Wearing the pòdrshtuni and holding the kwoinörtpet under his left arm, the palol sprinkles the contents of the leaf-cup over the dairy vessels and other objects, beginning with the bell, and as he does so he prays, using the whole prayer of the dairy. He then ties all the vessels and other contents of the dairy on a staff called pepkati in exactly the same manner as when taking them from one ti mad to another. The bell is tied up in a leafy covering of kiaz and everything is done as in the migration from one place to another, and the staff with its burden is then borne by the palol from the pepkusthkars to the stone called perskars, by the side of which the dairy vessels are laid, while the mani is uncovered and laid on the stone. The staff is then placed at the back of the dairy.
Having untied the dairy vessels and arranged them by the stone, the palol pounds fresh tudr bark, and with the kwoinörtpet under his left arm goes with the karitòrzum to the sacred spring, into which he throws the bark, takes water, and returns. Taking more pounded bark, he puts it in the idrkwoi and pours water into this vessel from the karitòrzum. He takes the idrkwoi with its contents to the front of the dairy, and with his right hand sprinkles the water over the outside of the dairy and then into its interior till the vessel is emptied. The dairy vessels are not again purified, but are taken into the dairy with the same procedure as that described in the last chapter. The vessels of the outer room, which have been purified by the kaltmokh, are then taken to their places. Fire is made by friction; one fireplace is lighted [[164]]and fire transferred to the other, and from this the lamp is lighted, and the palol, who is now palol of the pürsir, goes out to look after and milk his new charges. On this evening no food is taken, nor does the palol drink buttermilk as usual, and the kaltmokh does not blow the horn in the evening. On the following day, which is the occasion of a feast for all Todas, the usual routine is followed.
The most interesting feature of this ceremony at the Kars ti is that the vessels of the inner room are taken by the palol from the pepkusthkars to the perskars, a distance said to be about fifty yards, in exactly the same manner as that in which they are carried from one dairy to another during the migrations when the distance may be many miles.
The essential feature of the various ordination ceremonies is purification by drinking water from certain leaves and rubbing the body with the juice of certain plants or the bark of a tree mixed with water from a dairy stream or spring. The ordinary dairyman uses the leaves and shoots of muli; the dairymen of the Taradr kugvali and the Kanòdrs poh use seven kinds of leaves and rub themselves with tudr bark, while the three grades of dairyman open only to Teivali or Melgars people not only rub with the juice of tudr bark, but use tudr leaves for the purificatory drinking.
The palikartmokh drinks and rubs himself seven times only, the wursol and kaltmokh seven times seven, while at various stages in his ordination the palol uses tudr bark three times seven, seven times seven, and nine times seven.
The final stage of ordination or induction is marked by touching some sacred object of the dairy. The ordinary dairyman touches one or more of the sacred vessels of the dairy; the wursol, kugvalikartmokh, and the pohkartpol of Kanòdrs touch the mu, a dairy vessel buried in the buffalo pen, which is dug up for the ordination ceremony. The kaltmokh and the palol touch a tasth, the former touching a bar of the calf enclosure and the latter one in the opening of the pen used for adult buffaloes.
According to one account, the Teivali palikartmokh also touches a mu on entrance into office, but it is very doubtful if [[165]]this is correct. Nothing was said about it at the ordination at which I was present, and I saw nothing to indicate that this vessel was being used, but it is possible that the mu had been dug up earlier in the day and put inside the dairy.
Another interesting feature of the ordination ceremonies is that a dairyman of a higher grade may be taken through the lower stages on his way to the higher office. Thus both wursol and palol perform the purificatory ceremony with muli, which is the chief feature of the ordination of the palikartmokh. There did not seem to be any stage in the ordination of the palol when he could be said to be a wursol, though the ceremonies of Monday evening and Tuesday are very much like those of the wursol, the chief difference being in the exact number of times that the tudr purification is performed. [[166]]