Long Valley advocate. (Lardo, Idaho) 1904-1907, 1906-09-27
OVER HOT EMBERS.
,r WALKERS TRUDGE WITH
OUT VISIBLE HARM.
.uous Form of Worship and Dexa
Driving in Understandable
eeats Witnessed by Trav-
elers from the West.

ah,ine about 80 or 40 feet lon.
80 ton feet broad and two or three
eaOt deem. During the morning this is
frled with logs OF WOOD ana lagots'
.uhich are set on fire and by the
ovoning become a mass OF glowing
odbot embers. After dark the people
osSomhle with torches and tom toms
ond music, and then some 80 or Az
~oonle prepare to walk lengthwise |
euor the embers They are worked up |
~ GREAT state of excitement by the |
tom.toms and shouts OF the crowd, and
then the whole 80 or 40 walk over
harefooted. quite slowly, and deliber
otelv in single file, headed by one OF
the "puJarls.
This custom of fire walking is quite
common in Malabar. Koorlche, three
miles from Tellichery, in the direction
of the French settlement of Maize, is
locality reputed for fire walking.
Here a famous 'pujari' by the name
of Oochatta dwells. He actually sits
on a heap of fire at an annual festival,
but is said TO be protected by the bark
of the areca nut, which is known to be
had conductor Of heat At the vii
Iage of Putnam, 80 miles from Tell
cherry. in the Kaval Taluq, north Mala-
bar a weird ceremony is performed
annually, at midnight, in connection
with the worship of the village deity,
when the "pujari," who goes by the
name of Chamandy, throws himself
necessarily on a heap of fire, about
six feet high and fifteen feet broad,
until he is able to knock every faggot
down and level the whole heap with
the ground. One end of a rope is
fastened to his arms, while the other
end is seized by two Malayali low
caste men, who pull the "pjari" away
each time he rushes on the heap OF
fire. Two women at the same time,
with brooms bring the fagots together
as they are knocked down by the "pu'
jari" and endeavor to restore the heap
Of fire as it is being dismantled by
him. The wood is the ''puum," hard
Jungle wood of the Malabar forest
Khaza Prabhu, pepper merchant
of Tellichery, who died a few years
ago, and whose memory is still green,
had great name here for curing peo-
pie who were possessed of the devil,
and was great fire eater to boot. He
believed he was often summoned to
the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha temple by
the deity of this shrine to cure people
troubled with the devil. Here he was
wont to incarcerate many devils that
were troubling the people of Tell
emery, and every loose stone one no
uces in the temple precincts repre-
sents one such devil driven out OF
the human body and imprisoned by
nlm These stones are granite slabs,
are generally three to five feet long
ana rest against wall or tree.
In the temple of Malabar there are
several deities, but the number must
never exceed 80 in each. At Audaloo1
Mliage, three and half miles from
ieiiicnery, one of the village deitieS
oaVatha lssuran by name, committed
@'roclous sins and the other deities
pulled out his tongue, and Angaraka
IAN and Bappuran, two warrior del
ues' drove out the other deities from
%e temple, allowing only any number
,ess than 40 to dwell in any one shrine
ion thls date Angarakaran, the war
.lOi' carries long sword, while Bap
ruan bears sword and shield as
s Hei' and they are the principal del
sS 60 worshiped during the ceremony o.
az walking. Some of the minor del
rs S are Muthupendalvyam Khandhak
ah and Kuttichathan, but all sucf
not propitiated excepting Vassury
mara the smallpox god; Chamandy
~ puLS devils int h,,r, hOdipa