THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE TODAS 693
APPENDIX I 719
APPENDIX II—BIBLIOGRAPHY 731
APPENDIX III—LIST OF VILLAGES 734
APPENDIX IV—LIST OF PLANTS 738
GLOSSARY 741
INDEX 749
GENEALOGICAL TABLES.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
1. Toda Man. Full Face 19
2. Toda Man. Side Face 20
3. Toda Woman. Full Face 21
4. Toda Woman. Side Face 22
5. The Village of Taradr, showing two Dairies in the Foreground
and three Houses in the Background 25
6. The Village of Taradr, showing the Houses surrounded by a
Wall, in which there is one Opening in the Middle 27
7. The chief House of the Village of Kiudr 28
8. The Village of Peivòrs, showing a Double Hut (in the
Background). The two Buildings on the Left are Dairies, and
the Structure in the Centre is a Calf-House 29
9. A Toda Man, Siriar (20), with his Wife and Child, showing the
ordinary Method of wearing the ‘Putkuli’ 30
10. Kòdrner performing the Salutation called ‘Kaimukhti.’ His
Right Arm is bared (‘Kevenarut’), and he has removed his
Turban 31
11. Women Pounding and Sifting. The Broom is on the Ground to
the Right 33
12. The ‘Kalmelpudithti’ Salutation taking place at the Village
of Nòdrs. On the Left is the House; on the Right is the less
important Dairy of the Village (the ‘Tarvali’), and in Front
of it is the Stone called ‘Menkars’ 35
13. The Conical Dairy of Nòdrs. The Stone at the Right-Hand End
of the Wall is the ‘Teidrtolkars’ 44
14. The lower part of the Conical Dairy of Nòdrs, which is hidden
by the Wall in Fig. 13. The ‘Wursol’ is shown eating ‘Al’
from a Leaf-Plate 46
15. Òd (26) Churning 51
16. The morning Milking at the Village of Molkush. In the
Background is a modern ‘Tu’ made of Wooden Palings 53
17. A Milking Scene 54
18. The chief Dairy Vessels 59
19. The ‘Wursol’ of Nòdrs carrying the ‘Adimu’ and ‘Patatpun’
to fetch Water 63
20. The ‘Palikartmokh’ Saluting the Threshold of the Dairy at
Kiudr, ‘Pavnersatiti’ 65
21. The ‘Kudrpali’ of Kars, with the ‘Kudrpalikartmokh’
standing on the Wall. In the Foreground is the Mound
called ‘Imudrikars.’ In the Background on the Right is
the Calf-House 67
23. The ‘Wursol’ of Kars, Kernpisi (56), standing by the side
of his Dairy 75
24. The ‘Kugvali’ of Taradr. On its Left is the ‘Kwotars,’
and on the extreme Right, under the Tree, is the ‘Kush.’
The flat Stone to the Right of the ‘Kugvali’ is the
‘Püdrshtikars’ 77
25. The ‘Poh’ of Kanòdrs. The two Walls are shown 80
26. Showing the General Plan of the Ti Dairy 87
27. The ‘Palol’ Karkievan, saluting at Mòdr. He is standing in
the ‘Pepkarmus.’ The Building next to the ‘Palol’ is the
‘Ti poh’; that on the Right is the ‘Karenpoh’ and between it
and the ‘Ti poh’ can be seen the Hut where the Inhabitants
of the ‘Ti mad’ sleep 95
28. To show the Attitude adopted by the ‘Palol’ when Praying 96
29. To show the Method of carrying the Contents of the Dairy.
The boy Kalmad (64) is carrying the ‘Patatpur’; Karsüln (15)
the ‘Ertatpur.’ In front of Kalmad is the entrance of the
Pen at Kars called ‘Althftu’ 125
30. 1. A. The ‘Madth.’ B. A ‘Patat.’ C. Another ‘Patat.’ D. The
‘Parskadrvenmu.’ E. The ‘Irkartpun.’ 2. A. The axe. B. The
fire-sticks. C. The ‘Majpariv.’ D. The ‘Pòlmachok.’ E. The
‘Ertatpun.’ F. A ‘Tek.’ G. The lamp 127
31. The Dairy of Kiudr with the ‘Palikartmokh’ Etamudri (58); on
the Right of the Dairy above and to the Left of the head of
Etamudri is the Stone called ‘Neurzülnkars,’ by which the
‘Patatmani’ is laid 129
32. The ‘Neurzülnkars’ of Kiudr, by the side of which the
‘Ertatmani’ are laid 130
33. The four ‘Neurzülnkars’ at Mòdr. Behind the Stones on the
Right is Karkievan, the ‘Palol’ of the ‘Tiir’; on the Left
is Nerponers, the ‘Palol’ of the ‘Warsir’; in the Centre
is the ‘Kaltmokh,’ Katsog, carrying a sickle-shaped Knife 141
34. Punatvan (53) drinking during his Ordination as
‘Palikartmokh’ of Karia 146
35. Imitation Buffalo Horns 190
36. Midjkudr and Mongudrvan Divining at a Funeral 253
37. Punatvan and Pichievan attempting to make Fire at the
‘Erkumptthpimi’ Ceremony 277
38. Punatvan uttering the ‘Erkumptthpimi’ Prayer. He is holding
the ‘Erkumptthkud,’ and one of the ‘Tudr’ Leaves in his
hand can be distinctly seen 279
39. Stroking the back of the Calf with the ‘Toashtitudr.’
Punatvan is beginning the third Movement, and one of the
Branches of Leaves can be seen on the Ground behind the Calf 280
40. Punatvan and Pichievan cutting up the Calf. In the
Background Kòdrner is sharpening up the ‘Ko’ 281
41. Roasting the pieces of the Calf 283
42. The ‘Irnörtkars’ at Kars. In the Background is the ‘Wursuli’ 299
43. Gap in the Wall at Nòdrs through which the Calf is driven
at the ‘Irnörtiti’ Ceremony 301
44. The ‘Nersatiti’ Salutation 304
45. The ‘Puzhars’ at Molkush 314
46. Tersveli sitting at the Door of the ‘Puzhars’ at Karia
with her face turned from the Sun 325
47. Sintagars drinking at the ‘Marthk maj atpimi’ Ceremony.
The boy, Pongudr, is sitting behind her 328
48. Funeral Hut round which women are lamenting. Several pairs
are pressing their foreheads together. The Hut is not
within a stone circle, showing that the Funeral is not
being held at an old Funeral Place 339
49. The ‘Puzhutpimi’ Ceremony. In the Centre is the Corpse.
The foremost man on the Left is kneeling down preparatory
to throwing Earth 346
50. The ‘Puzhutpimi’ Ceremony. Throwing Earth backwards on
the Corpse 347
51. The Wooden ‘Teiks’ at Inikitj 350
52. Leading the Buffalo to be Killed 353
53. The Corpse by the head of the dying Buffalo 355
54. Saluting the dead Buffalo 357
55. The Mourners round the Body 358
56. Kotas playing Music at a Toda Funeral 364
57. Keinba and Perpakh; the former is holding in his hand the
imitation Bow and Arrow and has his Cloak over his Head 393
58. Bough of the ‘Tudr’ Tree. (From Marshall.) 434
59. The Memorial of Keirevan 440
60. Kuriolv and Pilimurg 552
61. Showing Methods of wearing the Toda Garments and of doing
the Hair 573
62. Tilipa (12) wearing his Hair long on account of a vow made
at a Hindu Temple 575
63 and 64. To show Method of Shaving the Head of a Child 577
65. Karol (64), the ‘Wursol’ of Taradr, making Fire 582
66. To show a Stage in the construction of a Hut 584
67. (From Breeks).—The first Man on the Left is holding a Bow
and Arrow; the second a Club (probably the ‘Nanmakud’) in
his Right Hand, and the ‘Tadri’ in his Left; the third Man
is carrying a Club, and the fourth Man is playing the ‘Buguri’ 587
68. (From Breeks).—The five Tribes of the Nilgiri Hills 629
69. A Badaga greeting a Toda 631
70. A view of Nòdrs. The Stone in the Foreground on the Left
is the ‘Nerovkars’; that on the Right is the ‘Uteiks.’
In the Background in the Centre is an old ‘Tu.’ The lower
part of the Conical Dairy can be seen between the Boy and
the ‘Uteiks’ 646
71. The Stones at Pishkwosht called ‘Teuar’ 657
72. The Village of Umgas, showing the ‘Nadrkkars’ in the Centre.
Behind the Stones is the ‘Poh’ of this Village, and on its
Right are the Dwelling-Huts 673
73. Plan of ‘Etudmad’ 689
74. Plan of Ancient Toda Villages 690
75. (From Breeks).—A Cairn on the Nilgiri Hills 711
76. Various objects found in the Nilgiri Cairns, taken from Breeks 713
PHONETIC SYSTEM
The following is the phonetic system which has been used in this book.
The use of many of the signs is more fully described in Chapter XXV.
Vowels.
â, the a of father.
a, the u of hut.
ä, the a of hat.
ê, the ei of their.
e, the e of met.
î, the ee of meet.
i, the i of hit.
ô, the o of post.
o, the o of pot.
ö, the o of word.
ò, the aw of law.
û, the oo of moon.
u, the u of full.
ü, the German vowel.
ai, the i of bite.
au, the ou of house.
ei, the a of date.
eu, the French diphthong.
oi, the oy of boy.
Consonants.
b, as in English.
ch, the ch of church.
d, used in the text for the English sound and also
for the lingual consonant ḍ. [1]
f, as in English.
g, the g of sing.
gg, the g of finger.
gh, the ch of ich.
h, used for a sound of doubtful nature (see p. 611).
j, as in English.
k, as in English.
kh, the ch of auch.
l, used in the text for the English sound and for the
lingual consonant ḷ.
m, as in English.
n, as in English.
ñ, a nasal n, as in French.
p, } as in
r, } English.
s, a sound resembling the English s.
sh, as in English.
t, as in English and also for the lingual ṭ.
th the th both of though and throw.
v, } as in
w, } English.
z, the z of zeal.
zh, the si of occasion.
Sounds represented by ch, s, sh, and th, very frequently inserted
euphonically in Toda words, have usually been omitted. I have also
omitted the signs showing the long vowels whenever a word occurs
frequently throughout the book, and the glossary should be consulted to
ascertain the correct method of pronouncing such words. Similarly,
Appendices III and IV should be consulted to ascertain the proper
pronunciation of the names of places and plants.
I do not use the plurals of Toda words, either in the English form or
in that proper to the Toda language; thus, I write “the two palol” and
not “the two palols” or “the two palolam.”
MAP.
The names printed in the same type as Kârs are those of Toda villages;
the names in italics, as Nanjanad are those of Badaga villages; the
names in small black type, as Ootacamund are those of towns with a
general population, or of dâk bungalows.
THE TODAS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The people whose manners and customs I am about to describe live on the
undulating plateau of the Nilgiri Hills in Southern India. The hills
were visited by a Portuguese missionary in 1602, and have been invaded
by Indian tribes on various occasions, but, at the beginning of the
last century, the plateau and its inhabitants were absolutely unknown
to Europeans. The earliest definite information about the hills at this
time is given in a letter from William Keys, an assistant revenue
surveyor, written in 1812, but it was not till several years later that
further information about the people began to be published.
Of the various tribes inhabiting the hills, the Todas excited the
greatest interest, and this interest has continued, partly because the
people are so different from any other of the races by which they are
surrounded, but still more because both they and their customs are so
picturesque and, in many ways, so unique.
A very large literature [2] has accumulated about the Todas and their
customs. This literature is so extensive that when I determined to go
to the Nilgiri Hills, I was reproached by more than one anthropologist
for going to people about whom we already knew so much; and one even
said that, so far as his department of knowledge was concerned, he was
sure that we had all the information we could expect to get.
A review of the literature, however, showed me that there were certain
subjects about which our information was of the scantiest. This was
especially the case in matters connected with the social organisation.
Little was known of the system of kinship, and it was not known whether
there was any definite system of exogamy. The Todas furnish one of the
best existing examples of the custom of polyandry, but scarcely
anything was known about the various social regulations which must be
associated with such a practice.
I had not worked long among the Todas before I discovered the existence
of many customs and ceremonies previously undescribed, and I was able
to obtain much more detailed accounts of others which had already been
repeatedly recorded. I found that there was so much to be done that I
gave up an intention of working with several different tribes, and
devoted the whole of my time to the Todas.
This book is not intended to be a complete account of all that is known
about the Toda people. Their physical anthropology has been so ably
dealt with by Mr. Edgar Thurston that I leave this subject almost
untouched, and I omit all but a brief mention of my own psychological
observations which I have published in detail elsewhere. [3] The book
deals almost exclusively with the religion and sociology of the people.
Even here, however, the account will be far from complete. After
several months’ work among a people about whom “we knew all there was
to be known,” I came away knowing that there were subjects of which I
had barely touched the fringe, and many others on which my information
could have been made far more complete with greater opportunity. About
certain subjects the Todas are extremely reticent, and my information
is in consequence very defective. There are many points on which I know
my information to be far from complete, and doubtless there are far
more numerous examples of deficiency of which I am not aware.
Some deficiencies of the record are due to certain untoward events
which occurred during my visit. After I had been working among the
Todas for about four months, various misfortunes befell some of those
who had been my chief guides to Toda lore. One man who had pointed out
to me certain sacred places fell ill and made up his mind that he was
going to die. Another man lost his wife a few days after he had shown
me the method of performing one of the most sacred of Toda ceremonies.
A third man who had revealed to me the details of the ceremonial of the
most sacred Toda dairy, suffered the loss of his own village dairy by
fire.
The Todas consulted their diviners, who ascribed these events to the
anger of the gods because their secrets had been revealed to the
stranger. In consequence my sources of information ran dry to a large
extent, and the difficulties in the way of the investigation of the
more sacred topics were greatly increased. By the time it was settled
that I was to blame I was nearly at the end of my visit, but it was in
the last two or three weeks that I had hoped to overcome the scruples
of the people and to obtain information on many doubtful points about
which I had to come away unsatisfied.
One of the subjects on which my material is defective is the folk-lore.
I have a number of tales, but they are only a small part of the store
of Toda legend. I regret especially the incompleteness of my work in
this respect because I believe that the Todas are rapidly forgetting
their folk-tales and the legends of their gods, while their ceremonial
remains to a large extent intact, and seems likely to continue so for
some time.
I was especially struck by this because, in previous anthropological
experience in the islands of Torres Straits with Dr. Haddon, we had
found the exact opposite to be the case. In these islands, the
ceremonial had disappeared, and the only record of it to be obtained
was that derived from the memories of the oldest inhabitants.
Nevertheless in Torres Straits the store of legend was still ample, and
the agreement of the stories obtained from different individuals was so
great that it was evident that the people had preserved their folklore
with fidelity.
The difference between the two communities is easily explained. In
Torres Straits missionary influence is strong, and missionary effort is
always directed to break down the practices associated with belief. The
ceremonial in Torres Straits had been swept away, while the stories of
the legendary heroes were almost all that remained to the people of the
old life and were in consequence still cherished.
Among the Todas missionary influence, whether of Christian or Hindu,
has had little effect, and the ritual of the Todas in some parts of the
hills is almost, if not quite, untouched by outside influences. [4] The
effect of intercourse with other peoples seems to be showing itself
largely in the form of loss of interest in the stories of the past.
One of the most striking aspects of the customs and ceremonies of the
Todas is that these have in many cases no exact parallels in other
places. Perhaps the most definite result which modern research in
anthropology has brought out is the extraordinary similarity of custom
throughout the world. Customs apparently identical are found in races
so widely separated geographically and so diverse ethnologically that
it seems certain the customs must have developed in total independence
of one another. There seems to be an identity of idea actuating custom
in peoples very different from one another in their surroundings and
conditions of life.
The nearest parallels to Toda custom and ceremonial are undoubtedly to
be found in the Indian peninsula, but even here, though there is often
a general resemblance, this breaks down on going into detail. Even when
the resemblance is so close as to suggest a common origin, the
differences in detail are often very great. [5]
One clue to this exceptional nature of Toda custom and belief is to be
found in the geographical position of the people, which has to a large
extent isolated them from the world in general.
The plateau on which they live, broken by numerous hills and valleys,
is the top of a scarp formed by the meeting of the Eastern and Western
Ghats. Some of the hills project more than the rest above the general
level of the plateau, which ranges from 6,000 to 7,500 feet above the
sea, and the loftiest of these hills reaches the height of 8,760 feet.
The plateau is so high that, though it is situated only about eleven
degrees from the equator, the thermometer rarely rises above 70° F.,
and in the nights of the cold season may touch the freezing point.
In every direction the sides of the hills leading up to the plateau are
steep and often precipitous. To the south-east, east, and north-east
there is a rapid fall of about 5,000 feet to the plains of the
Coimbatore district, though to the south this plain only forms a gap
about twenty miles in breadth between the Nilgiri and the Anaimalai
Hills. On the north-west the slope is more gradual and is broken by the
Wainad district about 3,000 feet above the sea. To the north there is a
steep fall, but only for about 4,000 feet, to the plateau of Mysore,
which is about 3,000 feet above the sea.
The south-western part of the hills is known as the Kundahs and may be
regarded as a range separate from the greater part of the plateau, from
which it is divided by a wide valley, the Avalanche Valley. From the
Kundahs there is an extremely precipitous fall to the Malabar district.
The steep sides leading up to the plateau on which the Todas live are
clothed with thick, almost impenetrable jungle, which is extremely
malarious, so that a night spent on the way to the summit is very
likely to produce fever.
The hills appear to have been for long an object of reverence to Hindus
on account of their height and inaccessibility. Dubois states that “as
it is very difficult to reach the top of this mountain, a view of the
summit alone (and it is visible a long way off) is considered
sufficient to remove the burden of sin from the conscience of any
person who looks at it.” [6]
When the hills were first visited by Europeans, their use as a
sanatorium was long delayed owing to the difficulty of making roads,
and it was not till after many years that the hills became a regular
resort of the European population. We shall see later that the
isolation of the Todas has certainly not been complete, and that the
hills have been invaded by strangers, especially from the side of the
Wainad; but the isolation has probably been considerable, and, for long
periods, it may have been complete.
In their isolation from the world in general, however, the Todas have
not been alone. Two other tribes, the Kotas and the Badagas, occupy the
plateau with them, and the peculiar relations between the three tribes
are among the most interesting features of the social life of the
Nilgiris. The Todas are a purely pastoral people, limiting their
activities almost entirely to the care of their buffaloes and to the
complicated ritual which has grown up in association with these
animals. The Badagas are chiefly agriculturists; the Kotas are artisans
and mechanics; and both supply the Todas with part of their produce.
There is here a well-marked instance of division of labour, in which
the labour of the Todas is reduced to a minimum. Their privileged
position is usually held to be due to the tradition that they are the
“lords of the soil,” and the produce which the Todas receive from the
other tribes is supposed to be of the nature of tribute.
The jungle on the slopes of the hills is inhabited by two wild,
dwarfish tribes, the Kurumbas and Irulas, who have a general
resemblance to the many other jungle tribes of Southern India. These
people are much feared by the tribes of the plateau for their supposed
magical powers, but they have little to do with the complex social life
of the others.
The district in which the three tribes live is not extensive. The
extreme length of the plateau, from east to west, is about forty-two
miles, and its average breadth, from north to south, about ten miles,
the maximum breadth being fifteen miles in the centre of the district.
The total area of the plateau is less than 500 square miles. In this
district there live about 800 Todas, 1,200 Kotas, and 34,000 Badagas.
In addition, there are now extensive European settlements, the largest
of which is Ootacamund, the seat of the Madras Government for six
months of the year. The other large European settlements are Coonoor
and Kotagiri, while Wellington, near Coonoor, is a military station.
The plateau of the Nilgiris is divided into four districts, ordinarily
known by the names, Todanad, Mekanad, Peranganad, and Kundanad, and
these districts are recognised by the Todas. The Todanad is the largest
district, and is the part where the majority of the Todas live. Their
own name for it is Marsâdr.
The Mekanad is called by the Todas Karâdr, and is now very sparsely
inhabited, though there are many old villages in the district.
The Peranganad is the eastern part of the hills, and is called by the
Todas Purgòdr, and is the chief seat of a few of their clans.
The fourth district, or Kundanad, is that already mentioned as the
Kundahs in the south-west part of the hills. It is the chief seat of
one Toda clan, but it also contains villages belonging to others. It is
especially visited in the dry season, since its large rainfall often
provides ample pasturage when this is burnt up on other parts of the
hills. The Toda name of the district is Mêdr.
A few Todas live near Gudalur in the Wainad, some 3,000 feet lower than
the main plateau.
METHODS
The description of Toda life to be given in this book is the outcome of
an attempt to apply rigorous methods in the investigation of sociology
and religion. In the brief time which was at my disposal, it was
essential to employ methods of investigation which would enable me to
tell with some certainty whether I was obtaining accurate and
trustworthy information. Two great sources of error in anthropological
investigation are the dependence on the evidence of only a few
individuals and the necessity of paying for information.
The first source of error was easily avoided, and I was able to obtain
my information from a large body of witnesses, usually independently of
one another. As regards the second source, the Todas are inveterate
beggars, and are now thoroughly accustomed to receive payment for every
service rendered to the European, even of the most trivial kind.
Payment for information was inevitable, but I minimised the danger by
arranging that every man who came to me for work should receive a
definite stipulated sum as a recompense for his time and trouble. I
paid, not for the information, but for the trouble taken in giving a
day or half a day to my service. As a general rule, anything like
payment by results was carefully avoided. The sum paid was for coming
to me, and if anyone was reluctant to talk about one subject, we passed
on to another. Only at the end of my visit did I depart from this rule
on a few occasions, and offered rewards to one or two individuals for
certain items of information; but by this time I was in a position to
judge the value of the information I received, and I only employed this
procedure in cases where I knew the degree of trustworthiness of my
informant.
Definite methods for the verification of the evidence obtained were the
more necessary in my work among the Todas, in that I was obliged
throughout to depend on interpreters. I was, however, very fortunate in
my assistants. I first worked with a forest ranger, Albert Urrilla, who
knew the Todas very well, though he had no special knowledge of their
customs. He translated faithfully, and, owing to his wide knowledge of
the hills, he was extremely useful in helping me to become familiar
with the names and positions of the many Toda villages. After about six
weeks’ work, Albert had to return to his forest duties, and, except for
a week towards the end of my visit, the interpreter for the rest of my
work was P. Samuel, a catechist who had been endeavouring for ten years
to convert the Todas to Christianity, under the auspices of the Church
of England Zenana Missionary Society. When he began to work with me,
Samuel had a very limited acquaintance with Toda ceremonies, but he was
very familiar with the general life of the people, and was especially
acquainted with the actual working of many of their social customs.
Some of the Todas at first objected strongly to his helping me,
probably on account of his missionary efforts, but he soon overcame
this initial difficulty and gained the general confidence of the
people. He was well acquainted with the Toda language, and soon became
a very careful inquirer into customs and beliefs, and I owe much to his
help. He often obtained independent information about customs, and I
was put by him on the track of much that might otherwise have escaped
me. I had hoped that he would have continued to make inquiries for me
after I had left the hills, and soon after my departure, he forwarded
to me a very valuable account of a ceremony which I had not been able
to witness and other important material. While with me he had
discovered, however, how little progress he had made with the people
during his ten years’ work among them, and how little he had known of
their beliefs, and, soon after my departure, he asked to be given a new
sphere of work and was removed to the Wainad, so that I have not had
the opportunity for which I hoped, of making further inquiries into the
many doubtful points which always arise in working up the notes of
anthropological investigation.
One of the chief dangers arising from the use of interpreters is that
they will often transmit, not what they are told, but their own
versions of what they are told. They interpret the meaning as well as
the words of the informants. I think I can be certain that this danger
was avoided with both my interpreters, and that they gave me as
accurate an account as possible of what the Todas told them. We always
used the Toda names for all specific objects, individuals, and places,
so that the information transmitted to me by the interpreters was often
in such a form that nearly every noun was Toda in a setting of English
verbs, adverbs, and pronouns. Thus, referring to one of my notebooks at
random, I find the following: “After cleansing the poh in this manner,
each palol puts salt in the ponmukeri, and takes it and the karpun to
the upunkudi, taking also five pieces of tudrpül, five sprigs of
puthimul, and a bundle of taf.” In fact, we habitually used so many
Toda words that the Todas sometimes obviously knew the general drift of
my questions before they were interpreted to them, and, similarly, I
could often understand the general drift of the answer.
The first principle of my investigation was to obtain independent
accounts from different people; I then compared these independent
accounts and cross-examined into any discrepancies. The general result
of this method was highly satisfactory from the point of view of Toda
veracity. The general agreement of the accounts obtained from different
individuals was very striking, and, whenever discrepancies occurred, it
was nearly always found that they were due either to misunderstanding
or to differences in the practices of different sections of the Toda
people. These differences are so great that in many cases it made a
rigorous application of the method of direct corroboration impossible.
There are distinct differences in the ceremonial and social customs of
the two chief divisions of the Todas and some differences in the
practices of different clans. In the investigation of the dairy ritual,
there were found to be great differences in the practices of different
dairies, and, for the practice of any one dairy, I had sometimes to be
content with the information of one native only; but I did not content
myself with such independent accounts till I had satisfied myself of
the trustworthiness of the witness, and had learnt enough of the
customs in question to be in a position to weigh the evidence. As
regards the differences in the customs of different sections of the
community, many of my informants were able to describe the practices
not only of their own section but also of others.
After a time I managed to put myself on such terms with my chief
informants that they were always ready to confess any deficiencies in
their knowledge and would refer me to others whose special experience
would make them more satisfactory informants. Occasionally, however,
they carried this a little too far and pleaded ignorance of a subject
when they were really only reluctant to reveal the more esoteric
knowledge.
Still more important than this method of direct corroboration of
independent accounts is what I may call the method of indirect
corroboration. By this I mean the method of obtaining the same
information in different ways. Often this indirect corroboration
occurred accidentally. The whole of Toda ceremonial and social life
forms such an intricate web of closely related practices that I rarely
set out to investigate some one aspect of the life of the people
without obtaining information bearing on many other wholly different
aspects, and the information so gained often afforded valuable
corroboration of what I had been told on other occasions and by other
individuals. Thus, in obtaining a prayer, various matters would arise
which would confirm the accuracy of a legend obtained weeks earlier, or
the investigation of a funeral custom would lead to the indirect
corroboration of evidence concerning the regulation of marriage.
The most important way in which this method of indirect corroboration
may be intentionally applied is by obtaining the same information first
in an abstract form and then by means of a number of concrete
instances. As an example of what I mean I may cite the method by which
I inquired into the laws of inheritance of property. I first obtained
an account of what was done in the abstract—of the laws governing the
inheritance of houses, the division of the buffaloes and other property
among the children, &c. Next I gave a number of hypothetical concrete
instances; I took cases of men with so many children and so many
buffaloes, and repeating the cases I found that my informant gave
answers which were consistent not only with one another but also with
the abstract regulations previously given. Finally I took real persons
and inquired into what had actually happened when A or B died, and
again obtained a body of information consistent in itself and agreeing
with that already obtained.
By far my most valuable instrument of inquiry was that provided by the
genealogical method. [7] The Todas preserve in their memories the names
of all their ancestors and relatives extending back for several
generations. In the tables given at the end of this book, I have
recorded the pedigrees of seventy-two families, including the whole of
the Toda community. Whenever the name of a man was mentioned in
connexion with ceremony or social custom, his name was found in the
genealogical record and the relation was ascertained in which he stood
towards others participating in the ceremony or custom. By this means a
concrete element was brought into the work which greatly facilitated
inquiry. Customs and rites were investigated by means of concrete
examples in which the people taking part were real people to me as well
as to my informants. In a later chapter I shall consider more fully the
rôle of the genealogies in anthropological investigation. I mention
them here to give a preliminary indication of the extensive part they
played in my investigations. In order to give my readers the
opportunity of following my method in some measure for themselves, I
have given after the name of any individual mentioned in the book the
number of the genealogical table in which his name occurs; thus
“Kòdrner (7)” means that Kòdrner is a member of the family of which the
pedigree is recorded in Table 7.
I have already referred to the trustworthiness of the evidence given by
the Todas. I must now speak of the great differences in this respect
shown by different individuals. Some would give full and elaborate
accounts of ceremonial which close investigation showed to be, so far
as one could tell, thoroughly accurate. Others gave careless and
slovenly accounts, full of omissions and inaccuracies of detail, though
they rarely said anything which was distinctly untrue.
After some experience had been gained, one day’s work was usually
sufficient to enable me to make up my mind whether a man was a careful
witness, and if he did not seem to be so, he was not again called upon
for help. Different men were known to have especial acquaintance with
certain branches of knowledge, and I always endeavoured to obtain such
people. In the case of the religious ritual, it was not practicable to
make use, to any great extent, of men actually holding any of the
sacred offices, but I always had recourse to people who had held these
offices and were personally familiar with the ceremonial.
Among the many aspects of social life and religion, I soon found that
there were some about which there was no reticence, and these could be
discussed in public with men, women, or children standing by and
perhaps taking part. There were others which were of a more sacred
nature, and, if they were approached in public, it was immediately
obvious that the people were ill at ease and their answers became
hesitating and unsatisfactory. After a short time I adopted the
practice of devoting the mornings to my psychological work and to the
discussion of affairs of a non-sacred character. In the afternoons I
had private interviews with one individual at a time, or occasionally
two. If I approached any dangerous topic during the morning, my guide
made me a sign and I changed the subject, to return to it at an
afternoon sitting.
In the investigation of all the more sacred ceremonies, it was found to
be best that the narrator should be alone. He knew that he was telling
what should not be told and was embarrassed if any other Todas were
there to hear him.
One of the difficulties of anthropological inquiry is that the good and
trustworthy narrators are often the most reticent. They are trustworthy
because they are honest and pious members of their community, and are
therefore naturally reluctant to offend against the sanctity of their
religious customs by talking of them to a stranger. Some of my best
informants were such men, who were gradually led on to tell me far more
than they had ever intended, and then, having told me so much about a
given subject, they would sometimes throw reticence to the winds and
tell me all. It was very instructive in such a case to start a fresh
topic which I knew to be forbidden ground and observe the complete
change of attitude. One old man who had entirely lost his scruples in
our absorption in the details of dairy ritual absolutely refused to
speak a word when I turned to the subject of animal sacrifice, and for
this and some other topics I had to be content with less scrupulous but
at the same time less trustworthy witnesses.
I only found one Toda who was deliberately untruthful, and yet he was
so much less reticent and less scrupulous than others that I often had
to have recourse to his services. After I had been able to convict him
more than once of having given unsatisfactory evidence, he was more
accurate, but I was especially careful to check and obtain independent
accounts of everything he told me, and I have only made use of so much
of his evidence as I believe to be trustworthy. His knowledge was not
deep or accurate, but he often told me enough to enable me to extract
the full account from others, who, seeing I knew something, thought
they might as well tell me all. On one or two subjects, the whole of my
information is derived from this man, but whenever this is the case I
mention the fact, so that my readers may know the doubtful nature of
the evidence. I only give such information, however, when I believe it
to be correct. The informant in question was one of the cleverest of
the Todas, and his usual fault was not that he deliberately deceived,
but that he supplied the lacunæ in his knowledge by having recourse to
his imagination. In the matter of folk-tales, where the difficulties of
checking an account are especially great, I was obliged wholly to
reject his assistance.
An altogether different type of witness was my constant attendant,
Kòdrner. His special business was to bring me people as the subjects
for my psychological work and to act as my guide in visiting various
parts of the hills. He did not profess to any wide knowledge of custom
or ceremonial, and was always diffident about the information he gave;
but he was a good observer, and could give an excellent account of any
ceremony which he had witnessed or of any procedure in which he had
been involved.
Except in a few cases the Todas were quite unable to give any
explanations of their customs, the answer to nearly every inquiry being
that the custom in question was ordained by the goddess Teikirzi. In
the few cases in which an explanation was forthcoming, it seemed to me
that it was usually a recent invention. The explanations of customs
given in this book are therefore almost invariably those arrived at by
myself from the study of the available evidence.
While I was working I had by me the books or papers of Harkness,
Marshall, Breeks, and Thurston, the chief previous writers on the
Todas, and I inquired into most of the details mentioned by them; but I
have not attempted any criticism or comment on the work of others
except on special occasions when my own information is lacking or when
I am uncertain as to the truth of their statements. Except in those
cases in which I definitely refer to the work of others, every
statement made in this book is the outcome of my own inquiry or
observation. Whenever my account differs from those of others, it may
be accepted that I have inquired into the discrepancy and that my
account represents the result of a careful investigation.
As some of the accounts of the Todas were written many years ago, there
is always the possibility that two dissimilar accounts may both be true
and that the differences may represent changes in custom with lapse of
time. There is one fact, however, which makes it probable that this
explanation of discrepancies is not the true one. The accounts of the
Todas which show the closest correspondence with my own are some of the
earliest, especially the book of Captain Harkness, published in 1832,
and the papers of Bernhard Schmid and C. F. Muzzy, published in 1837
and 1844 respectively. In many cases my work agrees more closely with
these than with the accounts of later observers.
This is, perhaps, a suitable place to mention what I believe to be the
chief source of error in previous accounts of the Todas. In their
extensive intercourse with the Badagas, the Todas use the language of
this people, with which they appear to be perfectly familiar. The Toda
language is very difficult to understand, and the literature shows that
from the first, most of those who have investigated Toda customs have
used the Badaga language or Tamil as their means of communication.
Every Toda village, every Toda institution or office, and nearly every
object used by the Todas has its Badaga name as well as its proper Toda
name, and, owing to intercourse through the intermediation of the
Badagas, these names have come to be used not only by nearly all who
have written on the Todas, but also in official documents connected
with the people.
The names by which the Toda villages are known to Europeans are always
the Badaga names and not those of the Todas, and similarly with the
names of institutions such as clans, dairies, or ceremonies. The
practice of giving Badaga names in their intercourse with Europeans has
become so engrained that a Toda invariably uses these names when
speaking to a European. During the first few weeks of my work, I
received exclusively Badaga names, and to the end of my visit, whenever
I visited a new district, the Badaga names would crop up till the
people found that I wanted Toda and not Badaga. Kiunievan, who was the
chief informant of Mr. Breeks in 1872, is still alive, and when I asked
him why he gave Mr. Breeks the Badaga names in every case, he answered
“He did not seem to want anything else,” and this answer seems to me to
give the clue to much of the error which has found its way into many of
the accounts which have been given of the Todas.
One of the most serious errors which has arisen in this way is one
connected with the Toda clans. Every account which has been given of
the clan-system of the Todas is that of a system which is current among
the Badagas as the Toda system, but has only a limited correspondence
with the actual system as it is in use among the Todas themselves.
Every Toda, if asked by a European to what clan or division he belongs,
will promptly give his division according to the Badaga classification,
and this has led to the incorporation of this classification in all the
accounts of the Todas which deal with their social organisation.
Some words are necessary about the general plan of the book. I should
have preferred to begin with the social organisation, and to approach
the religious aspect of the life of the Todas through the ceremonies
accompanying the chief incidents of life, including birth, marriage,
and death. The ideas borrowed from the ritual of the dairy, however, so
pervade the whole of Toda ceremonial, that I have been obliged to
consider the ritual of the dairy at an early stage. After a preliminary
chapter sketching the general character and life of the people, I have
therefore given a full description of the elaborate ceremonial which
centres round the dairy; and on this follow the accounts of other
ceremonies and sacred institutions and a general discussion of the
religion of the people. I then turn to the social aspect of life, and
consider kinship, marriage, and the various factors upon which the
social organisation depends. Then, after some chapters on diverse
topics, I describe the relations of the Todas with the other tribes of
the Nilgiris, and in the final chapters discuss certain special
problems, including the origin and affinities of the Toda people.
CHAPTER II
THE TODA PEOPLE
I do not propose to describe at any length the physical characters of
the Todas. [8] It must be sufficient to say here that the people differ
remarkably in general appearance, and perhaps still more remarkably in
general bearing, from the other inhabitants of Southern India. The
average height of the men is about 5 ft. 7 in., and that of the women 5
ft. 1 in.; both are well-proportioned, and the men robustly built.
Their heads are distinctly dolichocephalic, the cephalic index of the
men being 73.3. The shaved heads of the children show very well the
great length, and probably owing to the special method of shaving (see
Figs. 63 and 64), this feature is in them exaggerated so as to seem
almost abnormal.
The nose is usually well-formed and not especially broad, the nasal
index being 74.9. It is often distinctly rounded in profile. The skin
is of a rich brown colour, distinctly lighter than that of most of the
Dravidian inhabitants of Southern India. The skins of the women are
lighter than those of the men. There is much hair on the bodies of the
men, who usually grow thick beards, and the hair of the head is
luxuriant in both men and women. The men are strong and very agile; the
agility being most in evidence when they have to catch their infuriated
buffaloes at the funeral ceremonies. They stand fatigue well, and often
travel great distances. One day I met an old man about seventy years of
age going to the market at Gudalur for a supply of grain, and in the
evening I met him on his return carrying a large and heavy bag. He had
travelled over thirty miles, had gone down and again come up some 3,000
feet, and most of his journey had been in a climate much warmer than
that of his native hills.
My guide at the end of the day would sometimes go a distance of eight
or ten miles and back to arrange for my supply of men for the next
day’s work, and I have seen him on these occasions running at a steady
pace which he would keep up for miles. In going from one part of the
hills to another, a Toda always travels as nearly as possible in a
straight line, ignoring altogether the influence of gravity, and
mounting the steepest hills with no apparent effort.
In all my work with the men, it seemed to me that they were extremely
intelligent They grasped readily the points of any inquiry upon which I
entered, and often showed a marked appreciation of complicated
questions. They were interested in the customs of other parts of the
world, and appeared to grasp readily the essential differences between
their own ways and those of other peoples. It is very difficult to
estimate general intelligence, and to compare definitely the
intelligence of different individuals, still more of people of
different races. I can only record my impression, after several months’
close intercourse with the Todas, that they were just as intelligent as
one would have found any average body of educated Europeans. There were
marked individual differences, just as there are among the more
civilised, and it is probable that I saw chiefly the more intelligent
members of the community.
My time was largely devoted to experimental work, especially on the
nature of the sensory and perceptual processes. The people entered
readily into this work, quickly grasped the nature of the methods
employed, and showed the same power of close attention and careful
observation which, as I have found in other races, enable even more
definite and consistent results to be obtained from uncultured races
than from most classes of a civilised community.
I had slighter opportunities of estimating the intelligence of the
women than that of the men, but, as a general rule, it seemed to me
that there was a very marked difference between the two sexes. Some of
the younger women, when examined by various tests, showed as ready a
grasp of the methods as any of the men, but most of the elder women
gave me the impression of being extremely stupid. It was often obvious
that they were not attending and were thinking far more of their
personal appearance and of the effect it was having on the men of the
party than of the task they were being set, but even when a liberal
discount was made for this, it seemed to me that they were distinctly
less intelligent than the men.
The characteristic note in the demeanour of the people is given by
their absolute belief in their own superiority over the surrounding
races. They are grave and dignified, and yet thoroughly cheerful and
well-disposed towards all. In their intercourse with Europeans, they
now recognise the superior race so far as wealth and the command of
physical and mental resources are concerned, but yet they are not in
the slightest degree servile, and about many matters still believe that
their ways are superior to ours, and, in spite of their natural
politeness, could sometimes not refrain from showing their contempt for
conduct which we are accustomed to look upon as an indication of a high
level of morality. It is in the matter of ethical standards that the
difference between the Todas and ourselves comes out most strongly.
THE VILLAGE AND THE HOUSE
The Todas live in little villages scattered about the hills. The
greater part of the plateau consists of grass-covered hills separated
by valleys, sometimes narrow, more often of wide extent. In every
valley there are streams and in many places swamps. In the hollows of
the hills are small woods, generally known as sholas, and it is usually
near these sholas that the Toda villages are to be found. Some parts of
the hills are much more thickly beset with villages than others, and
this is especially the case in the neighbourhood of the part known as
Governor Shola, about six to eight miles west and north-west of
Ootacamund.
In other parts one may go considerable distances without finding a Toda
village, but relics of the former history of the Todas may be found
widely scattered over the hills, and I think there can be little doubt
that at one time the Toda habitations were much more generally
distributed than they are at present. The bazaar at Ootacamund has now
become an important place in the economic life of the Todas; they sell
there the ghi or clarified butter in which form their dairy produce
chiefly goes to the market, and they procure in return at the bazaar
the rice and grain and other things which have now taken their places
among the necessaries of life. In consequence there exists a tendency
for the larger part of the Todas, especially those of the Todanad, to
live within an easy distance of Ootacamund, and many of the villages in
the more distant parts of the hills are now only occupied for a few
weeks in the year.
The Toda name for a village is mad, [9] but this is now often replaced
by the Badaga form of the word, mand, and the latter word is used
exclusively by the Europeans and others living on the Nilgiri hills. A
mad usually consists of several huts. In some villages there may be
only one hut, and the maximum number I have seen is six. At some places
where there was formerly a village with dwelling-huts there is now only
a dairy, but the term mad is still applied to the place at which the
dairy is situated. The term mad is also given to the funeral-places of
the Todas. Sometimes the funeral-place is also a village at which
people live; sometimes it has only a dairy; while in other places there
may be no trace of human habitations; but the term mad is equally
applied in all three cases. The term is also used for the dairies and
accessory buildings connected with the most sacred herds of buffaloes
(the ti). Each group of buildings is called a mad or ti mad. The term
has therefore a wider significance than “village” and denotes rather a
“place”—a place connected in any way with the active life of the Todas.
The chief village of a clan and certain other sacred or important
villages are called etudmad and other villages are often known as
kinmad.
A typical Toda village consists of a small group of huts (ars), often
on a piece of ground slightly raised above the surrounding level and
enclosed by a wall (katu). In this wall there are two or three narrow
openings, large enough to admit a man but not a buffalo. In most
villages there is a dairy or there may be several dairies. Each of
these buildings is also enclosed by a wall, usually higher than that
surrounding the dwelling-huts. The dairies may be near the huts, but
more commonly are at some little distance from the latter. Somewhere
near the dairy will be found a circular enclosure, the buffalo-pen, or
tu, [10] in which the buffaloes are enclosed at night, and there may be
more than one tu for use on different occasions or for different kinds
of buffalo. There will be a small pen for the calves which is called
kadr, and there may also be a house for the calves (kwotars). A small
structure called kush (? kudsh), used as an enclosure for calves less
than fifteen days old, may often be seen, situated between the
spreading roots of a tree.
Close to the village there will be at least one stream (nipa), and very
often there are two streams. If possible, there should be two streams,
in order that one may be used for the sacred purposes of the dairy, the
pali nipa, while the other is used for household purposes, the ars
nipa. Where there is only one stream, different parts are used for the
two purposes, and the two parts of the stream then receive the names
pali nipa and ars nipa. In this case the pali nipa is always above the
ars nipa, so as to avoid the danger that the water used for the dairy
shall have been contaminated by contact with household vessels. At some
villages there may even be a third stream, or part of a stream, used in
the ordination ceremonies of the dairymen.
It has often been a subject of remark by visitors to the Nilgiri Hills
that the Todas have chosen the most beautiful spots for their
dwellings, and interest has been taken in the love of beauty in nature
which this choice shows. I think there can be little doubt that the
choice of suitable dwelling-places has been chiefly determined by the
necessity of a good water-supply, and if possible of a double
water-supply, and the Todas have chosen the beautiful spots, not
because they are beautiful, but because they are well watered. Their
choice has been dictated, not by a love of beautiful scenery, but by
the practical necessities of their daily life.
In the immediate neighbourhood of a village there are usually well-worn
paths by which the village is approached, and some of these paths or
kalvol receive special names. Some may not be traversed by women. When
I first visited the village of Taradr, nearly the whole population of
the village met me at the spot where the path to the village leaves the
road. We all went along together till I suddenly found that I was
walking with the men and boys only, while the women and girls were
following another path. We were going by the way over which the sacred
buffaloes travel when leaving or approaching the village, and the women
might not tread this path, but had another appointed way by which they
were to reach their home.
Within the village there are also certain recognised paths, of which
two are especially important. One, the punetkalvol, is the path by
which the dairyman goes from his dairy to milk or tend the buffaloes;
the other is the majvatitthkalvol, the path which the women must use
when they go to the dairy to receive buttermilk (maj) from the
dairyman. Women are not allowed to go to the dairy or to other places
connected with it, except at appointed times when they receive
buttermilk given out by the dairyman, and when going for this purpose
they must keep to the majvatitthkalvol. This path is sometimes
indicated by a stone, the majvatitthkars, and the spot where the women
stand to receive the buttermilk is called the majvatvaiidrn.
At many villages there are other stones which have definite names and
mark the sites where certain ceremonial functions are performed.
The house is called ars, and is of the kind shown in Fig. 7. It is
shaped like half a barrel, with the barrel-like roof and sides
projecting for a considerable distance beyond the front partition
containing the door. The size of the hut is by no means constant; in
some cases it is sufficiently roomy to enable people to move about with
ease and comfort, while in others it is so small that it is unbearably
stuffy, and the smoke from the fire, which is always burning, makes it
difficult to believe that anyone can long live in it. The entrance to
the hut is always very small, and is closed by a door which slides over
the opening on its inner side.
Some houses are much longer than others, with a door at each end and a
central partition, so as to form a double hut which is called
epotirikhthars, i.e., “both-ways-turned house.” This kind of hut did
not seem to be common, and I only saw three or four examples, of which
one is shown in Fig. 8.
A much more common kind of double hut is called merkalars, i.e.,
“other-side house,” in which the back part of the hut is partitioned
off, with a door at one side.
In some Toda villages there may now be found huts of the same kind as
those of the Badagas. In the cases in which I found such huts, I was
told that they had been built by Badagas who had lived in the villages
while the Toda occupants were away. Todas may also occasionally be
found living away from their own villages, usually near tea
plantations. They do this because there is a demand for buffalo manure
at the plantations, and when living in this way they not uncommonly use
huts of the Badaga pattern.
In front of the hut on either side of the door there are usually raised
seats called kwottün, and there are similar raised portions, called
tün, within the huts on which the people sleep. The floor of the hut is
divided into two parts, which are marked off from one another by the
hole in which grain is pounded by the women. The part in front of this
is often used for churning, and with this part women have nothing to
do, their operations being limited to the hinder part.
There is little difference between the dress of men and women. Each
wears a mantle called the putkuli, which is worn thrown round the
shoulders without any fastening. Under it is worn a loin-cloth called
tadrp, and the men also wear a perineal band called kuvn, corresponding
to the Hindu languti. The kuvn is kept in position by a string round
the waist called pennar, a string which, we shall see later, is of
considerable ceremonial importance.
There are various ways of wearing the cloak which will be more fully
described in Chapter XXIV. It will be sufficient to say here that when
showing reverence, a Toda bares his right arm, this method of wearing
the cloak so that the arm is exposed being called kevenarut. It is
shown in Figs, 1 and 10.
THE DAILY LIFE OF THE TODAS
The daily life of the Toda men is largely devoted to the care of their
buffaloes and to the performance of the dairy operations. As we shall
see later, much of the dairy work is the duty of certain men set aside
to look after the sacred buffaloes and the sacred dairies connected
with them. A large proportion, however, of the Toda buffaloes are not
sacred, and their care falls on the ordinary Todas. The milking and
churning is chiefly the duty of the younger men and boys, but the older
men also take their part, while the head of the family exercises a
general superintendence.
On rising in the morning, the men salute the sun with the gesture
called kaimukhti, shown in Fig. 10, and then they turn to their work of
milking the buffaloes and churning the milk.
When the dairy operations of the morning are over, the buffaloes are
driven to the grazing ground, the people take their food and go about
any business of the day. Some may collect firewood and procure the
leaves used as plates and drinking vessels; others may carry out any
necessary tendance which the buffaloes require, or may go to fetch
grain or rice from Badaga villages or from the bazaar. The chief men of
the village may perhaps have to attend a meeting of the naim, or
council, which holds very frequent sittings to adjudicate upon the many
disputed points which arise in connexion with the intricate social
organisation of the people.
While the men are doing their work, the women will have been seeing to
their special tasks, of which three, represented in Fig. 11, have come
to be regarded as pre-eminently woman’s work.
They pound the grain with the wask in a hole situated in the middle of
the floor of the hut, [11] and when the pounding is finished the grain
is sifted with the murn, or sieve, and the hut is swept with the kip.
It seemed that pounding grain is normally performed wearing the tadrp
only.
Though these are the three operations which are regarded as
pre-eminently woman’s work, the women have other things to do. They rub
the seats or beds both inside and outside the hut with dried
buffalo-dung, and use the same material to cleanse the various
household utensils. They mend the garments of the family, and some
women devote much time to the special embroidery with which they adorn
their cloaks.
The ordinary routine of the day is often broken by the visits of people
from other villages, who may have come to talk over a proposed marriage
or transference of wives; to announce some approaching ceremony; to
discuss some business connected with the buffaloes, or perhaps, but
probably rarely, to pay a friendly call. Such a visit will probably
give the opportunity of observing the characteristic Toda salutation
shown in Fig. 12. [12] This is essentially a salutation between a woman
and her male relatives older than herself. If a man visits a village in
which he has any female relatives younger than himself, these will go
out to meet him as he approaches the house, and each bows down before
the man, who raises his foot, while the woman places her hand below the
foot and helps to raise it to her forehead, and the same salutation is
repeated with the other foot. This mode of greeting is called
kalmelpudithti, [13] or “leg up he puts.” It is usually a salutation in
which women bow down before men, but it may also take place between two
men or between two women, while on certain occasions a male may bow
down and have his forehead touched by the feet of a woman.
In the evening the buffaloes again find their way to the milking-place,
and the operations of the morning are repeated. When these are finished
the buffaloes are shut up in the enclosure, or tu, for the night; the
lamp is now lighted and saluted by the men who use the same gesture as
that with which the sun had been saluted in the morning. The people
then take their food and retire to rest.
SKETCH OF SOCIAL ORGANISATION
I shall consider the social organisation in detail at a much later
stage, but it is necessary to give here a brief sketch in order to make
its main features clear before going on to describe the Toda
ceremonial, which often shows differences according to the division or
clan with which the ceremony is connected. The fundamental feature of
the social organisation is the division of the community into two
perfectly distinct groups, the Tartharol and the Teivaliol. As we shall
see more fully later, there is a certain amount of resemblance between
these two divisions and the castes of the Hindus. There is a certain
amount of specialisation of function, certain grades of the priesthood
being filled only by members of the Teivaliol. Further, marriage is not
allowed between members of the two divisions, though certain irregular
unions are permitted; a Tarthar man must marry a Tarthar woman, and a
Teivali man a Teivali woman. The Tartharol and Teivaliol are two
endogamous divisions of the Toda people.
Each of these primary divisions is subdivided into a number of
secondary divisions. These are exogamous, and I shall speak of them
throughout this book as ‘clans,’ using this word as the best general
term for an exogamous division of a tribe or community.
Each clan possesses a group of villages and takes its name from the
chief of these villages, the etudmad, and the people of a clan are
known as madol, or village people.
The Tartharol are divided into twelve clans, which take their names
from the villages of Nòdrs, Kars, Pan, Taradr, Keradr, Kanòdrs,
Kwòdrdoni, Päm, Nidrsi, Melgars, Kidmad, and Karsh. [14] The people of
each clan are known as Nòdrsol, Karsol, Panol, &c. The Kidmadol and
Karshol are much less important than the other ten clans, having split
off from the Melgarsol in comparatively recent times. The original
number of Tarthar clans appears to have been ten, and I have no record
that any clan of this division has become extinct.
The Teivaliol are divided into six clans, or madol, taking their names
from the villages of Kuudr, Piedr, Kusharf, Keadr, Pedrkars, and
Kulhem. The people of Kuudr are called both Kuudrol and Kuurtol, and
similarly the people of Piedr and Keadr are often called the Piertol
and Keartol.
Here again two clans, the Pedrkarsol and the Kulhemol, are less
important than the others. They are offshoots of the Kuudrol, but the
separation is of very long standing.
There was some doubt as to the existence of another clan, the
Kwaradrol, but it seemed certain that these people, who have now died
out, formed a subdivision of the Keadrol.
One Teivali clan has become extinct, its last member having died, it
was said, about a hundred years ago. This clan took its name from the
village of Kemen, which was near Kiudr, but no trace of this village
exists at present and I think it probable that the Kemenol have been
extinct longer than the Todas suppose.
The villages of each clan are usually situated in the same part of the
hills, though there are very often outlying villages far from the main
group. At any one period of the year, only some of the villages of the
clan are occupied. The people may move about from one village to
another according to the need for pasturage, and the villages in the
Kundahs and other outlying parts of the hills appear only to be visited
during the dry season before the south-west monsoon sets in.
Each clan is further subdivided, these subdivisions being of two kinds.
One, called the kudr, is only of ceremonial importance, and we shall
meet with it first in the chapter dealing with offerings. The other,
called the pòlm, is of more practical importance, and is the basis of
the machinery for regulating any expenses which fall on the clan as a
whole.
CHAPTER III
DAIRIES AND BUFFALOES
The milking and churning operations of the dairy form the basis of the
greater part of the religious ritual of the Todas. The lives of the
people are largely devoted to their buffaloes, and the care of certain
of these animals, regarded as more sacred than the rest, is associated
with much ceremonial. The sacred animals are attended by men especially
set apart who form the Toda priesthood, and the milk of the sacred
animals is churned in dairies which may be regarded as the Toda temples
and are so regarded by the people themselves. The ordinary operations
of the dairy have become a religious ritual and ceremonies of a
religious character accompany nearly every important incident in the
lives of the buffaloes.
Among the buffaloes held by the Toda to be sacred there are varying
degrees of sanctity, and each kind of buffalo is tended at its own kind
or grade of dairy by its own special grade of the priesthood; buffaloes
and dairies forming an organisation the complexities of which were far
from easy to unravel.
Each kind of dairy connected with its special kind of buffalo has its
own peculiarities of ritual. The dairies form an ascending series in
which we find increasing definiteness and complexity of ritual;
increasing sanctity of the person of the dairyman-priest, increasing
stringency of the rules for the conduct of his daily life, and
increasing elaboration of the ceremonies which attend his entrance upon
office. There are also certain dairies in which the ritual has
developed in special directions, and there are special features of the
organisation of buffaloes and dairies not only in each of the two chief
divisions of the Toda people, but also in many of the clans of which
each division is composed.
I propose in this chapter to sketch some of the chief features of the
buffalo and dairy organisation, and in succeeding chapters there will
follow detailed accounts of the different dairies and of the ceremonial
which accompanies the daily work of the dairy and the important events
of buffalo life.
THE DAIRY ORGANISATION
The first distinction to be made concerns the buffaloes. These animals
are divided into those of a sacred character and those which may be
called ‘ordinary buffaloes.’ The latter are known as putiir; they may
be kept at any village, are tended by the men and boys of the
village—in Toda language, they are tended by perol, or ordinary
persons—and their milk is churned in the front part of the
dwelling-hut. There is no special ritual of any kind connected with
these buffaloes or with their milk, and there are no restrictions on
the use of the milk or its products.
The classification of the sacred buffaloes is very different in the two
divisions of the Toda people. The Teivaliol possess only one class of
sacred buffalo and these buffaloes are called collectively pasthir. The
Tartharol, on the other hand, have several classes of sacred buffalo,
and, so far as I could ascertain, they have properly no collective term
for all of them, though they are often spoken of by the Teivali term,
pasthir.
Possessing only one kind of sacred buffalo, the dairy organisation of
the Teivaliol is comparatively simple. The milk of the pasthir is
churned in dairies at the more important villages of each clan. The
dairy is, in general, called pali, [15] and the dairyman is called
palikartmokh, ‘dairy watch-boy,’ or palikartpol, ‘dairy watch-man,’
[16] according to his age; but, probably owing to the general custom of
employing youths or young men to fill the office of dairyman, the term
palikartmokh is in far more general use, and is often employed even
when the dairyman is an elderly man.
At many of the chief Teivali villages, there are two dairies; a large
dairy, called etudpali, and a smaller, called kidpali. Each of these
dairies should have its own palikartmokh, and this is still the case
when both dairies are used, but at most villages at the present time
one of the two dairies has been disused and there is in consequence
only one dairyman.
Both ordinary and sacred buffaloes are the property, not of the whole
clan, but of families or individuals, and the buffaloes tended at the
dairy of a village are, in general, the property of the family living
at that village. A large clan with many villages, such as that of
Kuudr, has many dairies in working order and a corresponding number of
dairymen.
Among the Tartharol the organisation is far more complicated. Most
Tarthar clans have more than one kind of sacred buffalo in addition to
the ordinary buffaloes or putiir. In every clan there is one kind of
sacred herd which may be said to correspond to the pasthir of the
Teivaliol. The milk of these buffaloes is churned in a dairy called
pali by a dairyman called palikartmokh or palikartpol. There are,
however, two grades of dairy corresponding to these buffaloes. The
lower grade is called the tarpali, or more commonly tarvali, and is
served by a tarvalikartmokh. The higher grade is called kudrpali,
tended by a kudrpalikartmokh. There is no distinction of buffaloes
corresponding to this distinction of dairies, the same buffaloes being
tended sometimes at a kudrpali and sometimes at a tarvali. The
distinguishing feature of a kudrpali is the possession of a mani, or
sacred bell, and the greater elaboration and stringency of its ritual
is due to the presence of this sacred object.
In addition to the buffaloes tended at the tarvali or kudrpali, most
Tarthar clans possess other sacred buffaloes called wursulir. These
buffaloes are tended by a dairyman called wursol and their milk is
churned in a dairy called wursuli or wursulipali. One point which marks
off this branch of the dairy organisation from the preceding is that
the dairyman, or wursol, must belong either to the Teivaliol or to the
Melgars clan of the Tartharol. Both tarpalikartmokh and
kudrpalikartmokh are chosen from the Tartharol, either of the same or
of a different clan from that of the dairy, but the wursol must be
taken either from the members of the other chief division of the Todas
or from one special clan of the Tartharol, a clan which has many other
peculiar privileges and occupies a position in some ways intermediate
between Tartharol and Teivaliol.
The ritual of the wursuli is distinctly more elaborate than that of
either tarvali or kudrpali, and the wursol is a more sacred personage,
so far as one can judge from his rules of conduct and the elaboration
of his ordination ceremonies.
Two Tarthar clans have dairies of especial importance and sanctity, in
both of which there are distinctive features of ritual.
The people of Taradr possess a herd of buffaloes called kugvalir which
take their name from the dairy, the kugvali or kugpali, meaning the
chief or great dairy. The kugvalir are tended by a kugvalikartmokh, who
must belong to the Taradrol. The six chief families of this clan take
charge of the buffaloes for periods of three years in rotation, and the
head of the family in charge selects the kugvalikartmokh.
The other Tarthar dairy which occupies an exceptional position is that
of Kanòdrs, which is called a poh, and is tended by a dairyman called
pohkartpol. The ritual both of this dairy and of the kugvali of Taradr
resembles in some respects that of the most sacred Toda dairies, the
dairies of the institution called the ti.
The number and nature of the dairies are different in the different
Tarthar clans and in different villages of the same clan. The Melgars
clan has only one kind of dairy, the tarvali. The Nòdrs clan now has a
tarvali and a wursuli, and at most Kars villages there are both
kudrpali and wursuli, but formerly both at Nòdrs and Kars there were
three kinds of dairy, tarvali, kudrpali, and wursuli. Some Pan villages
have tarvali and wursuli, others kudrpali and wursuli. At Taradr there
are both tarvali and wursuli in addition to the special institution of
that clan, the kugvali.
All these various kinds of dairy are situated at the villages where the
people live. In addition, five Tarthar clans possess dairies where are
kept herds of great sanctity, the herds of the ti or the tiir. These
buffaloes are kept at special dairies far from any village where people
live. A place where such a dairy is situated is called a ti mad, or ti
village, and each sacred herd moves about from one ti mad to another at
different seasons of the year, and the group of places, together with
the herds connected with it, is known collectively as a ti. [17] The ti
is thus the name of a special institution comprising buffaloes,
dairies, grazing grounds, and the various buildings and objects
connected with the dairies.
The ti is presided over by a dairyman-priest called palol, who is
assisted by a boy or youth called kaltmokh or, more rarely, kavelol.
Formerly it was the custom in most cases that a ti should have two
palol, each of whom had his own herd of buffaloes and his own dairy, so
that each ti mad had two dairies. This custom now persists in full at
one ti only, though in other cases there are still two dairies, of
which one is not used, or is only used on special occasions.
Though the ti is, in every case, regarded as the property of a Tarthar
clan, the palol must be chosen from the Teivaliol, and in some cases
the choice is restricted to certain Teivali clans. The kaltmokh must
belong either to the Teivaliol or to the Melgars clan of the Tartharol.
The dairy of a ti is always called a poh.
The ritual of the ti reaches a far higher degree of complexity than is
attained in any village dairy. The palol is a far more sacred personage
than the wursol or the palikartmokh; his life is far more strictly
regulated, and the ceremonies attendant on his entrance into office are
far more elaborate. The ceremonies connected with dairy or buffaloes
are more numerous, and when they correspond to ceremonies performed at
the lower grades of dairy, they are much more elaborate and prolonged.
THE DAIRY
There are two forms of Toda dairy. One resembles very closely the
ordinary hut, and, but for its situation and the higher wall which
surrounds it, it might often be supposed to be one of the huts. The
vast majority of dairies are now of this form. The other kind of dairy
is circular with a conical roof. There are now only three or four of
these buildings in existence, though others have only fallen into ruins
in recent times. Breeks, who wrote in 1873, says [18] that at that time
there were four, and a fifth in ruins.
The best known of these dairies is that at Nòdrs (the Manboa of
Breeks), shown in Fig. 13. It has received the name of “the Toda
Cathedral,” and is one of the show places of the Nilgiris. Another
(shown in Fig. 25) is at Kanòdrs (the Mutterzhva of Breeks). Both are
village dairies of especial sanctity; the Nòdrs building is in full
working order, while that of Kanòdrs is only occupied occasionally. A
third dairy of the conical form is at the ti place of Anto near Sholur
(the Kiurzh of Breeks) and should be regularly visited once a year,
though the year in which I was on the Nilgiris was an exception. The
fourth dairy of the kind (called by Breeks Tarzhva) is at Tarsòdr on
the Kundahs. It is also a ti dairy, but is now falling into ruins,
having been disused for about twenty years. The ruined dairy mentioned
by Breeks (Katedva) is said to be still in the same condition. It was
used as a ti dairy, and is near Makurti Peak.
There is no doubt that conical dairies were at one time more numerous.
There was one at the ti place of Enòdr, not far from Ootacamund. There
was another at the village of Kars, and the circular wall which once
surrounded the dairy still remains, and has been converted into a
buffalo pen.
The various names given to the Toda dairies are at first sight very
confusing. We have already seen that each kind of dairy is named
according to the kind of buffalo connected with it—according to its
position in the dairy-series connecting tarvali with ti. Each dairy has
also its own special or individual name; thus the kudrpali of Kars is
called Tarziolv, and the wursuli of the same village, Karziolv.
In addition to these two sets of names, there is another distinction of
a more general kind. There are two general names, poh and pali, and
every dairy is one or other of these. The former name is given to every
ti dairy, to every dairy of the conical form, [19] and to certain other
dairies at the older and more important villages. Some of the latter
are ordinarily called pali, but the name poh lingers in the name
employed for the dairies in prayer (see Chapter X), or in the
individual names of the dairies; thus the dairy at the ancient village
of Nasmiòdr is ordinarily called a pali, but its individual name is
Tilipoh. I think it probable that originally poh and pali were the
names of the two forms of dairy, the conical kind being called poh and
the ordinary kind pali. At the present time every existing conical
dairy is a poh, and every dairy which is said to have been in the past
of the conical form is called poh. It seems probable that in many cases
a dairy, originally of the conical form, has been rebuilt in the same
form as the dwelling-hut, owing to the difficulty and extra labour of
reconstruction in the older shape; and that in some of these cases the
dairy of the new form has retained the name of the old and is still
called poh, at any rate on certain occasions. All the dairies to which
the name poh is ever given are either ti dairies or are situated in
villages of especial antiquity and sanctity.
There is now no definite rule as to the grade of dairymen who shall
serve at a dairy called poh. The poh of a ti is, of course, occupied by
a palol and kaltmokh. The conical poh of Nòdrs, the old conical poh of
Kars, and several old dairies which are still called poh in the prayers
are, or were, tended by dairymen of the rank of wursol, while several
poh of the ordinary shape belonging to the Teivaliol are occupied by
dairymen called palikartmokh. The only place at which the dairyman
takes his name from the poh is Kanòdrs, where the conical dairy is
occupied by a pohkartpol.
There is a considerable degree of uniformity in the orientation of
dairies of all grades. The doors usually face in an easterly direction,
and in the majority of those I observed the door faced north of east,
the most frequent direction being some point between east and
north-east. In one case, that of the ti poh at Mòdr, the door of the
dairy faces south-east; but in front of the door there is a screen, and
on leaving his dairy the palol always turns to the left, so that he
faces north-east as he goes towards his buffaloes. In a few dairies the
door faces directly west, and, according to Breeks, this is the case at
the conical dairy of Anto.
THE TODA BUFFALO
The Toda buffalo is a variety of the Indian water-buffalo, but the life
on the hills seems to have produced a much finer animal than that of
the plains. Although thoroughly under the control of the Todas, the
buffaloes are semi-wild and often attack people of a different race
from their owners, and Europeans have frequently been severely injured
by the onslaught of these animals.
The Toda name for the male buffalo is er, and for the female ir, but
either term may be used when the people speak of buffaloes
collectively. Calves have different designations at different ages. A
young calf is kar, one from one to two years of age is pòl, and a
three-year-old calf is nakh.
Defective buffaloes, and especially those with only one horn, are
called kwadrir, and those whose horns bend downwards are kughir. Barren
buffaloes are called maiir.
There are considerable differences of colour among the buffaloes. Those
much lighter than the rest are called nerir or pushtir, and there is a
legend about the origin of these buffaloes, which, however, I failed to
obtain. The only obvious way in which the animals differ from one
another in marking is that some have a black stripe running down either
side of the neck very much in the position which would be occupied by
the chain suspending a bell.
There do not seem to be any physical differences between the buffaloes
of different classes, and, as we shall see shortly, the nature of the
breeding of the Toda buffaloes is such as would have entirely destroyed
any distinctions of the kind if they had ever existed.
Every adult female buffalo has an individual name, which is usually
given when her first calf is born. The number of buffalo names is
limited, so that many buffaloes bear the same name.
The following are among the buffalo names of which I have
records:—Kûdzi or Kûrsi, Kâsimi, Pän or Pern, Kiûd or Kiûdz, Enmon,
Koisi, Keien, Ilsh or Idrsh, Kârsthum, Perûv or Perov, Kebân, Enmars,
Persud, Nerûv, Kôzi, Perith, Pülkoth, Persuth, Tòthi, Kerâni, Keirev,
Püthiov, Peires, Nersâdr, Tâlg, Ûf, Köji, Persv, Arvatz, Kòjiû, Pundrs,
Purkîsi, and Òrsum.
Both Tartharol and Teivaliol have the same names for their buffaloes,
and it seemed that a buffalo of any village herd might have the same
name as one belonging to the ti. It is possible, however, that certain
names may be restricted to the ti herds. I collected some names which
occurred only in these herds, but I cannot say positively that they
might not also be used for less sacred buffaloes.
Male buffaloes are unnamed and appear to have little or no sanctity
even when born of cows of the most sacred herds. The greater number of
male calves are either killed at erkumpthtiti ceremonies (Chap. XIII)
or given away to the Kotas. A few are kept for breeding purposes,
usually in the proportion of two to every hundred females.
There is a singular absence of care about the breeding of the
buffaloes. The Todas have many herds of which every female has some
degree of sacredness, and it might have been expected that the bulls of
a sacred herd would have been carefully chosen from the male calves of
that herd. So far as I could ascertain after repeated inquiries, there
was no restriction of any kind in the mating of the sacred animals; a
bull of the ordinary buffaloes (putiir) of a village might even mate
with the highly sacred animals of a ti dairy. No importance seemed to
be attached to the question of paternity among the buffaloes, and so
far as I could ascertain the people were quite indifferent whether the
male was related or unrelated to the female, whether of the same or of
another herd.
I did not hear of the existence of any ceremonies connected with the
chosen male buffaloes. Marshall states [20] that a bull new from one of
the sacred ti herds undergoes a process of sanctification before he is
permanently installed, by being isolated for a day and night in a small
pen in the sacred woods of the ti, during which time he is deprived of
food, though allowed access to water. Marshall also states that it is
permissible to introduce a bull from an ordinary drove “after due
sanctification.” Though I failed to obtain definite confirmation of
Marshall’s statement, it is possible that something of the kind may at
one time have taken place or may even still take place.
At the present time the buffaloes are tended entirely by males, and
males only are allowed to take any part either in the work of the dairy
or in those dairy operations which are performed in the house. There is
a tradition that at one time women attended to the buffaloes at the
time of calving, and one incident is recorded in which women performed
Cæsarian section on a dying buffalo (p. 78), but this custom has now
long ceased to be followed.
The first buffaloes were created by one of the chief Toda gods, Ön, and
his wife. The buffaloes created by the male deity were the progenitors
of the sacred buffaloes, while the ordinary buffaloes or putiir are
descended from those created by the wife. Certain other buffaloes are
descended from ancestors created by other gods, but the account of
their various creations may be deferred till the chapter containing the
legends of the gods. I was told by some that the sacred buffaloes were
descended from a sambhar deer, but it was later found that this was
only believed to be true of one special group of buffaloes belonging to
one clan.
DAIRY PROCEDURE
The general plan of the dairy procedure is the same in all dairies, the
difference between different dairies lying chiefly in certain
formalities accompanying certain stages of the procedure.
The day’s operations begin with the churning of the milk drawn on the
previous evening. The milk is poured from the milking-vessels into
earthenware pots, and during the night it will have coagulated. The
coagulated mass is first broken up by the churn; water and butter
already made are added, and then the churning is continued till the
milk separates into a solid part, which I shall speak of as ‘butter,’
and a liquid, which I shall call ‘buttermilk.’ It must be remembered,
however, that these do not correspond to the butter and buttermilk of a
European dairy. The milk coagulates before the cream has risen in any
quantity, and there is no skimming. The ‘butter’ consists of both the
fat and casein of the milk, while the ‘buttermilk’ ought perhaps rather
to be called ‘whey.’
In order to avoid this ambiguity in the use of the words ‘butter’ and
‘buttermilk’ it might have seemed desirable to use the Toda terms for
these products; but I have not done so, partly in order to avoid the
too frequent use of Toda words, partly because the names are not
constant among the Todas themselves, different terms being used in
different dairies.
When the churning is finished, the butter and buttermilk are put into
their appropriate vessels, and the dairyman goes out to milk the
buffaloes, using for this purpose a bamboo milking-vessel, into which
he has put some buttermilk from the previous churning. The newly drawn
milk is poured into the earthenware vessels, in which it stands till
the afternoon. By this time the milk will have become solid, and is
churned as in the morning.
The ‘butter’ is used chiefly in the form of ghi, or clarified butter,
for which the Toda name is nei. The butter is clarified by keeping it
over the fire after the addition of grain or rice. The latter sinks to
the bottom of the vessel, while the nei consists of the liquefied fat
of the milk. The nei or ghi is partly used by the Todas, but is largely
sold at the bazaar. The deposit of grain or rice is called al, and is
one of the chief Toda foods. It is, no doubt, mixed with part of the
proteid constituents of the milk precipitated during the process of
clarification.
The milking-vessel is of bamboo, and several of the small vessels used
in the dairy procedure are also made from bamboo of various sizes. The
vessels into which the milk is poured and in which it is churned are of
earthenware, and the vessels in which the butter and buttermilk are
kept are also of this kind. The earthenware vessels used in the
ordinary dairy-work are made by the Kotas.
The names of the different dairy vessels vary according to the dairy in
which they are used, and these, together with a complete list of the
dairy vessels and implements, will be reserved till later.
The method of churning is shown in Fig. 15. The churning is always done
within the hut or dairy, but in order to obtain a photograph of the
process a staff was put in the ground outside a hut, so that the figure
shows exactly the method used within the hut or dairy. The upright
staff is called palmän, or ‘milk-tree’; the two rings by means of which
the churning-stick is fastened to the palmän are called palkati, or
‘milk-ties.’ The cord by which the churning-stick, or madth is revolved
is called kudinan or palv.
The general plan of the dairy operations appears to be much the same as
that practised elsewhere in India. There are, however, two special
features of the Toda procedure which, so far as I know, are not in
general use elsewhere. One of these is the addition of buttermilk from
a previous churning. This addition probably hastens the process of
coagulation, and has a material use, but in the hands of the Todas it
has become of great ceremonial importance, and forms the basis of some
of the most interesting features of the dairy ritual.
The other special feature which does not seem to be generally found in
India is the addition of grain or rice when clarifying the butter.
Unlike the addition of buttermilk, this has no ceremonial value, and is
chiefly important in providing the Todas with one of their favourite
foods.
THE CARE OF THE ORDINARY BUFFALOES
The ordinary buffaloes, or putiir, of a village are looked after and
milked by the males of the village; by those who in Toda terminology
are perol, or ordinary men, as compared with those who have been
ordained to one of the sacred dairy offices.
When the people rise in the morning, the buffaloes are released from
the pen, or tu, in which they have been enclosed for the night, and the
animals make their way at once to the place where they are accustomed
to be milked, the irkarmus. At the same time, or a little later, the
calves are released from their enclosure, the kadr, and each calf runs
to its mother. The milk of the previous night is churned in the
interior of the dwelling-hut, usually by one of the youths of the
family. In the dairy one man has to carry out all the dairy operations,
and here the churning is always finished before the milking begins; but
in the case of the ordinary buffaloes, where many take part in the
work, the two operations may go on simultaneously, and while one man or
boy is churning, others will be milking the buffaloes and carrying the
milk into the hut. Usually it seemed that each of the males of the
family was taking his part in the proceedings.
Whenever I watched the milking operations, I saw one man, the head of
the family, walking about and superintending the operations, while
several other men and youths were milking the buffaloes or churning the
milk within the hut. It seemed as if in general each buffalo gave very
little milk, and a man soon left one buffalo to go to another, and as
the bamboo milking-vessels are small and have soon to be emptied, there
was a constant moving about from one buffalo to another and from the
milking-place to the hut. A typical milking scene is shown in Fig. 16.
Each man carries a stick, with which he keeps off troublesome calves
who may come to suck while the milking is going on (see Fig. 17). If a
buffalo and its calf are troublesome, milk is sometimes smeared on the
back of the calf, and the buffalo occupies herself with licking the
calf, a process which keeps both quiet. At other times, a man may pour
milk into his hollowed hand which he gives to one of the buffaloes to
drink.
When the milking is over, the buffaloes are driven to their
grazing-ground, where they remain till the afternoon, when they return,
often spontaneously, to the milking-place, and the operations of the
morning are repeated.
While at the pasturage, one or two small boys are often in attendance
to keep the buffaloes from straying beyond the proper grazing-ground.
CHAPTER IV
THE VILLAGE DAIRY
This chapter will be devoted to a description of the various kinds of
dairy which are found at the Toda villages. An account will be given of
the daily course of the dairy operations and of the ritual accompanying
it. The description of special ceremonies which occur in connexion with
the dairy will be reserved till future chapters, in which ceremonies of
the same nature occurring in all grades of dairy can be considered
together.
A village dairy is often situated at some little distance from the huts
in which the people live, though sometimes it is in their immediate
neighbourhood. When of the same form as the hut, it may not at once be
distinguished from the latter, but it is usually enclosed by a higher
wall which surrounds the building more closely, so that there is very
little room between the two. The door seemed to me to be usually
smaller than that of most of the huts, and it is always capable of
being closed by a shutter on the inner side.
The dairy is usually divided into compartments completely separated
from one another by a partition extending to the roof, one room being
entered from another by a small door of the same kind as that by which
the dairy itself is entered. The majority of dairies have two rooms, an
inner room called ulkkursh and an outer room called pòrmunkursh. Many
dairies, especially among the kind called wursuli, have only one room.
At five Tarthar villages, viz., Nòdrs, Taradrkirsi, Keradr,
Akirsikòdri, and Tim, there are dairies which have three rooms, the
inner and outer rooms being separated by a third, called the nedrkursh.
Each of the five villages at which these dairies are found is the
funeral-place for males of the clan to which the village belongs, and
the body of a dead man is placed in the outer room of the dairy at each
place during the funeral ceremonies.
At Nòdrs and Tedshteiri (villages of the Nòdrs clan) it is said that
there were at one time dairies each of which had seven rooms. The ruins
of these, which were of the grade called kudrpali, are still to be
seen.
Sometimes the same building serves for two dairies, especially at the
less important villages of a clan. In these cases the building
resembles that kind of hut which is called merkalars, one compartment
of the hut opening at the side. At the villages at which I found
dairies of this kind, the front part of the hut was a kudrpali and the
part with the door at the side was a wursuli. In these cases each dairy
has only one room.
In every dairy which has more than one room, the dairy vessels are kept
in the inner room and the actual dairy operations are performed by the
dairyman in this room. He only is allowed to go into the inner room,
while other men may go into the outer room and, in those cases in which
there are three rooms, into the middle room.
When a village dairy has two or more rooms, the outer room first
entered from the outside is often used as a sleeping-place and in this
case usually has two of the couches called tün, one on each side with a
fireplace between them. That on the right-hand side as one enters is
called the meitün (meiltün), or high (superior) bed, and that on the
left-hand side is the kitün, or low (inferior) bed.
In the outer room is kept the kepun or kaipun (hand vessel), used to
hold the water with which the dairyman washes his hands. The masth, or
axe used for cutting firewood, and the tek or tekh, a basket used to
bring rice or grain into the dairy, are also kept in this room.
The fireplace between the two sleeping-places is usually made of four
stones and is called kudrvars. At the wursuli it is made of three
stones and is called waskal.
The room of the dairy which contains the dairy vessels is divided into
three parts: the patatmar, the ertatmar, and the kalkani.
The patatmar takes its name from the patat, an earthenware vessel into
which the milk is poured from the milking vessel and in which it is
churned. The vessels kept in this part of the inner room, which are
known collectively as patatpur, are those which are actually used in
the milking and churning.
The ertatmar takes its name from the ertat, a bamboo vessel used to
carry buttermilk or butter out of the dairy. The ertat and the vessels
kept with it, known collectively as the ertatpur, are those which
receive the products of the churning or are used to convey these
products out of the dairy. The lamp and the fire-sticks used for making
fire by friction are also kept in this part of the dairy.
In the third part of the room, called the kalkani, are kept leaves,
firewood, knives, and various sticks or wands. According to some
accounts, the vessel called penpariv is also kept here.
When the dairy vessels are taken into a new dairy (see Chap. VI.), they
are placed on ferns. I do not know whether they always rest on a bed of
ferns or whether the ferns are only used when the vessels are first
placed in the dairy.
The following is a list of the patatpur, the vessels and other objects
which are kept in the part of the dairy called patatmar:
Patat or tat. Earthenware vessels into which the freshly drawn milk is
poured and in which it is churned (Fig. 18, F). There are several of
these vessels, one of which may be used to hold water.
Irkartpun or patatpun. The bamboo milking-vessel (Fig. 18, I).
Parskadrvenmu or parskadrpenmu, i.e., milk churn butter mu (Fig. 18,
H). This is also sometimes called kazhmu, and is a small earthenware
vessel in which is kept the butter (pen) which is added while churning.
Except when the churning is in progress, it is used as a cover for the
patat.
Adimu. An earthenware vessel (Fig. 18, K) into which some of the
coagulated milk may be poured while churning. It may also be used to
fetch water from the dairy stream.
Madth or parskartmadth. Churning-stick (Fig. 18, C).
Palkati. Bamboo rings for holding the churning-stick while churning.
Parskurs or ularwurthkurs. Stick or wand used chiefly for driving off
calves while milking.
Tatkich. The cut-up ends of a churning-stick, used for cleaning the
patat.
Tedshk. Rings made of rattan (Fig. 18, D), used in carrying the dairy
vessels.
The garment of the dairyman, called tuni, is also kept here, and when
there is a mani (bell), it is kept on the patatmar. The churning-stick
is kept on a stand called agar.
The following are the objects kept on the ertatmar:
Majpariv. Vessel in which buttermilk is kept.
Penpariv. Vessel in which butter is kept. (According to some, this
vessel is kept in the part called kalkani.)
Ertatpun. Vessel used to take buttermilk or butter out of the dairy
(Fig. 18, E).
Majertkudriki. A small earthenware pot used like a ladle to take
buttermilk out of the majpariv. It is also called ashkiok.
Pòlmachok. A bamboo vessel (Fig. 18, G) used to hold the buttermilk
which is distributed to the people of the village.
Nirsi. The fire-sticks for making fire by friction.
Pelk. The lamp.
Tòratthadi. Cooking vessel which may be used for anything except
barley.
Put, a stirring-stick.
When there is only one room, the masth, axe for cutting firewood, may
be kept on the ertatmar; otherwise it is kept in the outer room.
The vessels and other objects of the patatmar are those which come
directly into contact with the milk of the buffaloes or which may at
any time come into contact with the buffaloes themselves.
The vessels and objects of the ertatmar, on the other hand, are those
which contain the dairy products which are going out to ordinary people
(perol), or which come into contact with food or other materials
obtained from ordinary people.
The things of the patatmar are always kept apart from those of the
ertatmar. When the buffaloes migrate from one grazing-place to another,
the things of the patatmar are carried by one man and those of the
ertatmar by another.
In connexion with many dairies there is a house in which calves are
kept, the kwotars, and a place for very young calves, called kush or
kudsh, which is sometimes partly formed by the spreading roots of a
tree.
I am in some doubt as to whether the buffaloes belonging to a village
dairy ever have a special tu in which they are enclosed for the night.
In general, however, there is no doubt that the sacred buffaloes of the
dairy occupy the same pen as the ordinary buffaloes. Similarly I am not
clear whether the dairy always has its own irkarmus, or milking-place,
or whether ordinary and sacred buffaloes are not often milked at the
same spot, the dairyman recognising the buffaloes committed to his
charge and milking them only.
Every dairy has its own place from which water is drawn the pali nipa.
This may be a different stream from that used for household purposes,
but is, perhaps, most commonly part of the same stream, the higher part
being used for dairy purposes. When a village has more than one dairy,
each dairy has its own place for drawing water, usually different parts
of the same stream.
The foregoing account holds good of all kinds of village dairy. The
different grades of village dairy present differences in the daily
procedure, in the qualifications and rules of conduct of the dairyman,
and in other respects. I will begin with the tarvali of the Tartharol.
THE TARVALI
This is the name applied to the lowest grade of Tarthar dairy and may
mean “the ordinary dairy,” the first syllable being probably the same
as in the word “Tarthar.”
The tarvali is always of the ordinary form and is never called poh. The
dairyman, or tarvalikartmokh, is often a youth or man of the village to
which the dairy belongs, but he may be taken from any other village of
the clan or from other Tarthar villages, the choice in some cases being
restricted to certain clans. The only Tarthar clan which is strictly
limited to its own members in the choice of tarvalikartmokh is that of
Melgars. In all cases this grade of dairyman must be one of the
Tartharol; he is never taken from the other division of the Toda
people.
When the dairyman is taken from another clan, he may receive certain
wages, viz., two cloaks (putkuli) in the year and six rupees, together
with the loan of a milking buffalo for the use of his family. I have no
definite information whether anything is given to dairymen who are
members of the clan or family to which the dairy belongs.
The dairyman is regarded by the Todas as a servant, especially when
taken from another clan. I was often told that a man was working for
another and was his servant, and always found that the so-called
servant was palikartmokh at the dairy of the village at which the
master lived. Correspondingly, there seemed to be no doubt that the
dairyman was treated with very scant respect, except on ceremonial
occasions and when actually performing the ritual of his office.
The tarvalikartmokh wears nothing but the kuvn, or perineal band, when
he is in the dairy, and wears a loincloth called irkarthtadrp when
milking. When away from his work or when looking after his buffaloes on
the grazing-ground, he wears the ordinary cloak, or putkuli. He usually
sleeps in the outer room of the dairy, but is allowed to sleep at any
time in the dwelling-hut. When he goes there he may only touch the
sleeping-place (idrtül) and the floor (kuter). If he touches any other
part of the hut, he at once loses his office and becomes an ordinary
person. There are no restrictions on the intercourse of the
tarvalikartmokh with women.
When the tarvalikartmokh rises in the morning, he leaves the dairy,
raising one or both hands to his face as in Fig. 10 and saying Sami or
Swami. He often also says this word when getting up from the
sleeping-place. He first lets the buffaloes out of the pen (tu) in
which they had been put for the night and then goes into the dairy to
churn. He does not light the lamp in the morning unless it is dark, nor
does he pray. The milk poured into the patat overnight will have
coagulated, so that it forms a solid mass called adrpars. The dairyman
puts the churning-stick into the patat and churns for a little time
till he has broken up the adrpars. [21] Then he pours off most of the
semi-fluid milk into another vessel (also a patat), leaving about one
kudi [22] in the churning-vessel. He adds to this some butter from a
previous churning, which he takes from the parskadrvenmu, adds also
some water, and churns the mixture till butter is formed. He pours out
the buttermilk into the majpariv, keeping the butter in the patat, adds
more coagulated milk and water, and churns again, transferring the
buttermilk to its vessel when butter is formed. He continues in this
way till all the milk has been churned, and he then transfers the
butter which has been formed to the vessel called penpariv, also
putting a small portion in the parskadrvenmu.
The palikartmokh then goes out to milk, with the irkarthpun and the
wand called parskurs or ularwurthkurs. He puts into the milking-vessel
some buttermilk, the buttermilk used for this purpose being called pep,
and he also smears some butter on the edge of the vessel to put on the
teats of the buffaloes. When he goes out, he salutes by raising the
irkarthpun and parskurs to his forehead in the same manner as is shown
in Fig. 27. When he has filled the milking-vessel, he goes into the
dairy and empties the milk into the patat and returns to the buffaloes.
This is repeated till all the buffaloes have been milked, after which
the dairyman takes food and buttermilk, but with no prescribed ritual
as in the case of more sacred dairies. He also gives out buttermilk to
the people of the village. After the work of the morning is over, the
palikartmokh may go out to look after the buffaloes, or may collect
firewood, leaves, or other things necessary for his work. During the
later hours of the morning the palikartmokh may often be seen lying
down taking a rest before he begins the work of the afternoon, which is
more ceremonial than that of the morning.
About three o’clock in the afternoon he goes to the dairy, bows down
and touches the threshold with his forehead (pavnersatiti, Fig. 20),
enters and touches a vessel on the patat side, and then a vessel on the
ertat side. He then lights the fire and inspects the milk drawn in the
morning. If it has not become solid, he puts it on the fire for a few
minutes to hasten the coagulation. He lights the lamp and prays, using
the prayer of the dairy (see Chap. X), and then churns as in the
morning. When he has finished churning, he clears the churning-stick of
the butter clinging to it, and after holding it to his forehead and
uttering the sacred word “Oñ”, he puts it in the stand called agar. He
then goes out to milk as in the morning, taking buttermilk in the
milking-vessel. When the milking is over, he shuts up the buffaloes in
the pen for the night, and as he does so, he repeats the prayer of the
dairy, the prayer being exactly the same as that used when lighting the
lamp. He then takes food and goes to sleep, often saying Swami as he
lies down for the night.
The tarvali of the Melgars people is in some ways regarded as superior
to the other tarvali of the Tartharol. The Melgars tarvalikartmokh may
not go to the tarvali of another Tarthar clan, though the
tarvalikartmokh of another clan may go to a Melgars tarvali. This was
said to be due to the higher degree of sanctity of the Melgars dairy
and office, but there do not appear to be any differences of ritual
corresponding to this different degree of sanctity.
THE KUDRPALI
The special feature of the kudrpali is that it contains one or more of
the bells called mani. This involves several additions to the
ceremonial of the dairy, and these are accompanied by more stringent
rules of conduct for the dairyman.
Whenever engaged in his work, the kudrpalikartmokh must be naked except
for the kuvn. In the cold Nilgiri mornings it must often be a very
unpleasant task to have to milk the buffaloes with no covering, and I
was told that at some places, and especially at Nòdrs, the people gave
up the maintenance of a kudrpali on account of the difficulty
experienced in obtaining men to undertake the office of dairyman.
When the kudrpalikartmokh is taking his meals, he must hold his food in
his hands till he has finished. He is not allowed to put it down on the
ground, as may be done by the dairyman of the tarvali.
Soon after beginning to churn, the kudrpalikartmokh takes up some of
the broken-up curd (adrpars) and puts it on the bell (mani) three
times, saying “Oñ” each time, and milk from the vessel first brought
into the dairy is also put on the bell in the same manner.
At the kudrpali of Kars, the dairyman puts the curd and milk on a board
called pato. The bells of this dairy have been lost, and the dairyman
puts the milk on the board on which the bells used to hang. The process
of putting milk on the bells is properly called terzantirikiti, but the
Todas often speak of the process as “feeding the bell.” At the kudrpali
of Kuzhu, belonging to the Kars clan, milk is put in the same way on a
gold bracelet.
When making butter, it will be remembered that the dairyman of the
tarvali makes a certain amount, and then pours away the buttermilk, and
repeats this till all the adrpars has been converted into butter and
buttermilk. Whenever the kudrpalikartmokh pours away buttermilk, he
takes a piece of the bark of the sacred tudr tree (Meliosma pungens and
Wightii) and beats three times on the patat, saying “Oñ” each time.
This ceremony is called pepeirthti, and is the exclusive privilege of
the kudrpalikartmokh. If this ceremony should be omitted, the
buttermilk may not be drunk by any one.
The kudrpalikartmokh is allowed to sleep in the ordinary hut, but only
on special days—viz., Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday—and on these days
he must, like the tarvalikartmokh, avoid touching anything in the hut
except the sleeping-place and the floor on pain of losing his office.
He is allowed intercourse with any Tarthar woman, but must have nothing
to do with the women of his own division, the Teivaliol.
While in office, the kudrpalikartmokh is not allowed to visit the
bazaar, [23] and if he does so he becomes an ordinary person at once.
One afternoon when I was working with Parkurs (8), one of the elders of
the Kars clan, Sakari (7), who had been kudrpalikartmokh at Kuzhu, came
to announce that he had visited the bazaar at Ootacamund. He was
therefore no longer palikartmokh, and he came to tell Parkurs that a
successor must be appointed. It seemed to me in this case that Sakari
had visited the bazaar because he was tired of office and wished to
become free. I had a suspicion also that he wished to become acquainted
with my proceedings, for he came straight to me from the bazaar and was
one of my most regular attendants for some time after his deprivation.
The kudrpalikartmokh is prohibited from entering a tarvali, though the
tarvalikartmokh may enter a kudrpali.
The milk of buffaloes connected with a kudrpali is more sacred than
that of buffaloes milked at a tarvali. Any one may drink milk from a
tarvali, but the milk of the kudrpali may only be drunk by the
palikartmokh. If any one else drinks the milk of the kudrpali it is
believed that he will die. I could learn of no case in which a man had
taken this milk, but Kòdrner (7) had seen a cat die on the day it had
drunk milk of the martir, the buffaloes of the kudrpali of Kars.
Kòdrner was somewhat of a sceptic in connexion with many of the beliefs
of his people, but he was very much in earnest on this occasion, and
when my interpreter said he should like to drink some of the milk,
Kòdrner offered to give him one hundred rupees if he drank the milk of
martir for four days and remained alive.
The buffaloes tended at the tarvali and kudrpali are of several named
kinds. According to tradition, each clan at the original distribution
of buffaloes by Teikirzi (see p. 186) was given a certain kind. To Kars
were given the buffaloes called martir; to Nòdrs were given
nashperthir; to Pan, pineipir; to Melgars, persasir; these buffaloes
originally given being called in general nòdrodvaiir; lit. “buffaloes
who rule.”
In various ways the buffaloes originally given to one clan have passed
into the possession of other clans. This has happened when buffaloes
have been purchased, but is chiefly due to the existence of several
customs which involve gifts of buffaloes. The tradition also runs that
soon after the buffaloes were originally given, the Nòdrs people built
the kudrpali with seven rooms to which I have already referred and
begged the Kars people for martir to milk at this dairy. Similarly the
people of Kanòdrs borrowed martir from Kars to milk at their conical
dairy, and similar transferences of buffaloes may have occurred between
other clans. In these and possibly in other ways buffaloes have passed
from one clan to another, and as the buffaloes have in many cases kept
their original names, most clans now possess buffaloes of several
kinds.
I was for a long time very doubtful about the relation of the kudrpali
and tarvali to one another, and had very great difficulty in finding
out which buffaloes belonged to each kind of dairy. Finally, it became
quite clear that the same buffaloes might be milked either at a
kudrpali or a tarvali, and that the possession of a mani was the chief
point which determined whether a given dairy was a kudrpali or a
tarvali.
The same kind of buffalo may be milked at one kind of dairy in one clan
and at the other kind in another clan. The nashperthir of Nòdrs are
milked at the tarvali of that place, but those of Kars are milked at
the kudrpali together with the martir. Further, in at least one case,
the same buffaloes might be milked in one village of a clan at a
kudrpali and in another village at a tarvali. The Pan people now live
chiefly at Naters and the chief villages of the clan in the Kundahs,
Pan and Kuirsi, are deserted during the greater part of the year. When
these villages are occupied the pineipir are milked at their kudrpali
dairies, but when the people are at Naters the same buffaloes are
milked at the tarvali. The mani is left at Pan, and I was told that if
the bell were to be brought to Naters a kudrpali would have to be built
for its reception and the pineipir would then be milked at this dairy.
At the present time the only clan which has a kudrpali in constant use
is that of Kars. The Pan clan only uses its kudrpali during the few
months that the villages in the Kundahs are occupied. The Nòdrs clan is
said to have had a kudrpali at one time, but the fact that they had to
borrow buffaloes for it from Kars points to the especial connexion of
the kudrpali with the latter clan.
Although the Karsol and Panol are the only clans which have a kudrpali,
the special feature of which is the possession of a mani, these are not
the only clans which own these sacred bells. In other cases the mani
belongs to the next higher grade of dairy, the wursuli, and the Kars
clan itself also possesses mani kept at this grade of dairy. Indeed,
although the Kars kudrpali is said to have bells as its special
feature, these bells do not really exist, having been stolen some years
ago. The fiction of their presence is, however, kept up, and, as we
have seen, the place where they should hang is still ‘fed’ with curd
and milk.
In one case, that of the Kars kudrpali, I worked out in detail the
ownership and care of the buffaloes called martir. There were
altogether forty-eight of these buffaloes kept at six places and tended
by seven dairymen, who were chosen from the Karsol or from the people
of Nòdrs, Pan, Taradr or Keradr.
The distribution at the time of my visit was as follows:—
Kutadri (7) possessed 8 buffaloes kept at Kars tended by Idjen of Taradr (22)
Kutthurs (12) ,, 8 ,, ,, ,, ,, Tilipa of Kars (12)
Parkurs (8) ,, 8 ,, ,, Isharadr ,, Kosners of Nòdrs (6)
Pidrvan (9) ,, 6 ,, ,, Pakhalkudr ,, Tidjkudr of Nòdrs (6)
Kuinervan (14) ,, 6 ,, ,, Peletkwur ,, Pons of Keradr (26)
Potheners (10) ,, 6 ,, ,, Keshker ,, Palpa of Pan (16)
Nudriki (8) ,, 3 ,, ,, Kuzhu ,, Mutkudr of Kars (15)
Mongeithi (15) ,, 3 ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,, ,,
It will be noticed that in only two of the dairies did the palikartmokh
belong to the Karsol, and in each case he looked after the buffaloes of
his own father, Mutkudr also tending the buffaloes of Nudriki. Idjen
was the son-in-law of Kutadri, and Palpa had married a Kars woman, who
was not, however, closely related to Potheners, to whom he was acting
as dairyman. Kosners and Tidjkudr were given to me as examples of a
practice in which a man of one clan works for one of another, [24] and
they received the same wages as in the case of the tarvalikartmokh (see
p. 62).
These facts show clearly that the kudrpalir are not regarded as the
property of the whole clan, but belong to different families, and the
same is true of the buffaloes milked at the tarvali. Each family
possesses its own sacred buffaloes as well as its ordinary buffaloes or
putiir, and in some cases the buffaloes of each family have their own
dairyman, even when the milk of two herds is churned in the same dairy.
THE WURSULI
Most of the Tarthar clans possess herds of buffaloes called
collectively wursulir, each herd being tended by a dairyman called
wursol at a dairy called wursuli or wursuli pali. The buffaloes of
different clans have special names. At Nòdrs, they are called
mersgursir; at Kars and Taradr, püdrshtipir; at Pan, kudeipir; at
Keradr, miniapir; and at Nidrsi and Kwòdrdoni, keitankursir. The people
of Päm, Kanòdrs, and Melgars have no wursulir; Päm and Kanòdrs both had
buffaloes of this kind at one time, but they have been allowed to die
out. Melgars, on the other hand, never had wursulir, the tradition
being that none of these buffaloes were assigned to the clan at the
original partition by Teikirzi.
The wursulir are said to have been given to most clans at the original
partition of buffaloes, but no reason could be given for the creation
of this special kind of buffalo. The Keradr clan are believed to have
received their wursulir from Korateu (see Chap. IX), the buffaloes
being descended from a sambhar calf given by this god.
A special feature of the wursuli is that the dairyman or wursol of this
Tarthar dairy has to be taken either from the Teivaliol or from the
Melgars clan of the Tartharol. The Melgars people could hold the office
of wursol, but had no wursulir themselves. At the present time the
majority of men who hold this office are drawn from the Teivaliol, only
two belonging to Melgars, and it seemed that it was only when the
supply ran short among the Teivaliol that the Tarthar people had
recourse to members of their own division. The Melgarsol do not share
fully the privileges of the Teivaliol in respect of this office, for
though they may perform the ordinary work of the dairy, there are
certain duties of the wursol, such as those at the funeral ceremonies,
which may only be performed by a Teivali occupant of the office.
The wursol has to go through more complicated ordination ceremonies
than the palikartmokh, and has a distinctly higher degree of sanctity
so far as one can judge from the rules for his conduct. He may not be
touched by any ordinary person, and in general the rules regulating his
conduct are more stringent than those for the ordinary dairyman.
The wursol has two dresses; one, the grey garment called tuni, which is
worn at his dairy work and kept in the dairy; the other, the ordinary
putkuli, which he wears when not engaged at his special work.