Weapons
At the present time it cannot be said that the Todas use any weapons, but they retain in their ceremonies weapons which were, no doubt, formerly in use. These are the club and the bow and arrow.
The club only remains in the funeral ceremonies, in which it is called nanmakud (see [Fig. 67]), and is burnt at the azaramkedr, and several other special sticks are also burnt, which may have been of the nature of clubs.
The bow and arrow have left more traces of their former importance. They are burnt at the azaramkedr of a man, and the weapons for this purpose are provided by the Kotas. The bow and arrow are also used in the koòtiti ceremony of a Tarthar funeral. In the pursütpimi ceremony the husband gives an imitation bow and arrow to his wife. The bow gives its name to the ceremony and its gift forms the essential incident of the ceremony. Further, the bow has a special name different for each clan. The use of an arrow lingers in name in other ceremonies. In the erkumptthpimi ceremony, the knife used for cutting up the sacrificed calf is called ab, or arrow. In the ceremony of tersamptpimi a lock of hair is cut from a young child with a piece of sharpened iron called kanab, or “eye arrow,” but this name is only in use among the Tartharol. The use of these words seems to point to a time when iron-tipped arrows were used as cutting instruments, and it is even possible that this is a survival of a time when [[587]]the Todas were so much isolated that their only iron was that of the tips of their arrows.
FIG. 67 (FROM BREEKS).—THE FIRST MAN ON THE LEFT IS HOLDING A BOW AND ARROW; THE SECOND A CLUB (PROBABLY THE ‘NANMAKUD’) IN HIS RIGHT HAND, AND THE ‘TADRI’ IN HIS LEFT; THE THIRD MAN IS CARRYING A CLUB, AND THE FOURTH MAN IS PLAYING THE ‘BUGURI.’
The bow and arrow are also mentioned in the legend of Kwoten. Teikuteidi was killed by an arrow shot by a lame man who lay down when he shot. It is possible that this legend points to an ancient custom of shooting the bow and arrow by means of the legs. [[588]]