Note 4 — Chapter XIII · SACRIFICE AND OFFERINGS

In connexion with the erkumptthpimi ceremony, I was told of a device employed to induce the mother of the sacrificed calf to continue suckling after her offspring has been killed. Several days before the sacrifice the calf to be sacrificed and a female calf of about the same age are shut up together in the kush, or small structure in which young calves are kept. On the floor of the kush are spread some of the grass called nark4 and some leaves of the kiars5 tree. When these have been broken up and mixed with earth by the trampling of the calves, a handful of the mixture, together with milk, is rubbed on the backs of both calves, and this is repeated for three or four days. The object is that the mother shall not know which is her own calf, and shall suckle both, and continue to suckle the female calf when her own has been taken away. During the days on which the calves are shut up together the dairyman should keep pon, i.e., he should not sell or give away any of the produce of the dairy.