ancient patriarch worked himself up to a high pitch of inspiration, and predicted all sorts of good things for the Badagas with regard to the ensuing season and crops."
The following legend, relating to the fire-walking ceremony, is recorded by Bishop Whitehead. " When they first began to perform the ceremony fifty or sixty years ago, they were afraid to walk over the fire. Then the stone image of Mahālinga Swāmi turned into a snake, and made a hole through the temple wall. It came out, and crawled over the fire, and then went back to the temple. Then their fear vanished, and they walked over the embers. The hole is still to be seen in the temple."
Of the fire-walking ceremony at Mēlūr, the following account is given in the Gazetteer of the Nilgiris. "It takes place on the Monday after the March new moon, just before the cultivation season begins, and is attended by Badagas from all over Mērkunād. The inhabitants of certain villages (six in number), who are supposed to be the descendants of an early Badaga named Guruvajja, have first, however, to signify through their Gottukārs, or headmen, that the festival may take place; and the Gottukārs choose three, five, or seven men to walk through the fire. On the day appointed, the fire is lit by certain Badaga priests and a Kurumba. The men chosen by the Gottukārs then bathe, adorn themselves with sandal, do obeisance to the Udayas of Udayarhatti near Kēti, who are specially invited and feasted; pour into the adjacent stream milk from cows which have calved for the first time during the year; and, in the afternoon, throw more milk and some flowers from the Mahālingasvāmi temple into the fire pit, and then walk across it. Earth is next thrown on the embers, and they walk across
