Note 18 — Chapter IX · THE TODA GODS

At one time the Todas used to go to and fro between this world and Amnòdr. Those who were dead stayed permanently in Amnòdr, but living people could go to visit them and return. One day Punatvan of Kars went with Meilitars to Amnòdr. They stayed there two days and two nights, and then Meilitars came away without Punatvan’s knowledge. At that time the people of Kars were living at Nasmiòdr, so Meilitars went to Nasmiòdr and said that Punatvan intended to stop in Amnòdr, and wished the Kars people to perform the funeral ceremonies for him, killing thirty buffaloes. So the Kars people caught thirty buffaloes, the chief one being called Enmon. Round the neck of Enmon were hung the two bells (wursuli mani) called Karsod and Kòni. They cut a piece of stick and put it in a putkuli to represent the dead body and then killed the thirty buffaloes. As the buffaloes were on their way to Amnòdr, they met Punatvan on his way back. Punatvan asked the chief buffalo, Enmon, “Why do you come here?” Then Enmon told him what Meilitars had done. The man and buffalo put their heads together and cried, and their tears became a pool of water.18 Then Punatvan took the two bells from the neck of Enmon and sent them back to Nasmiòdr, where they are kept to this day, but he returned to Amnòdr with the buffaloes. Then Ön, the ruler of Amnòdr, ordered that in future no one should return to the world of the living from Amnòdr, and since that day the Todas have not been able to go to and fro between the two worlds as they used to do.