Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/188

 170 Toda Prayer.

for the sake of the village of Kuudr ; for the sake of the

large dairy of Kuudr ; "

This prayer begins with two kwarzam of the village or clan, followed by others referring to the dairies and dairy vessels, buffalo pens and buffaloes. Then follow certain kwarzam of pep or buttermilk which is of great ceremonial importance in the dairy ritual,' and of stones of importance in the ceremonies attending purification of the dairy vessels. After the kivarsam of the dairy spring, there follow a number of kivarzam referring to certain incidents in the history of the dairy. Eikisiov is the kivarzam of a buffalo which was one day being milked at Kuudr when some of the milk was spilt on the ground. From that day the ground became swampy, and on digging, a spring of water was found which has ever since been used as the dairy spring. The two following kivarzam refer to incidents of which I have no record. Karstum is the kivarzam of a buffalo which was one day grazing on the hill Kakathu- muk. It began to bellow and could not be induced to stop. The people tried to take the buffalo back to the pen. It would not go, but died on the hill, and has ever since been remembered in the prayer. These kivarzam are followed by two referring to bushes or trees of ceremonial importance and then by the kivarzam of a hill near the village on which there are cairns and that of the sacrificial place of the village. The prayer concludes with two kwarzam of a different kind. The first refers to the act of the goddess Teikirzi who portioned the buffaloes and assigned to each clan its share. In so doing she touched each buffalo on the back with her wand or staff, saying in each case to whom the buffalo should belong, and this act is commemorated in the prayer in the form " for the sake of the dividing of the chief buffaloes with the wand." The last kivarzam is that of the calf from which the ordinary buffaloes or putiir of Kuudr are descended, but I was unable ' See Mail, 1903, p. 175.