The significance of the toemau’ is worth a reconsideration at this stage. It is clear that the ritual and the use of the toemau’ conform closely to the patterns in ritual described by Tambiah. There is undoubtedly an exploitation of the expressive properties of language, the sensory qualities of objects and the instrumental properties of action simultaneously, based on the principles of similarity and contiguity.

The purpose of the ritual is, at one level, obvious as the contents of the prayer indicate and it is none other than what the Palokhi Karen profess it to be: the nurturing and successful growth of the rice crop through the containment of various dangers and the creation of a cool state. What is not entirely obvious, however, is the totality of the symbolism of the toemau’ in the context of the ritual and its structural position as a sequel to the rites of planting, within the larger context of swidden rites. There is only one indication of this and it concerns the “spreading leaves” and “sap” of the toemau’. These are clearly references to the stylised plant and liquor or chaff placed within the bamboo cup. Yet, it is the toemau’ that is referred to rather than the stylised plant which is the key symbol that designates the physical state desired in the rice crop. This suggests that the symbolic plant is insufficient for the expressive aspects of the prayer. Or, to put it another way, the state of growth in the rice crop is not merely symbolised by the bamboo plant but by the totality of objects which make up the toemau’ of which the plant is a constituent part.

If we consider the appearance of the toemau’ carefully, it becomes apparent that apart from the stylised plant, the essential imagery of the cup and stirrer (the tapolo’ and mau’ bo) is identical to that of the water container and descending pole (thi toe and kra’ lau) in the rite of planting the ritual basket of the yam. They are analogues of the same symbolic identity — produced by the image of a stick-in-a-container — the only difference being one of scale. The correspondence in imagery, its occurrence in the same general context of swidden rites, and its appearance in consecutively performed rituals argue against any arbitrary coincidence. I therefore suggest that the primary symbolism of the toemau’ is none other than that in the case of the thi toe and kra’ lau, that is, the conjunction of male and female in procreative mode.

Other than the difference in scale, which by no means reduces the significance of this primary symbolism, there is nonetheless one important difference — the inclusion of the stylised plant in the toemau’. If the symbolism is identical in both cases, then the inclusion of the stylised bamboo plant must represent an extension of the imagery or symbolism that lies at the core of both sets of ritual objects. Given the primary symbolism of both, the elaboration on the toemau’ becomes wholly apparent and, indeed, it is almost literal. For it is none other than the emergence and growth of rice “arising” from the conjunction of male and female in procreative mode symbolised by the stick that lies within the container. The toemau’, therefore, represents a logical development of the symbolism contained in the thi toe and kra’ lau central to the rites of planting.

The extended meaning of the toemau’ is borne out by a key feature of the prayer in the rite, namely, the references to “slipperiness” which are based on conditions associated with childbirth. They are not, then, merely metaphors for the dangers that threaten the rice crop; they are integral to the symbolic representation of the transition made by rice expressed by the transformation in meaning of the two sets of ritual objects, that is, from the thi toe and kra’ lau to the toemau’. In other words, the allusions to “slipperiness” reveal, at the same time, that after the rice seed has been planted, the rice plants have been “born” and have entered a stage of growth in which their protection becomes essential to ensure that they are brought to a state of fruition which is the overt concern of the rite of protection. These references are, thus, integral to the totality of symbolic representations contained in the rite which, in short, are derived from a procreative model of society extended to the cultivation of rice in Palokhi.