The Todas

by W. H. R. Rivers

On the following morning he goes before daybreak to the front of the dairy of the village, naked except for his kuvn, and a man of the village stands at the door of the dairy holding a tuni in his hand, and says three times, “Tunivatkia!”—“Touch the tuni!” The candidate answers, “Tunivatkin,” and takes the tuni. If the garment is a complete one, he puts it on; if only a piece, he puts it in his pennar and taking seven tudr leaves and tudr bark he goes to the stream of the dairy and performs the usual drinking and rubbing ceremony, and after putting the tudr bark in his hair, goes a little way off and shakes his head so that the bark falls out. He repeats the ceremony twice, so that it is performed three times altogether—i.e., he drinks from the tudr leaves three times seven. This ceremony is called teshnir, and is done in view of the inhabitants of the village. The candidate stays for the rest of the day at the village. If there is a wursol there, the food of the candidate is prepared by this dairyman[2]; if no wursol is present, it is prepared by the palikartmokh. The food is grain boiled in milk, and is only eaten in the evening. The candidate sleeps that night in a wood near the village, but not the same wood as that by the stream where teshnir had been done. Either the wursol or the palikartmokh must pass the night in the wood with the candidate, and other men of the village may also be their companions. Until the candidate lies down to sleep he must remain naked (except for the kuvn), but when sleeping he may cover himself with his ordinary cloak.

Next morning (Monday) the candidate gets up at sunrise, [[158]]lays aside his cloak, and goes to bathe completely in the stream, saying three times, “Tudraspinem,”[3]—“Tudr I have washed,” thus washing off the tudr of the previous day. He then returns to the place where he had slept, puts on his ordinary cloak with the right arm out, and goes to the front of the dairy. He is given food by the wursol, or, in his absence, by the palikartmokh, and eats it outside the dairy, after which he washes. He then goes to the ordinary stream of the village (ars nipa) and takes up water with his hand, and by so doing he becomes perol—i.e., he loses any sanctity he has acquired by the ceremony of the previous day.

The candidate then goes direct to the village of Òdr and stays near that village till the evening, when he makes his way to the front of the dairy of that place. He stands about ten yards from the dairy and throws off his cloak. A man of the clan to which his future ti belongs now gives him a complete tuni of the kind worn in the village dairy (a mad tuni, not a ti tuni), saying three times, “Tunivatkia,” to which is replied “Tunivatkin.” The man who gives the tuni now remains as assistant and companion till the candidate reaches his future dairy. The candidate puts the tuni round his loins, goes to the stream of the dairy, and performs the drinking and rubbing ceremony with muli leaves and shoots as in the ordination of palikartmokh. The assistant makes fire by friction and lights a fire of muli wood, at which the candidate warms himself.

The drinking ceremony with tudr is then carried out in the same way as at teshnir, and then the wursol of Òdr brings buttermilk in an ertatpun and gives it in cups of kakud leaves to both the candidate and his assistant. They also receive food from the wursol, while any other men present go to the ordinary hut for their meal. That night is passed at a special spot under a tree not far from the dairy at Òdr, the wursol and assistant being the companions of the candidate. On that night the candidate may not [[159]]touch his ordinary cloak and has to be content with the scanty covering of the tuni.[4]

On the next day (Tuesday), the ceremony with tudr leaves and bark is repeated three times as on the previous days, and after the wursol has finished his dairy work he gives buttermilk and food to both the candidate and his assistant. On the afternoon of this day the tudr ceremony is performed again, but on this occasion seven times, so that the candidate drinks from the tudr leaves seven times seven. In the evening buttermilk and food are again given by the wursol and the three men pass the night in the wood.

On the next day (Wednesday) the candidate fetches bark of the tree from which the material called twadrinar is made and makes for his temporary use a rough kuvn. When it is ready, he bathes in the dairy stream, takes off the old pennar and kuvn and puts on the newly made garment, together with the tuni, and goes with the wursol to the dairy where the buffaloes of his ti are standing. When they approach the ti mad the wursol goes away and leaves the candidate to go to the dairy alone, where he sits on the outskirts (pül) of the ti mad. When the kaltmokh sees the candidate approaching, he collects the buffaloes at the milking place (pepkarmus) and catches hold of the tails of certain buffaloes which are to be taken in charge by the new palol, saying to himself three times for each buffalo, “Tover vatkina?”—“Tail shall I hold?”—and replying to himself each time, “Vat!” At the Nòdrs ti if the candidate is to be palol of the tiir, the kaltmokh holds the tails of three buffaloes, one of each kind; if he is to be palol of the warsir, two buffaloes only take part (see p. [112]). After this the kaltmokh prepares food in the pül of the dairy and gives it to the palol designate. While the kaltmokh is attending to the new palol he must become a perkursol—i.e., he degrades himself to this rank before undertaking these duties. During the night the candidate together with the kaltmokh and the other palol already in office [[160]](if there are two, as at the Nòdrs ti) sleep in the hut of the ti mad.

The next day (Thursday) the new palol goes to the stream and performs the tudr ceremony three times in the morning and nine times in the afternoon; i.e., he drinks from the tudr leaves three and nine times seven. On this day the kaltmokh milks the punir, takes the milk to the pül, churns there and gives buttermilk, butter and other food to the new palol. On that night all sleep in the karenpoh or calf-house.

The proceedings of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are the same as those of Thursday, except that the new palol may now drink the milk of the punir like the full palol.

On Monday morning the new palol enters on his office. In the morning he bathes and then takes off the temporary pennar and kuvn he has been wearing and replaces them by others made in the same way. A Badaga (the tikelfmav) then brings one of the two cloaks of the palol, that called pòdrshtuni, and lays it down at the outskirts of the dairy. It is taken up by the kaltmokh and given to the new palol, who spreads it out on the place where the buffaloes are milked. He then takes pounded tudr bark, says the kwarzam of the gods, of the ti and of the buffaloes (see Chap. X) and throws the pounded bark on the garment. He turns the garment over so as to expose the other surface and purifies this in the same way. He then asks himself, “Pòdrshtuni tutkina?”—“Shall I tie the pòdrshtuni?”—and throwing off the mad tuni he has been wearing hitherto, he puts on the pòdrshtuni. The kaltmokh returns the mad tuni to the Nòdrs people, who come on this day and stand on the outskirts of the place.

The new palol then purifies his dairy by sprinkling it with water and tudr bark in the same way as is done when going to a new dairy (see p. [136]). He next takes the uppun, puts into it water and tudr bark, and turning towards the Nòdrs people with the vessel to his forehead, says three times to them, “Poh pûkhkina?”—“Shall I enter the dairy?” All the Nòdrs people cry “Pûkh!” and the new palol enters his dairy with the full rights of his position.