Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/197

Rh This incantation was freely rendered as follows: For the sake of Pithioteu, Ön, Teikirzi and Tirshti; by the power of the gods if there be power; by the gods' country if there be a country; may his calves perish; as birds fly away may his buffaloes go when the calves come to suck; as I drink water, may he have nothing but water to drink; as I am thirsty, may he also be thirsty; as I am hungry, may he also be hungry; as my children cry, so may his children cry; as my wife wears only a ragged cloth, so may his wife wear only a ragged cloth.

In the magical incantations, of which this is an example, the names of certain gods are recited, followed by the same word iḍith which is used in the dairy formula. In the sentences following these names, there seems to be an appeal to the gods, though of a peculiar kind. In this respect it seems that the magical incantation partakes more of the nature of an appeal to the gods than does the dairy formula. Now, if these magical incantations involve an appeal to the deities,—an appeal for a purpose which the Todas themselves would regard as evil,—it seems almost certain that the dairy formula which is directed to call down blessings on, and avert evils from, the buffaloes, must also involve the idea of an appeal to the deities.

It may seem remarkable that there should be more obvious evidence of appeal to higher powers in the magical than in the religious formula, and I am inclined to suggest as a reason the less frequent and less habitual repetition of the former. The dairy formula repeated, day by day, year after year, has been conventionalised and worn down, while the magical incantation, used only when the occasion arises, and handed on from one person to another far less frequently, has retained more clearly the element of appeal to higher powers.

If there is anything in this suggestion, the Toda prayer might be regarded as the result of a process of degradation,