Note 7 — Chapter XIII · SACRIFICE AND OFFERINGS

At the ceremony I witnessed there was one feature of some interest. When it was found that the calf had not been killed by the blow with the log of tudr wood, the animal was belaboured over the testicles. This procedure had not been included in the account given to me before the ceremony, and I could not discover how far it is an established custom to kill the animal in this way if it is not killed by the blow. The interest arises from the fact that in the ancient Vedic sacrifices, the animal was killed by stopping its mouth and beating it severely ten or twelve times on the testicles till it was suffocated.7 I have not been able to discover whether this method of killing an animal is still practised in India. If so, it has probably been borrowed by the Todas; but if not, this ancient Indian method may have been preserved by the Todas. I did not observe that the mouth of the calf was stopped at the sacrifice which I witnessed, but this was probably done.