There are two chief reasons[1] for these movements of the buffaloes, of which the most urgent is the necessity for new grazing-places. During the dry season, lasting from about December to March, the pasturage around the villages where the Todas usually live becomes very scanty, and the buffaloes are taken to places where it is more abundant. Many of these places are in or near the Kundahs, where the rainfall is greater than over the rest of the hills, and others are scattered here and there about the hills in spots where, owing to favourable conditions, the ground is less parched than elsewhere. At other seasons of the year it may happen that the grazing in the neighbourhood of a village becomes exhausted, and it becomes necessary to take the buffaloes to another place.
The other chief reason for the migrations is that certain villages and dairies, formerly important and still sacred, are visited for ceremonial purposes, or out of respect to ancient custom. Some of these places, such as the villages of Piedr [[124]]and Kusharf, are in outlying parts of the hills, and are entirely unoccupied except on the occasion of these ceremonial visits. Another example is the ancient and sacred village of Nasmiòdr, of which there now only remains a dairy, situated in a grove in the middle of a valley cultivated by Badagas. It is visited once a year by the wursulir of Kars for about a month, and, as there is only scanty pasturage available, there is little doubt that the visit to this dairy has no utilitarian motive.
At the ti the same reasons hold good. Several of the ti herds have dairies, in or near the Kundahs, to which they go during the dry months of the year, while other dairies of special sanctity are visited only for a short time in each year. The dairy of Anto is a good example of the latter case; it is in an outlying part of the hills, and should be visited for one month every year, because it is the most sacred dairy of the ti.
The migrations of the ti buffaloes are more strictly regulated than are those of the village herds, and there are definitely prescribed rules for the order in which the dairies of the ti shall be visited, and for the duration of the stay at each, though, as we shall see later, these rules are not always followed.
As a general rule, the more ancient and sacred the dairy to which the buffaloes are going, the more elaborate are the ceremonies on reaching the new destination.
The day of migration is called irskidithbutnol or irnödrthnol.
Migrations of the Village Buffaloes
My account of the ceremonial accompanying the migration from one village to another is unfortunately very incomplete. The following accounts were given by Teivali men, and I cannot guarantee that they hold good for both divisions and for all clans.
