Implements and Utensils
The most important objects in the economic life of the Todas are their dairy vessels, which have been already amply considered. Cooking vessels and implements used for cutting wood or for any other purpose are, like the vessels of the village dairy, procured chiefly from the Kotas, though at the present time the source of supply is probably supplemented by purchases in the bazaar.
As the Todas practise few arts, their need of implements is very small. At one time they used thorns as needles, but now steel needles have taken their place. Thorns are also used for tattooing. Leaves are used as plates and cups, and the fingers take the place of forks. The only definite implements used are knives and axes, the latter being especially needed for procuring firewood.
In some of their ceremonies, the Todas have preserved practices which may possibly be survivals of the use of stone implements. In the funeral ceremonies the buffaloes destined for the next world are killed with the back of an axe, but the buffaloes killed at the koòtiti ceremony and at the ceremony of purifying the funeral places must be killed with a stone. Further, the bark of the tudr tree used in so many ceremonies must always be knocked off the tree by means of a stone. The latter of these practices must certainly be very ancient, and may well be a relic of an age in which implements were made of stone.
The Pounder, Sieve, and Broom
The interest of these articles lies in the fact that they are evidently regarded as the emblems of woman. When the wursol sleeps in the village hut, these articles are removed from the hut, and when the ti buffaloes pass the village of Kiudr, the women who leave this village take with them the pounder, sieve, and broom.
In the case of the wursol, this sacred personage may associate with the women themselves if the three objects which seem to be emblematic of womanhood are removed. [[586]]
The pounder, sieve, and broom are burnt at the funerals of women, who use the pounder on their journey to the other world. A special kind of sieve called kudshmurn is also burnt at the azaramkedr, but I believe that this is burnt at all funerals, both of males and females.
The pounder, sieve, and broom are widely endowed with magical properties, and this is especially the case in India,[6] but I do not know of any other instance in which they are especially regarded as the emblems of woman.