Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/184

 TODA PRAYER.

BY W. H. R. RIVERS, LL.D.

[Read at Meeting, 20th April, 1904.)

The forms of words recorded in this paper are used during the ceremonial which attends the work of a Toda dairy. I have given elsewhere' a brief account of the dairy cere- monial. The milking and churning operations in connec- tion with the more sacred of the Toda buffaloes form a complex ritual which has evidently a religious character and at certain stages of this ritual formulae are recited.

Not only is the daily milking and churning of a cere- monial character, but all the most important incidents of buffalo-life are made the occasions of ceremonies and in the course of these various forms of words are also recited.

I shall confine my attention in this paper to the for- mulae which are used in the daily ritual of the Toda dairy. The frequency with which these formulae are uttered varies with the sanctity of the dairy. In the lower grades of dairy, the prayer is offered only at the afternoon ceremonial. It is said when lighting the lamp before the churning, and it is repeated at the close of the day's work when shutting up the buffaloes in their circular enclosure for the night. In the highest grade of dairy, the prayer is offered twice at the morning operations, once before begin- ning to churn when lighting the lamp and once when the milking is finished. At the afternoon ceremonial it is offered three times, two corresponding to those of the morning and again when shutting up the buffaloes for the night. The prayer is not the same for all dairies, but there are differences according to the clan and village to which the dairv belongs and according to the grade of dairy in which the prayer is used.

' Man, 190J, p. 175.