buffalo-ritual

Updated: June 9, 2025

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.

Crawford Howell Toy - Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV

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. Magical processes should be here included so far as they involve a recognition of superhuman agents; they are then to be regarded as religious.

Crawford Howell Toy - Introduction to the History of Religions: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV