46 Hntton Webster 



a. The Toda Days of Abstinence 



The Todas, who dwell in permanent villages on the undulating 

 plateaus of the Nilgiri Hills in southeastern India, have a re- 

 markable system of rest days. The social organization of this 

 interesting people consists of two endogamous divisions, called 

 Teivaliol and Tartharol. Each of these primary sections is com- 

 posed of intermarrying clans, and each clan possesses a group of 

 villages in common. At the present time Toda interests, both 

 economic and religious, center about their buffaloes. The daily 

 life of the Toda men is largely devoted to the care of these 

 animals and to labor in the dairies. The buffalo is a sacred 

 animal, the dairy itself is almost a temple, the dairyman is only 

 one remove from a priest. In fact, Toda religious rites seem to 

 be little else than the arrangements which a pastoral and com- 

 munistic people have made for the provision and care of an 

 article of food. According to Mr. Rivers, whose careful studies 

 are a model of anthropological investigation, nearly every Toda 

 ceremony has its appointed day or days. The choice of these 

 " is often dependent on another Toda institution, the sacred day, 

 either of the village or of the dairy. Every clan has certain days 

 of the week on which people are restricted from following many 

 of their ordinary occupations, although they are not the occasions 

 of any special ceremonies. These sacred days are the madnol 

 or village day, and the palinol or dairy day."'* We begin with 

 the former. 



Each Toda village has its madnol, but in general where there 

 are several villages of the same clan the madnol is the same for 

 the whole clan. There are at least eight prohibitions character- 

 izing the observance of this sacred day. Feasts may not be 

 given at such a time, funeral ceremonies may not be performed, 

 the people may not bathe or cut their nails, and the men may 

 not shave. Clothes are not to be washed, the house is not to 

 be cleansed, and though the ordinary meals may be prepared, 

 the people must not cook rice with milk. Other regulations 

 forbid the dairyman to leave the village, the buffaloes to be 



'* W. H. R. Rivers, The Todas, London, igo6, p. 405. 



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