Salt is given to the buffaloes five times a year, both at the ti mad and the ordinary village. At the ti the salt is given with buttermilk, and the ceremony is known as mòrup. At the ordinary village buttermilk is not given, and there is no general name for the ceremony, though there are special names for three of the five occasions on which salt is given. These special names are also used at the ti. The first occasion is kòrup, or ‘new grass salt,’ which takes place in the month Nalani (February-March). The second is marup or ‘again salt,’ a month later in Ani. The next two occasions have no special names, but in the ordinary village are known as arsup, ‘house salt,’ given in the months Ovani and Kirdivi (June-July and September-October). The last occasion is in the month Emioti (November-December), and is known as paniup, meaning ‘frost salt.’ In the case of kòrup and paniup, it seemed that salt was given shortly before the time at which the young grass and frost respectively were expected.
At the ti the ceremony is performed on the Sunday or Tuesday following the new moon. At the Nòdrs ti it should [[176]]be done for the tiir on Sunday and for the warsir on Tuesday, but this now only happens when the buffaloes are at Òdrtho and Kudreiil, where the dairies of the two kinds of buffaloes are at some distance apart. At Mòdr and Anto and other dairies, the ceremony is performed for both kinds of buffalo on a Sunday. At the Pan ti the day for the ceremony is Tuesday, and at the Kars ti, Sunday.
On the day before the ceremony each palol[5] digs a round hole called the upunkudi at a prescribed spot, or more commonly enlarges the hole remaining from a previous ceremony. On the following day each palol carries out the usual morning churning and milking, but before drinking buttermilk the dairy is cleansed with buffalo-dung. The palol then pours into the vessel called alug two kudi of buttermilk and takes the vessel and some salt to the upunkudi. He throws bark of the tudr tree three times into the hole, three times into the buttermilk and on the salt, and going to the spring he throws the bark three times into the water, saying “Oñ” each time. The palol then fills the alug with water from the spring, mixing it with the buttermilk already in the vessel. He adds salt, saying “Oñ” three times, and the whole is poured into the upunkudi. A special buffalo is then brought to the upunkudi; at the Nòdrs ti the ti palol first leads up the buffalo belonging to the unir which is called Enmars and the wars palol takes the buffalo of the perithir called Òrsum, this act of sending a special buffalo first being called îrpârsatiti. After this all the buffaloes are taken to drink in groups of five or six. When the hole has been emptied, it is refilled with salt and water, but this time no buttermilk is added. When all the buffaloes have drunk, each palol pulls some of the grass called kargh and throws it into the hole three times and returns to his dairy to take buttermilk from the kaltmokh as usual.
At the ordinary village the salt-giving ceremony is performed about a week after it has been done at the ti. Any day may be chosen except the madnol, palinol, or arpatznol.[6] Thus at Kuudr the ceremony may be performed on any day [[177]]except Tuesday and Friday; at Kars, on any day except Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
On the three occasions with special names, kòrup, marup, and paniup, guests come from other villages, but at the arsup this does not happen. As in the case of the irpalvusthi ceremony, a man from Kuudr must be present at the salt-giving ceremony of Òdr and a man from Òdr must be present at Kuudr.
The ceremony is performed by the palikartmokh after the people of the village have made the hole or upunkudi.[7] The palikartmokh takes from the dairy the vessel corresponding to the alug of the ti, viz., the tat, but does not take buttermilk. Tudr bark is used in the same way as at the ti.
At a Teivali village, the pasthir drink first. At a Tarthar village at which there is a wursol, the wursulir drink first, the act of sending certain buffaloes first being called irparsatiti as at the ti. After the buffaloes have drunk, kargh grass is thrown into the hole, first by the dairyman and then by all the others present, but it is only thrown once by each person, who says “Oñ” as he throws.
The object of this ceremony is said to be that the buffaloes shall give a plentiful supply of milk.