At the funeral ceremonies, earth is thrown three times on the corpse and three times into the pen, the body is swung on the fire three times, and at the final scene of the azaramkedr the man who rings the bell goes round the burial place of the ashes thrice. Three oviônikârs are thrown by the man who crosses the pathway of the dead. The number three is not limited to the dairy ritual, but is of frequent occurrence in the whole of Toda ceremonial.
The number three also appears in connexion with magical or semi-magical practices. The various methods of treatment used by the utkòren are carried out three times and never more frequently than this, and the sufferer who drinks hot water to allay the effects of fright also does this thrice. A remedy is probably held to be more potent if repeated the same number of times as in the case of so many sacred acts.
Five.—This number does not occur in the dairy ceremonial except in certain ceremonies at the Nòdrs ti which are repeated five times because there are five groups of buffaloes belonging to this dairy. The number in this case has, however, no ceremonial significance, and is merely a consequence of the fact that one palol at this ti has three groups and the other two groups of buffaloes. The only other occurrence of the number is at the Kars ti, where the ancient lamp probably had five cavities, but even this is doubtful.
The number five comes in one place into Toda magic. The [[414]]sorcerer, who wishes to injure one who has not granted his request, hides five stones tied together with hair in the thatch of his enemy’s hut.
Six.—This number does not occur in the dairy ceremonial, but it seems to be regarded as an auspicious number in some ways. In Teitnir’s lament for his wife, reference is made to the hope that they might have had six children and six buffaloes, and in the prayer on the occasion of the ear-piercing ceremony, one clause runs “may he have six sons.”
Six sticks are used to make the artificial dairy of the hand-burning ceremony, but this is an obvious result of the fact that the dairy has to have two rooms.
Seven.—This number is especially prominent in the ordination ceremonies. The purificatory drinking out of leaf-cups is always done seven times or some multiple of seven, the palikartmokh drinking seven times only, the wursol seven times seven, and the palol three times seven, seven times seven and nine times seven at different periods of his prolonged ordination ceremonies. At the dairies of Taradr and Kanòdrs, the number occurs in a different form, seven different kinds of leaf being used in the purificatory ceremonies.
The number occurs again in connexion with the lamp. At the Nòdrs ti and at the Pan ti, and possibly at other dairies, there used to be lamps, each of which had seven cavities and seven wicks. Some of these lamps have been lost, but two remain at the dairies mentioned. I have already referred to the fact that some of the ancient lamps were said to have had five wicks, but it seems clear that in the only two examples which survive there are seven wicks, and it is possible that this was the number in all.
Another occurrence of the number seven is in the old dairies of the Nòdrs clan which had seven rooms. The funeral dairies, which are undoubtedly very ancient institutions, have three rooms, and the Nòdrs dairies, also undoubtedly ancient, had seven, but I heard of no case in which a dairy had four, five, or six rooms.
Outside the dairy ceremonial, the only occurrence of this number is in the lament of Teitnir for his wife, in which he speaks of their visiting seven courts and seven ships. [[415]]