I was for a long time very doubtful about the relation of the kudrpali and tarvali to one another, and had very great difficulty in finding out which buffaloes belonged to each kind of dairy. Finally, it became quite clear that the same buffaloes might be milked either at a kudrpali or a tarvali, and that the possession of a mani was the chief point which determined whether a given dairy was a kudrpali or a tarvali.
The same kind of buffalo may be milked at one kind of dairy in one clan and at the other kind in another clan. The nashperthir of Nòdrs are milked at the tarvali of that place, but those of Kars are milked at the kudrpali together with the martir. Further, in at least one case, the same buffaloes might be milked in one village of a clan at a kudrpali and in another village at a tarvali. The Pan people now live chiefly at Naters and the chief villages of the clan in the Kundahs, Pan and Kuirsi, are deserted during the greater part of the year. When these villages are occupied the pineipir are milked at their kudrpali dairies, but when the people are at Naters the same buffaloes are milked at the tarvali. The mani is left at Pan, and I was told that if the bell were to be [[70]]brought to Naters a kudrpali would have to be built for its reception and the pineipir would then be milked at this dairy.
At the present time the only clan which has a kudrpali in constant use is that of Kars. The Pan clan only uses its kudrpali during the few months that the villages in the Kundahs are occupied. The Nòdrs clan is said to have had a kudrpali at one time, but the fact that they had to borrow buffaloes for it from Kars points to the especial connexion of the kudrpali with the latter clan.
Although the Karsol and Panol are the only clans which have a kudrpali, the special feature of which is the possession of a mani, these are not the only clans which own these sacred bells. In other cases the mani belongs to the next higher grade of dairy, the wursuli, and the Kars clan itself also possesses mani kept at this grade of dairy. Indeed, although the Kars kudrpali is said to have bells as its special feature, these bells do not really exist, having been stolen some years ago. The fiction of their presence is, however, kept up, and, as we have seen, the place where they should hang is still ‘fed’ with curd and milk.
In one case, that of the Kars kudrpali, I worked out in detail the ownership and care of the buffaloes called martir. There were altogether forty-eight of these buffaloes kept at six places and tended by seven dairymen, who were chosen from the Karsol or from the people of Nòdrs, Pan, Taradr or Keradr.
The distribution at the time of my visit was as follows:—
| Kutadri (7) | possessed | 8 | buffaloes kept at | Kars | tended by | Idjen of Taradr (22) |
| Kutthurs (12) | possessed,, | 8 | buffaloes,, kept at,, | Kars,, | tended by,, | Tilipa of Kars (12) |
| Parkurs (8) | possessed,, | 8 | buffaloes,, kept at,, | Isharadr | tended by,, | Kosners of Nòdrs (6) |
| Pidrvan (9) | possessed,, | 6 | buffaloes,, kept at,, | Pakhalkudr | tended by,, | Tidjkudr of Nòdrs (6) |
| Kuinervan (14) | possessed,, | 6 | buffaloes,, kept at,, | Peletkwur | tended by,, | Pons of Keradr (26) |
| Potheners (10) | possessed,, | 6 | buffaloes,, kept at,, | Keshker | tended by,, | Palpa of Pan (16) |
| Nudriki (8) | possessed,, | 3 | buffaloes,, kept at,, | Kuzhu | tended by,, | Mutkudr of Kars (15) |
| Mongeithi (15) | possessed,, | 3 | buffaloes,, kept at,, | Kuzhu,, | tended by,, | Mutkudr,, of,, Kars (15),, |
It will be noticed that in only two of the dairies did the palikartmokh belong to the Karsol, and in each case he looked after the buffaloes of his own father, Mutkudr also tending the buffaloes of Nudriki. Idjen was the son-in-law of [[71]]Kutadri, and Palpa had married a Kars woman, who was not, however, closely related to Potheners, to whom he was acting as dairyman. Kosners and Tidjkudr were given to me as examples of a practice in which a man of one clan works for one of another,[4] and they received the same wages as in the case of the tarvalikartmokh (see p. [62]).
These facts show clearly that the kudrpalir are not regarded as the property of the whole clan, but belong to different families, and the same is true of the buffaloes milked at the tarvali. Each family possesses its own sacred buffaloes as well as its ordinary buffaloes or putiir, and in some cases the buffaloes of each family have their own dairyman, even when the milk of two herds is churned in the same dairy.