There is a considerable degree of uniformity in the orientation of dairies of all grades. The doors usually face in an easterly direction, and in the majority of those I observed the door faced north of east, the most frequent direction being some point between east and north-east. In one case, that of the ti poh at Mòdr, the door of the dairy faces south-east; but in front of the door there is a screen, and on leaving [[47]]his dairy the palol always turns to the left, so that he faces north-east as he goes towards his buffaloes. In a few dairies the door faces directly west, and, according to Breeks, this is the case at the conical dairy of Anto.
The Toda Buffalo
The Toda buffalo is a variety of the Indian water-buffalo, but the life on the hills seems to have produced a much finer animal than that of the plains. Although thoroughly under the control of the Todas, the buffaloes are semi-wild and often attack people of a different race from their owners, and Europeans have frequently been severely injured by the onslaught of these animals.
The Toda name for the male buffalo is er, and for the female ir, but either term may be used when the people speak of buffaloes collectively. Calves have different designations at different ages. A young calf is kar, one from one to two years of age is pòl, and a three-year-old calf is nakh.
Defective buffaloes, and especially those with only one horn, are called kwadrir, and those whose horns bend downwards are kughir. Barren buffaloes are called maiir.
There are considerable differences of colour among the buffaloes. Those much lighter than the rest are called nerir or pushtir, and there is a legend about the origin of these buffaloes, which, however, I failed to obtain. The only obvious way in which the animals differ from one another in marking is that some have a black stripe running down either side of the neck very much in the position which would be occupied by the chain suspending a bell.
There do not seem to be any physical differences between the buffaloes of different classes, and, as we shall see shortly, the nature of the breeding of the Toda buffaloes is such as would have entirely destroyed any distinctions of the kind if they had ever existed.
Every adult female buffalo has an individual name, which is usually given when her first calf is born. The number of buffalo names is limited, so that many buffaloes bear the same name. [[48]]
The following are among the buffalo names of which I have records:—Kûdzi or Kûrsi, Kâsimi, Pän or Pern, Kiûd or Kiûdz, Enmon, Koisi, Keien, Ilsh or Idrsh, Kârsthum, Perûv or Perov, Kebân, Enmars, Persud, Nerûv, Kôzi, Perith, Pülkoth, Persuth, Tòthi, Kerâni, Keirev, Püthiov, Peires, Nersâdr, Tâlg, Ûf, Köji, Persv, Arvatz, Kòjiû, Pundrs, Purkîsi, and Òrsum.