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.

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