As we have just seen, a man in paying reverence to the dairy bows down and touches the threshold with his forehead, and the threshold also frequently plays a part in the dairy ceremonial. The dairyman bows down and touches the threshold of his dairy before entering upon his work, and this is also one of the acts performed on his entrance into office on ordination.
The Teivaliol at an ordination also sweep the threshold with the grass called kakar, and the same grass is used to sweep the threshold of the dairy by the young girl who performs this office on reaching the new village during the migration ceremony (see p. [128]). In the tuninörtiti and pilinörtiti ceremonies the offering is laid on the threshold of the dairy, and in the ceremony of uncovering for the first time the face of a boy, the child is put down by his father so that his forehead touches the threshold. [[424]]
Bells
These are the most sacred of the sacred objects of the Todas. It is necessary, however, to distinguish three kinds of bells, the mani, the tukulir mani, and the kwungg, and it is only the first of these which has any great sanctity.
The tukulir mani is only used in the koòtiti ceremony of the second funeral (p. 376), and between these occasions is kept by the Badagas or Kotas. I am doubtful whether it is a true Toda object, and suspect that it is a Badaga or Kota bell which is used in a ceremony borrowed by the Todas from one or other of these peoples.
The kwungg is the household bell and is kept in the hut. It is used in the funeral ceremonies on two occasions, being hung on the neck of one of the ordinary buffaloes before the animal is killed, and it is also the bell which is rung in the final scene of the azaramkedr. The bell may be touched or carried by women, and I have seen a kwungg removed from the neck of a slaughtered buffalo by a Kota who handed it to a woman. Though the bell is used in ceremonial, the fact that it may be touched by both Kotas and women shows clearly that it is not regarded as possessing any sanctity whatever. In general appearance, however, the kwungg probably differs little from the mani, being a large bell of the same oblong shape which is characteristic of cattle-bells.
The mani is a bell which, so far as I could ascertain, never has a tongue, though this loss may be nothing more than a sign of its antiquity.
There are several kinds of mani. At the ti dairy there are two distinct varieties: the mani proper which is kept in the inner room and is hung on the neck of a chosen calf of the persinir on the occasion of the migration ceremonies, and the kudrsmani which is kept outside the door of the dairy. The latter appear to have little sanctity, but the former are probably the most sacred of Toda objects of veneration. They are said to be extremely ancient; some are reputed to have come from Amnòdr, and others are believed to have had miraculous origins, one having been born in a vessel of milk [[425]]while the buffaloes were on their way from Amnòdr, while another came from the sea. The Todas believe that some of these bells are of gold, and one was reputed to be made of three metals—gold, silver, and iron. The bell born in milk is said to be of iron.
It seems probable that each of the more sacred herds at the village had at one time its own mani, and that a clan which possessed both wursuli and kudrpali would have had two bells of this kind or two sets of such bells.