The following further information in connection with the Baireganni festival is given by Bishop Whitehead. "The people from other villages offer money, rice, fruits, umbrellas of gold or silver for the goddess, cloths, and buffaloes. The buffaloes are never killed, but remain as the property of the temple. The pujari calls the representatives of one village, and tells them what Hetheswami says to him, e.g., 'This year you will have good [or bad] crops; cholera or small-pox, good [or bad] rain, etc.' As the people present their offerings, they prostrate themselves, kneeling down and touching the ground with their foreheads, and the pujari gives them some flowers, which they wear in their hair. The people and the pujari play on the kombu [horn], and ring bells while the offerings are being made. After the offerings have finished, all the men dance, in two companies, in front of the temple, one shouting 'How-ko, How-ko,' and the other 'Is-holi.' The dance was taught them by the Todas, and the words are Toda."
In connection with the Jadeswami festival the ceremony of walking through fire [burning embers] is carried out at Melur, Tangalu, Mainele, Jakkanare, Tenad, and Nidugala. At Melur and Tangalu, the temples belong to the Haruvas, who carry out all the details of ceremony. The temple at Tenad is owned by the Udayas, by whom the ceremonial is performed. In other places, the celebrants are Badagas. The festival is observed, on an elaborate scale, at Nidugala during the month of January. All those who are going to walk over the burning embers fast for eight days, and go through the rite on the ninth day. For its performance, Monday is considered an auspicious day. The omens are taken by boiling two pots of milk side by side on two hearths. If the milk overflows uniformly on all sides, the crops will be abundant for all the villages. But, if it flows over on one side only, there will be plentiful crops for villages on that side only. The space over which the embers are spread is said to be about five yards long, and three yards broad. But, in some places, e.g., Jakkanare and Melur, it is circular as at the Muhammadan fire-walking ceremony. For making the embers, the wood of Eugenia Jambolana and Phyllanthus Emblica are used. For boiling the milk, and setting fire to the wood, a light obtained by friction must be used. The process is known as niligolu, or upright stick. The vertical stick is made of a twig of Rhodomyrtus tomentosus, which is rotated in a socket in a long thick piece of a bough of Debregeasia velutina, in which a row of sockets has been made. The rotation is produced by a cord passed several times round the vertical stick, of which each end is pulled alternately. The horizontal block is pressed firmly on the ground by the toes of a man, who presses a half cocoanut shell down on the top of the vertical stick, so as to force it down into the socket. A Badaga, who failed in an attempt to demonstrate the making of fire by this method, gave as an excuse that he was under worldly pollution, from which he would be free at the time of the fire-walking ceremony. Though the Badagas make fire by friction, reference is made in their folk legends, not to this mode of obtaining fire, but to chakkamukki (flint and steel), which is repeatedly referred to in connection with cremation. After the milk boiling ceremonial, the pujari, tying bells on his legs, approaches the fire pit, carrying milk freshly drawn from a cow, which has calved for the first time, and flowers of Rhododendron arboreum, Leucas aspera, or jasmine. After doing puja, he throws the flowers on the embers, and they should remain unscorched for a few seconds. He then pours some of the milk over the embers, and no hissing sound should be produced. The omens being propitious, he walks over the glowing embers, followed by an Udaya, and the crowd of celebrants, who, before going through the ordeal, count the hairs on their feet. If any are singed, it is a sign of approaching ill fortune, or even death. In an account of the fire-walking ceremony, in 1902, it is noted that "the Badagas strongly repudiate the insinuation of preparing their feet to face the fire ordeal. It is done to propitiate Jeddayswami, to whom vows are invoked, in token of which they grow one twist or plait of hair, which is treasured for years, and finally cut off as an offering to Jeddayswami. Numbers of Chettis were catering to the crowd, offering their wares, bangles, gay-coloured handkerchiefs, as well as edibles. The Kotas supplied the music, and an 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."