ORDINATION CEREMONIES
Before a dairyman enters upon office he has to undergo certain initial rites, which may fitly be spoken of as “ordination ceremonies.” These ceremonies vary greatly in their elaborateness, according to the dairy in which the candidate is to serve.
In the case of the ordinary dairyman, or palikartmokh, the proceedings are simple and may be accomplished in a few minutes, while for the highest grade of the priesthood they are extremely elaborate and prolonged over more than a week.
The essential feature of all the ordination ceremonies is a process of purification by drinking and washing with the water of a stream or spring used for sacred purposes only (palinipa or kwoinir). In every case the water is drunk out of certain leaves, and the body is rubbed with water mixed with the juice of young shoots or bark.
A general name for ordination is pelkkodichiti or pelkkatthtiti, “lamp he lights.” This name is derived from the fact that the first act in connexion with the dairy work which a new dairyman has to perform is to light the lamp of the dairy. The former of the two names given above was used especially in the case of the ordinary dairy and the latter in the case of the ti, but I am doubtful whether there is any strict limitation of the terms in these senses.
Another general name used for the ceremony of ordination is niròditi, which in a more limited sense is applied to the drinking and purification at the dairy stream or spring which [[145]]is the essential feature of the ceremony. This term was very often used for the ceremony of ordination to the office of palol.
The Palikartmokh
The ceremony of ordination of the palikartmokh is called pelkkodichiti and very often muliniròditi, the latter being derived from the muli leaves used in the ceremony. The ordination may take place on Sunday, Wednesday, or Saturday. On the day before the ceremony the candidate goes to the dairy, takes his food there, and sleeps at night in the outer room. His food is prepared and given to him either by the outgoing palikartmokh or by some other man holding this office.
On the morning of the ceremony the candidate washes his hands in the pali nipa and goes to the front of the dairy, having a piece of the ordinary mantle round his waist. The assisting palikartmokh will have placed a small piece of the dark cloth called tuni on the threshold of the dairy, this small piece being called petuni. The candidate bows down (nersatiti), as in [Fig. 20], at the threshold to the petuni, which he then raises to his forehead and puts in the string of his kuvn on the left side.