Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/191

Rh arose and became the boy Korateu. The river god, Teipakh, was the brother of the goddess Teikirzi, so that he was the mun or maternal uncle of the boy. Korateu lived in the river or "sat in the lap of his uncle" till he was eight years old, and during that time he often played, making imitation buffalo horns out of wood, as Toda children do at this day.

When Korateu became a man he founded the tî dairy at Òdrtho, and he cut off the horns of a buffalo whose horns grew downwards (kûghîr) and gave these to the tî to be blown every night by the kâltmokh or attendant on the dairyman. Korateu was himself dairyman at first, but after a time he went away to the hill Korateu, where he lived in a cave with a door of iron.

Near the hill of Korateu there was a tree of the kind called mòrs. This tree was about 80 feet high. Korateu ordered that honey-bees should come to this tree, and soon after there were about 300 nests, which made the tree bend down with their weight. One day about twenty men came to collect honey; Todas, Kurumbas, and Irulas. The Todas made a fire under the tree and the Kurumbas and Irulas climbed the tree and collected the honey from the nests. When they had collected from all but three or four nests, the tree was so relieved of the burden which had been weighing it down that it sprang back and killed the Kurumbas and the Irulas, and the Todas went home.

At this time Korateu was unmarried. One day a Kurumba woman came to the mórs tree in search of honey. Korateu carried an iron stick and he knocked the woman on the head with this stick and she at once became pregnant. The same evening she gave birth to a daughter who was very beautiful. Korateu sent away the mother and fed the child with milk and fruit, and when she grew up he married her.