Male matchuni have also to go through a ceremony when [[501]]they pass in company over either of the two sacred rivers of the Todas, the Paikara (Teipakh) and the Avalanche (Pakhwar). As the two men approach the river, they pluck and chew some grass, and each man says to the other “pò tûdrikina, pò kudrikina?”—“Shall I throw the river (water), shall I cross the river?” or, instead of the second sentence, they may say “pò pûkhkina?”—“Shall I enter the river?” They then go to the side of the river and each man dips his hand in the water and throws a handful away from him three times and then they cross the river, each with the right arm outside the cloak as is usual when crossing these sacred streams.
If the matchuni cross on a Tuesday, Friday or Saturday[2] they do not throw water, but are content with chewing the grass, and if the funeral ceremonies of a person belonging to the clan of either are not complete the water will not be thrown.
This ceremony performed by matchuni when crossing a sacred river was said to be connected with the legend given on p. [592], in which two matchuni are concerned. [[502]]
[2] Properly the river should not be crossed at all on these days (see p. [418]). [↑]
CHAPTER XXII
MARRIAGE
The custom of infant marriage is well established among the Todas, and a child is often married when only two or three years of age. When a man wishes to arrange a marriage for his son, he chooses a suitable girl, who should be, and very often is, the matchuni of the boy, the daughter of his mother’s brother or of his father’s sister. The father visits the parents of the girl, and if the marriage is satisfactorily arranged he returns home after staying for the night at the village. A few days later the father takes the boy to the home of his intended wife. They take with them the loin-cloth called tadrp as a wedding gift and the boy performs the kalmelpudithti salutation to the father and mother of the girl, and also to her brothers, both older and younger than himself, and then gives the tadrp to the girl. Father and son stay for one night at the girl’s village and return home on the following morning. Sometimes the girl returns with them to the village of her future husband, but, much more commonly, she remains at her own home till she is fifteen or sixteen years of age.