The Kaikolans take part in the annual festival at Tirupati in honour of the goddess Gangamma. "It is," Mr. Stuart writes, [26] "distinguished from the majority of similar festivals by a custom, which requires the people to appear in a different disguise (vesham) every morning and evening. The Matangi vesham of Sunday morning deserves special mention. The devotee who consents to undergo this ceremony dances in front of an image or representation of the goddess, and, when he is worked up to the proper pitch of frenzy, a metal wire is passed through the middle of his tongue. It is believed that this operation causes no pain, or even bleeding, and the only remedy adopted is the chewing of a few margosa (Melia Azadirachta) leaves, and some kunkumam (red powder) of the goddess. This vesham is undertaken only by a Kaikolan (weaver), and is performed only in two places--the house of a certain Brahman and the Mahant's math. The concluding disguise is that known as the perantalu vesham. Perantalu signifies the deceased married women of a family who have died before their husbands, or, more particularly, the most distinguished of such women. This vesham is accordingly represented by a Kaikolan disguised as a female, who rides round the town on a horse, and distributes to the respectable inhabitants of the place the kunkumam, saffron paste, and flowers of the goddess." For the following account of a ceremony, which took place at Conjeeveram in August, 1908, I am indebted to the Rev. J. H. Maclean. "On a small and very lightly built car, about eight feet high, and running on four little wheels, an image of Kali was placed. It was then dragged by about thirty men, attached to it by cords passed through the flesh of their backs. I saw one of the young men two days later. Two cords had been drawn through his flesh, about twelve inches apart. The wounds were covered over with white stuff, said to be vibuthi (sacred ashes). The festival was organised by a class of weavers calling themselves Sankunram (Sengundar) Mudaliars, the inhabitants of seven streets in the part of Conjeeveram known as Pillaipalyam. The total amount spent is said to have been Rs. 500. The people were far from clear in their account of the meaning of the ceremony. One said it was a preventive of small-pox, but this view did not receive general support. Most said it was simply an old custom: what good it did they could not say. Thirty years had elapsed since the last festival. One man said that Kali had given no commands on the subject, and that it was simply a device to make money circulate. The festival is called Punter (flower car)."