s from one grazing-ground to another is
conducted as a sacred function. In the case of an ordinary herd the
procession of animals is accompanied by a religious official who
carries the dairy implements; on reaching the destination the new dairy
is purified, the sun is saluted, and prayer is offered. In a _ti_
migration the procedure is more elaborate: the milking of the buffaloes
is accompanied by prayers for the older and the younger members of the
herd, and every act of the _palol_ is regulated by law. The same thing
is true of the animal sacrifices: the slaughter of the victim and the
disposal of the various parts are accomplished in accordance with
definite rules that are handed down orally from one generation to
another. The Todas are a non-Aryan people, hardly to be called
half-civilized: if the buffalo-ritual is native with them, the natural
inference will be that the custom is ancient. Rivers adduces a
considerable number of similarities between Toda institutions and those
of the Malabar coast (such as polyandry and other marriage
institutions), and this agreement, as far as it goes, may point to a
common culture throughout a part of Southern India;[1910] the early
history of these tribes is, however, obscure. It is possible that the
Todas have borrowed some customs from the Hindus. They have certainly
adopted some Hindu gods, and Rivers suspects Hindu influence in their
recognition of omens and lucky and unlucky days, in certain of their
magical procedures, and in their use of pigments and ashes in some
sacred ceremonies. There seems, however, to be no proof that the
buffalo-ritual has been borrowed from the Hindus. On this question,
which is of importance as bearing on the early history of ritual, it is
to be hoped that further information will be got.

+1057+. Various nonsacrificial rituals (dances and so forth) are
referred to above.[1911] Magical processes should be here included so
far as they involve a recognition of superhuman agents; they are then to
be regarded as religious. Definite magical ritual is found in many of
the lower tribes, and there are ceremonies in which a shaman is the
conductor--these are governed by fixed customs as to dress, posture,
acts, and words.[1912] They differ from magical processes in that they
are assemblies of the people, religious because there is communication
with spirits. In the Californian tribes and others they become occasions
of merrymaking; a peculiar feature of t