CHAPTER VIII

SPECIAL DAIRY CEREMONIES

I have so far dealt with the organisation and ritual of the dairy, with the ceremonies accompanying the movements of the buffaloes from one place to another, and with the ceremonies attendant on the entrance of the dairymen into office. There remain ceremonies which accompany certain events in the course of the dairy ritual or in the lives of the buffaloes. One of these, the pepkaricha ceremony, is performed whenever any evil befalls a certain dairy vessel which is buried in the buffalo pen. Another ceremony celebrates the birth of a calf, and a group of ceremonies are connected with the act of giving salt to the buffaloes.

THE PEPKARICHA CEREMONY

In the account of the daily work of the dairy, it will be remembered that whenever the dairyman goes out to milk for the first time he puts some buttermilk into his milking vessel. This is done in every dairy, and the buttermilk so added is called pep. The milk of every day has mixed with it some of the buttermilk from the milking of the day before, and in this way continuity is kept up in the dairy operations. Under certain conditions this continuity is broken and new pep has to be made, and the process of doing so is the ceremony called pepkaricha, pepkarichti, or pepkarichanudr—i.e., “pep he purifies,” or, “if pep is purified.”

In some cases new pep has to be made for the whole clan (madol); in other cases it has only to be made for one of the dairies of the clan.

The ceremony is performed for the whole clan whenever anything goes wrong with a certain dairy vessel called mu, which is buried in the buffalo pen at the chief village of the clan. We have seen that this vessel is used in the ordination to certain dairy offices, and it is also inspected as a matter of routine about once a year. If it is broken or has been stolen or tampered with in any way, it becomes necessary to make new pep for the whole clan.

Among the Tartharol, new pep has also to be made after the funeral of a male on account of the defilement of the mani involved in its exposure to the ordinary people at the funeral ceremonies.

The conditions which necessitate the making of new pep for a single dairy are, (1) if a Tamil or other “foreigner” has entered the dairy, (2) if an ordinary Toda (perol) has gone into the dairy at night, (3) if the dairyman has used tobacco. In these cases the people of the village at which the offence has been committed procure a new mu, and, after purifying it, go to some other dairy of the clan, where they procure some buttermilk to act as pep and take it to their own dairy. It is only when new pep has to be made for the whole clan that the prolonged ceremony of pepkarichti has to be carried out. This ceremony differs in its details for each clan, and is more complicated in some cases than in others. As an example, I will give the proceedings for the Kuudr clan.

When it becomes necessary to make new pep for the whole group of dairies belonging to the clan it is necessary to take the buffaloes to one special dairy. The Kuudr people go to the dairy of Kwirg near Sholur. On the day of going to Kwirg, a feast is held at which the food called ashkkartpimi is eaten.

Whenever new pep is made it is necessary to have a new palikartmokh, and the man who is to undertake the duties goes to Kwirg with the milking buffaloes of the pasthir and is accompanied by a number of Kuudr men. The men take with them a new and complete set of dairy vessels, and reach Kwirg in the early morning of a Sunday after the new moon. The buffaloes are at once penned in the tu. The first business is the ordination of the new palikartmokh, which is carried out as usual. When at the stream for the purification ceremony, the palikartmokh has with him a new mu, which he fills with water at the stream. He takes this vessel to the tu in which the buffaloes are penned, and knocks one of the buffaloes on the back with his wand (pet), so that it moves to one side. Then with the wand he digs some earth from the spot where the hoof of the buffalo had been resting, and mixes this earth with tudr bark. He places part of the mixed earth and bark in the mu and puts the rest on one side; this part of the ceremony is called mukatchkudrspini, or purification of the mu, literally “mu purification I have purified.”

The palikartmokh then brings all the other dairy vessels and implements, beginning with the patat, and purifies them by throwing on them mixed earth and tudr bark, sprinkling them with water from the mu three times, saying “Oñ” each time. The things of the patatmar are purified first and then the things of the ertatmar, and the purified objects are placed in the dairy. Fire is made by friction and the palikartmokh goes out to milk. Buttermilk is not put into the milking-vessel as usual, and the lamp is not lighted. The milk is poured into the patat, and the palikartmokh then prepares food, which he gives to the people who have come with him, but he himself fasts. All the men then go away except one or two, who are to remain as companions of the dairyman. In the evening the palikartmokh takes off some of the cream, [50] which has risen to the top of the milk, and puts it into the lamp which he lights, and then prays, using the kwarzam of Kwirg [51] and the kwarzam of the pep only.

If the milk has coagulated it is now churned, and then the buffaloes are milked as usual, but if the milk has not coagulated, it is left till next morning. In the evening the dairyman takes food as usual.

On the following day, it seems that the milk has always become solid and is churned. Immediately after churning and without taking food, the dairyman puts together the dairy things according to the usual method followed when going from one village to another, and goes with his buffaloes to the village of Kiudr. The dairy vessels are carried in the usual manner, the new buttermilk called puthpep being in the patat and the butter in the mu.

The people living at Kiudr leave the village, and the man who has been filling the office of palikartmokh there throws away all the old dairy things and takes the mani to the stones by the side of that dairy called neurzülnkars (see p. 129). After leaving the bells there for a little time, the dairyman takes them to the pali nipa, and then his office ceases and he becomes perol.

The new palikartmokh, who has come from Kwirg, purifies the dairy and his new dairy vessels and the mani in exactly the same way as when reaching a new dairy, and then places the bells, vessels, and other objects in the dairy. During the next month, till the following new moon, the dairyman and his companions stay alone at Kiudr doing the ordinary business of the dairy. During this time they may be visited by men of the Kuudr clan, but neither by women nor by men of other clans. At the end of the month, on the Sunday after the new moon, the palikartmokh drives the buffaloes (now called ponir, festival buffaloes) to Kuudr, taking with him the puthpep and the dairy vessels. When the people at Kuudr see the dairyman coming with the ponir, they leave the village and all go to Kiudr, which the buffaloes have just left. There they hold a feast to which many people of other clans, both men and women, are invited.

When the palikartmokh reaches Kuudr, he purifies the dairy as he had done at Kiudr and puts the vessels in their places.

Certain men of the clan then come, each with a new mu, and these vessels are laid by the side of the stones called keinkars and tashtikars in the wall of the pen. At Kuudr fifteen new mu should be brought by the fifteen heads of families of the Kuudr clan. The palikartmokh then purifies each mu with tudr bark in the usual way and places the vessels on the patatmar of the dairy, after which he gives food to those who have provided the vessels.

The palikartmokh with his companion or companions then stay at Kuudr for a month, when, again on a Sunday after the new moon, all the Kuudrol assemble at Kuudr and hold a feast. On that day a new palikartmokh is appointed for each dairy of the Kuudr clan. Each man goes through the usual ordination ceremony and then receives one of the new mu containing some of the new pep, which he takes to his dairy. Each new dairyman also provides new dairy vessels, and, when he reaches his dairy, purifies the mu and the new dairy things in the way already described. He puts the vessels into the dairy and then goes to milk, taking some of the new pep in his milking-vessel, and thereafter matters go on as usual. Each new dairyman fasts while going to his dairy with the new pep, although the rest of the people are feasting.

Those who remain at Kuudr bury the mu in which the pep was brought from Kwirg. It is buried by the side of the pen, under a tree called teikhkwadiki.

The ceremony of making new pep is carried out on the same lines in all dairies, but usually it is less complicated and fewer villages have to be visited than in the case of the Kuudrol. It seems that there is a tendency in some clans to perform the ceremony less rigidly than of old. Thus, the Kars people used to go to Keshker for new pep, but now they perform the ceremony at Kars itself, so that the migration to a new place with its attendant ceremonial is avoided.

There are certain differences in the procedure in the case of Teivali and Tarthar clans. One, the necessity for new pep after the funeral of a male, has been already mentioned.

Another difference is that there is a buried mu for each kind of dairy, so that a clan which has two or three kinds of dairy will have two or three mu buried in the pen. If it is the mu belonging to the wursuli which is broken or tampered with, the ceremony is performed by the wursol, who takes earth from the footprints of one of the wursulir. If the mu of the kudrpali is injured, the kudrpalikartmokh performs the ceremony, taking earth from the footprints of one of the other kinds of sacred buffaloes. Thus at Kars he takes it from the prints of the martir.

At Kanòdrs new pep has to be made at a place called Kautarmad, which I could not identify. It is a long way from Kanòdrs, but the people have to go there because the god Kwoto used to make pep there. There is one feature peculiar to the ceremony for this clan. Earth has to be taken from a certain spot from which it was taken by Kwoto, and this earth is mixed with that taken from the footprints of the buffalo.

Another special feature of the Kanòdrs dairy is connected with the buried mu and is probably the result of the fact that this dairy is now only occupied occasionally. When the pohkartpol leaves the dairy on vacating office, he takes up the buried mu, pours into it a small quantity of pep, and reburies the vessel, covering it on the top with a stone. When he resumes office, he takes up the mu and purifies it with the two kinds of earth used in the full ceremony, and puts the pep which has been buried into his milking-vessel when he goes out to milk for the first time. As in other Tarthar clans, the full ceremony of pepkaricha is only carried out when the mu is broken or stolen, and after the funeral of a male.

A characteristic feature of Toda dairy procedure is the coagulation of the milk before it is churned. This coagulation occurs in a few hours without the addition of rennet or other special coagulating agent, the milk drawn in the morning being nearly always solid at the time of the afternoon churning. This rapid coagulation of the milk is almost certainly assisted By the added buttermilk or pep, the curdling being probably an acid coagulation set up or hastened by the addition of the sour buttermilk. If this were the case, it might be expected that habitual failure of the milk to coagulate might be regarded as a reason for making new pep, and I therefore inquired carefully into this point. It was quite clear, however, that delay in the coagulation was not looked upon as a reason for the ceremony. If there was habitual delay, it was customary to consult the diviners, and they always gave one of two reasons for the delay: either that it was due to the action of a sorcerer, or that the dairyman had committed one of the offences against the dairy of which a list is given on p. 295.

If delay were said to be due to the first cause, the sorcerer would be invited to the village, entertained with food, and induced to remove his spell; if to the second cause, the dairyman would have to perform the irnörtiti or similar ceremony; but there was never any question of making new pep, the necessity for this ceremony being entirely dependent on the condition of the buried dairy vessel.

THE IRPALVUSTHI CEREMONY

The ceremony of irpalvusthi (buffalo milk he milks) is performed about the fifteenth day after the birth of a calf. It only takes place when one of the sacred buffaloes has calved, and is not performed in ordinary villages for putiir, nor at the ti for punir. It is performed after the birth of both male and female calves. The ceremony is carried out in the same fashion at the wursuli, the kudrpali and the tarvali, but has different features at the kugvali of Taradr and at the ti.

There are special days for the ceremony. At the tarvali, it must be performed on Sunday, Wednesday, or Saturday; at the kudrpali and wursuli, on Sunday or Wednesday; at the kugvali on Saturday. The ceremony is performed at the ti, but I omitted to obtain any account of the proceedings at this grade of dairy.

When this ceremony is held at the village of Kuudr, a man from Òdr belonging to the Nodrsol must attend, and similarly a man from Kuudr must be present when the ceremony is performed at Kuudr, this regulation being the result of certain events in the histories of the buffaloes of these places (see p. 647).

At each of the three kinds of dairy which follow the same procedure, the chief part is taken by the dairyman. At the wursuli, the wursol officiates, and at the kudrpali and tarvali, the palikartmokh.

The first appropriate occasion after the fifteenth day from the birth of the calf is appointed and the dairy is purified with dried buffalo-dung. Contrary to the general rule, the lamp is lighted on the morning of this day. All the buffaloes are milked as usual; one or two pun of milk being poured into the patat and all the rest into the ertat.

The dairyman then puts some milk into the milking-vessel, and, carrying his wand, he leads the fifteen-day-old calf to its mother to be suckled. While the calf is being suckled, the dairyman strikes the mother on the right side of the back three times with the wand, saying “Oñ” each time. He then puts the wand on the top of the milking-vessel and, holding both in his left hand, milks the buffalo once or twice with the other hand, so that the milk splashes on the wand as it falls into the vessel. The vessel and wand are then laid at the back of the dairy, which the dairyman enters to prepare food, boiling grain or rice with milk in a special vessel (ertat) kept for the purpose. While the food is being cooked the dairyman takes some of the grass called kakar and the plant called kabudri, and sweeps the interior of the dairy with them, beginning at the patatmar. While doing this and during his other operations on this day, he must not turn his back to the contents of the dairy. After having swept the dairy, he lays the kakar and kabudri by the wall of the building, again takes the milking-vessel and wand from the back of the dairy, and, having called the people of the village, he salutes by raising the vessel and wand to his forehead and prays, all present praying with him. I am not certain whether it is the prayer of the village or a special prayer which is used on this occasion. After praying, the dairyman lays the wand on the top of the patat and pours the milk which he obtained from the buffalo into the patat over the wand. He puts the latter in its appointed place and then goes to the ertatmar, where he prepares a large number of leaves on which he portions out the food (tòrkisthiti) which he has prepared, and all the people present take this food outside the dairy. On the following day, the buffalo which has calved is milked with the rest.

When this ceremony is performed at the wursuli dairy, it is the only occasion on which the wursol prepares food; at all other times, the food of this dairyman is prepared by the palikartmokh. On this occasion the wursol not only cooks food for himself but for all those present. Another distinctive feature of this ceremony is that it is the only occasion on which the milk of the wursulir is ever drunk.

The day of irpalvusthi is the only day on which the dairymen of the three kinds of dairy, with the exception of the wursol of certain dairies, do their work kabkaditi, i.e., do not turn their backs to the contents of the dairy.

At the kugvali of Taradr, the ceremony is more elaborate. It begins in the afternoon, when the dairy is purified with dried buffalo-dung. Three large pieces of the wood called kid are brought, and the dairyman ties the small piece of cloth called petuni to the milking-vessel and to a special wand called irpalvusthpet. [52] He also ties petuni in the form of rings round the ring and little fingers of his right hand and round the ring finger of his left hand. He then goes out with the milking-vessel and wand, and after saluting by raising them to his forehead, he goes to the place where the buffaloes are milked and prays there.

The kugvalikartmokh then takes the calf to its mother and milks as at the other dairies, but in this case he milks the buffalo completely, and if, by doing so, he has not filled his milking-vessel, he fills it with the milk of putiir. He pours this milk into the majpariv, which has been carefully cleaned, and puts the three pieces of kid wood in the fireplace. He puts into the milk three measures (ak) of rice, but adds neither salt nor jaggery. When the food is ready, he portions it out on leaves and gives to those present, who must on this occasion be limited to the people of the village. This ceremony occurs on Saturday evening.

On the following day, the ceremony is repeated, being called on this occasion îrpatadûthti, i.e., “buffalo milk he uses publicly.” When preparing food on this day the kugvalikartmokh puts into the milk eleven ak of rice [53] and adds both salt and jaggery. The number of pieces of wood used is not limited to three, but any quantity may be burnt. When the food is ready, he goes out of the dairy and finds assembled a large number of people, including guests from other villages and clans. Among them a Melgars man must be included or there could be no ceremony. When the dairyman sees the people, he says “Ol pudra?” “People, have you come?” They answer “Pudspimi,” “We have come.” The dairyman then brings the stirring-stick (put), and, taking up some of the food on the stick, says “Tütr erkina?” “At the fire shall I throw?” and the people answer “Tütr eri!” “At the fire, throw!” The dairyman then throws the food on the stick into the fire, and portions out the rest of the food among the people, who eat it outside the dairy.

From the birth of the calf until this ceremony, the buffalo is not milked and the calf is kept, when not with its mother, in the small enclosure called kush. After the ceremony, the buffalo is milked like the rest of the herd, and the calf joins the others in the ordinary calf-house, or kwotars.

GIVING SALT TO BUFFALOES

Salt is given to the buffaloes five times a year, both at the ti mad and the ordinary village. At the ti the salt is given with buttermilk, and the ceremony is known as mòrup. At the ordinary village buttermilk is not given, and there is no general name for the ceremony, though there are special names for three of the five occasions on which salt is given. These special names are also used at the ti. The first occasion is kòrup, or ‘new grass salt,’ which takes place in the month Nalani (February-March). The second is marup or ‘again salt,’ a month later in Ani. The next two occasions have no special names, but in the ordinary village are known as arsup, ‘house salt,’ given in the months Ovani and Kirdivi (June-July and September-October). The last occasion is in the month Emioti (November-December), and is known as paniup, meaning ‘frost salt.’ In the case of kòrup and paniup, it seemed that salt was given shortly before the time at which the young grass and frost respectively were expected.

At the ti the ceremony is performed on the Sunday or Tuesday following the new moon. At the Nòdrs ti it should be done for the tiir on Sunday and for the warsir on Tuesday, but this now only happens when the buffaloes are at Òdrtho and Kudreiil, where the dairies of the two kinds of buffaloes are at some distance apart. At Mòdr and Anto and other dairies, the ceremony is performed for both kinds of buffalo on a Sunday. At the Pan ti the day for the ceremony is Tuesday, and at the Kars ti, Sunday.

On the day before the ceremony each palol [54] digs a round hole called the upunkudi at a prescribed spot, or more commonly enlarges the hole remaining from a previous ceremony. On the following day each palol carries out the usual morning churning and milking, but before drinking buttermilk the dairy is cleansed with buffalo-dung. The palol then pours into the vessel called alug two kudi of buttermilk and takes the vessel and some salt to the upunkudi. He throws bark of the tudr tree three times into the hole, three times into the buttermilk and on the salt, and going to the spring he throws the bark three times into the water, saying “Oñ” each time. The palol then fills the alug with water from the spring, mixing it with the buttermilk already in the vessel. He adds salt, saying “Oñ” three times, and the whole is poured into the upunkudi. A special buffalo is then brought to the upunkudi; at the Nòdrs ti the ti palol first leads up the buffalo belonging to the unir which is called Enmars and the wars palol takes the buffalo of the perithir called Òrsum, this act of sending a special buffalo first being called îrpârsatiti. After this all the buffaloes are taken to drink in groups of five or six. When the hole has been emptied, it is refilled with salt and water, but this time no buttermilk is added. When all the buffaloes have drunk, each palol pulls some of the grass called kargh and throws it into the hole three times and returns to his dairy to take buttermilk from the kaltmokh as usual.

At the ordinary village the salt-giving ceremony is performed about a week after it has been done at the ti. Any day may be chosen except the madnol, palinol, or arpatznol. [55] Thus at Kuudr the ceremony may be performed on any day except Tuesday and Friday; at Kars, on any day except Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

On the three occasions with special names, kòrup, marup, and paniup, guests come from other villages, but at the arsup this does not happen. As in the case of the irpalvusthi ceremony, a man from Kuudr must be present at the salt-giving ceremony of Òdr and a man from Òdr must be present at Kuudr.

The ceremony is performed by the palikartmokh after the people of the village have made the hole or upunkudi. [56] The palikartmokh takes from the dairy the vessel corresponding to the alug of the ti, viz., the tat, but does not take buttermilk. Tudr bark is used in the same way as at the ti.

At a Teivali village, the pasthir drink first. At a Tarthar village at which there is a wursol, the wursulir drink first, the act of sending certain buffaloes first being called irparsatiti as at the ti. After the buffaloes have drunk, kargh grass is thrown into the hole, first by the dairyman and then by all the others present, but it is only thrown once by each person, who says “Oñ” as he throws.

The object of this ceremony is said to be that the buffaloes shall give a plentiful supply of milk.

THE PONUP CEREMONY

At the ti dairy salt is given to the buffaloes on certain other occasions and with a far more elaborate ritual. The ceremony is then called ponup, or ‘festival salt,’ and takes place soon after the migration from one dairy to another. At the Nòdrs ti the salt is given on the Wednesday following the Sunday on which the migration has occurred, and at the Kars ti and the Pan ti, on Sunday, a week later than the procession.

On the night before the ceremony the palol shuts up the buffaloes in the special pen called the pon tu.

On the morning of the appointed day, when the churning is finished, but before the buffaloes have been milked, each palol brings six sprigs of the shrub called puthimul, each sprig having on it five or six leaves. Three of these sprigs are put on one side, and the other three are used as follows:—Rice has been previously prepared and placed either on the leaf called kakuders or on that called katers. The palol makes a hole in this food in which he puts butter, and, taking the first sprig of puthimul, he plucks from it one leaf and, using it as a spoon, takes up some of the food and puts it on the fire in the fireplace called tòratthwaskal, saying the name of the chief teu or god of the ti. He then takes some of the butter, and holds it over the fire till it drops, when he utters the name of the same god. He repeats this with a second leaf of the puthimul, saying the name of the second most important god of the ti, and so on with the other leaves. I obtained the fullest account of ponup from Koboners, who had been palol of the Kars ti, and here food and butter were put on the fire six times, saying the names of Anto, Nòtirzi, Kuzkarv, Kulinkars, Onkomn, and Karmanteu.

The kaltmokh then brings water taken from the ordinary stream in the vessel called mòrkudriki, and gives it to the palol, who sits in the outer room facing towards the inner room, and throws some of the rice in front of him once, some behind him once, and the rest outside the dairy. He puts some salt on the fire, and taking the water brought by the kaltmokh, he sprinkles it before and behind him as he had done with the food.

Then follows kaizhvatiti, i.e., the kaltmokh pours out buttermilk for the palol. This is the only occasion on which this act takes place before the buffaloes have been milked, the ceremony of drinking buttermilk on every other occasion taking place when the morning’s work is over. The palol gives food to the kaltmokh, and here, again, there is a feature peculiar to this day, for the kaltmokh eats his food sitting in the place in the hut where the palol usually sits.

The buffaloes are then milked, after which the palol fetches three sticks of the kind ordinarily called kwadrikurs, but at the ti, kakul. Each is used for a special purpose and has a corresponding name, one being called irpasthkakul, the second kwarkul, and the third parkul.

The palol takes buffalo-dung in both hands and the irpasthkakul in the right hand, and separates certain buffaloes from the rest by knocking their backs three times with the dung and stick. At the Kars ti two buffaloes are separated in this way; at the Nòdrs ti five buffaloes are set apart, one of each kind, three by the ti palol, and two by the wars palol. These buffaloes are known as ponir. The dairy is then purified with the dung and water. The irpasthkakul is laid on one side, and the palol puts salt in the basket called ponmukeri, and takes it with the water-vessel called karpun to the place where salt is to be given, taking also the remaining sprigs of puthimul and a bundle of fern.

At the place for the ceremony there is a stone called ponkars (when there are two palol there will be two stones), and at the stone the palol makes a vessel of clay and water so as to resemble a milking-vessel. This clay vessel is called teukwoi (teu, god, and kwoi, milking-vessel).

The palol then takes two perfect tudr leaves, and fastens them together with the petioles of other leaves, so that they form a cup which is called püvup. Salt is placed in this leaf vessel, which is laid down by the side of the teukwoi. One such vessel is made for each buffalo, two at the Kars ti and five at the Nòdrs ti.

The palol then takes the stick called kwarkul, and with it makes a hole in the middle of each teukwoi, saying (at the Kars ti) “antok teukwoi ûrîj, paln!” (“To Anto in teukwoi make hole, O palol!”). He then makes other holes round the sides of the clay vessel, saying the names of the other gods in the same manner. (At the Kars ti those which have already been given. At the Nòdrs ti the names of five gods are mentioned—Anto, Kulinkars, Nòtirzi, Kuladrvan, and Kuzkarv.) Two pieces of tudr bark and a sprig of puthimul are then placed in each hole, saying for the first, “Antok teukwoi et, paln!” (“To Anto in teukwoi put, O palol!”), and this is repeated with the name of a different god for each hole.

Next the palol takes the stick called parkul, which has a sharpened end, and makes small holes called upunkudi as in the mòrup ceremony. At the Kars ti only two upunkudi are made; at the Nòdrs ti one palol makes three and the other two holes. Tudr bark is thrown three times into the holes and into the water of the spring. Water is taken from the spring in the karpun, salt is put into the water three times and the salt and water are poured into the holes, and the buffaloes previously set apart are led to the holes and drink three times, one buffalo from each hole. The leaf vessels previously made (püvup) are then given to the buffaloes, and are eaten by them. Care is taken to give the leaf vessels in such a way that the end of the leaf corresponding to the petiole enters the mouth of the buffalo first.

The palol takes Anto’s leaf from the teukwoi and puts it in the karpun with water, then faces towards the place where Anto lives (Anto’s hill) and pours in that direction, saying “Antok,” “to Anto.” This is repeated with the other leaves, the palol in each case turning and pouring towards the place where the god lives.

Then follows the ceremony called tafkeirpudrti, i.e., “fern pool he strokes.” The palol takes the bundle of fern which he has brought with him and goes to the stream, which is blocked up, so that the water accumulates and forms a pool. He waits till the pool is so deep that the water would come half-way up his thighs, when he steps in with the bundle of fern in his right hand and strokes the bundle over the water, saying the kwarzam, or prayer names of certain gods and buffaloes (at the Nòdrs ti the palol says, “Anto idith, Kûlinkârs idith, Nòtîrzi idith, Kûlâdrvan idith, Kuzkârv idith, Mûv idith, Mòrs idith, Pan idith, Kûdreij tîdj idith”: see