The men called paiol, to whom the cloth is given, seem to include all those who have married women of the same clan as the giver of the cloth. Thus, at the funeral of Kiuneimi the cloth was given to Pepob (44) of Melgars, and to Nelkush and Tevò (3) of Nòdrs, who had all married women of Kanòdrs.
At the funeral of Sinerani, the cloth was given to Kuriolv (52), who was the father of the dead child, not, however, for this reason, but because he was the husband of Sintharap, Tebkudr’s sister. At this funeral the only other man to whom the cloth was given was Piliag (52), who received it in the place of his brother, Piliar (52), who was not present. The latter, like Kuriolv, was the brother-in-law of Tebkudr (68). [[360]]If there is no paiol present the cloth may be given to a matchuni,[14] and this may also happen even when paiol are present. Thus at one funeral at which I was present, the marvainolkedr of Pursevan (53), the cloth was given by Piliar (52) to Teikudr (63), his matchuni. Piliar was the son of Mutevan and Teikudr was the son of Kavani, the sister of Mutevan.
If neither paiol nor matchuni be present, it was said that the cloth might be given to a brother, i.e., a man of the same clan, but this probably never happens and the statement is possibly an error.
The man who receives the cloth hands it to his wife, if she is present; if she is not present, he may put it on the corpse himself, and I saw this done more than once. On one occasion a man gave it to a woman who was not his wife, but in this case he was acting as a substitute for the husband of the woman.
This ceremony is one in which a man of the same clan as the deceased person gives a cloth to a man who has married into his family. The latter hands on the cloth to his wife, who was, before her marriage, of the same clan as the giver of the cloth, and it is this woman who places the cloth on the dead body.
The father of each woman who places the cloth on the body receives a fee of one rupee called kachkars, or cloth-rupee, but the sum is not paid till the woman has attended twenty funerals. An account is kept and twenty rupees are paid when the number is completed. The money is paid by the husband of the woman.
In the ceremony of kachütthti, the men who have married into the family of the dead person have to perform this ceremony and have to pay a fee to the family of the dead person. As we shall see later, the chief mourner at a funeral should receive a buffalo from each of his sons-in-law, and we see here that this tribute is supplemented by an addition to the account kept of the times the cloth is given. The cloth-giving ceremony involves a payment to the family of the dead [[361]]man of certain fees from those members of other clans who have married into the family.
The cloth used is a red loincloth of a kind which is never worn by the Todas, but, so far as I could ascertain, it is only an ordinary cloth procured in the bazaar.