Note 5 — Chapter V · THE TI DAIRY

If a palol has held office for eighteen years without a break, he performs a special ceremony. The essential feature of this ceremony is that the palol has intercourse in the day-time with a girl or young woman who must belong to the Tartharol. The woman is chosen by the palol and the matter is arranged by the clan to which the ti belongs. On the appointed day the woman is brought to a village near the dairy at which the palol is living; if he is at Mòdr, for instance, the woman will come to the adjacent village of Perththo. She must bathe carefully and be adorned with all possible ornaments and fine clothing. After the work of the morning is over, the palol gives rice and milk to the kaltmokh and tells him to have food ready for him when he returns at night. He then goes covered with his kubuntuni to a wood near the village, where the woman will be awaiting him. Later the woman returns to the village and the palol remains in the wood completely naked till sunset, when he dresses and returns to the neighbourhood of his dairy, but remains in an adjoining wood till midnight. He then bathes in a stream and going to the dairy calls “Kaltmokhia!” twice. The kaltmokh comes out of the sleeping hut and brings a stone resembling the pohvelkars, on which the palol sits, and the kaltmokh pours buttermilk (kaizhvatiti) for the palol according to the customary ritual. Then the kaltmokh brings the papun, and the palol washes his hands and goes to rest. There was some difference of opinion among the Todas as to whether the palol would continue to hold office after this ceremony. He undoubtedly returns to his work, but it seemed probable that he would retire after a short time and his place be taken by another. In this ceremony the celibate priest after eighteen years of office has intercourse with a woman belonging to the division not his own. This takes place in the day-time, the palol thus committing an act which is ordinarily regarded by the Todas as immoral.5