. This ceremony takes place at the funerals of both sexes and for members of all clans. It is an inconspicuous ceremony, and with one exception[13] has escaped the observation of all those who have previously witnessed and recorded the procedure of [[359]]Toda funerals. It takes place in the middle of a crowd, who gather round the corpse possibly while the lamentation is still going on or while other ceremonies are in progress. In the first funeral I witnessed the ceremony took place while dancing was going on, and I missed it entirely, though I was told afterwards that it had taken place as usual, and was able to obtain the names of the chief actors.
FIG. 55—THE MOURNERS ROUND THE BODY.
In the ceremony of kachütthti, a man belonging to the clan of the deceased gives a cloth to one of his paiol, or brothers-in-law. The latter gives the cloth to his wife or wife’s sister, or to some woman whom he would be allowed to marry, and the woman places the cloth on the corpse. The man who originally gave the cloth then takes it from the body and gives it to another paiol, and the ceremony is repeated till the cloth has been given to all the paiol present.
The man who gives the cloth should belong to the same clan as the dead person. At the funeral of a male, the proper person is the father of the deceased, if he is alive, or some other elder of the clan. At the funeral of a woman, a man of the clan of the woman’s husband is chosen. Thus, at the funeral of Kiuneimi (3 and 28), a widow of Kanòdrs, the cloth was given by Neratkutan (28), who was of the same family as the husbands of the dead woman and the eldest representative of their generation. At the funeral of Sinerani (52), the cloth was given by Tebkudr (68), who was the younger brother of the father of Keinba, the husband of the dead child.