During the swayamvaram, Parvati, the wife of Siva, found it difficult to recognise her husband, so Siva cut off Brahma's head. The head stuck on to Siva's hand, and he could not get rid of it. To get rid of the skull, and throw off the crime of murder, Siva wandered far and wide, and came to the burning-ground at Malayanur, where various bhuthas (devils) were busy eating the remains of corpses. Parvati also arrived there, and failed to recognise Siva. Thereon the skull laughed, and fell to the ground. The bhuthas were so delighted that they put various kinds of herbs into a big vessel, and made of them a sweet liquor, by drinking which Siva was absolved from his crime. For this reason arrack is offered to him at the festival. A very similar rite is carried out at Walajapet. A huge figure, representing the goddess, is made at the burning-ground out of the ashes of burnt bodies mixed with water, the eyes being made of hen's eggs painted black in the centre to represent the pupils. It is covered over with a yellow cloth, and a sweet-smelling powder (kadampam) is sprinkled over it. The following articles, which are required by a married woman, are placed on it:--a comb, pot containing colour-powder, glass bangles, rolls of palm leaf for dilating the ear-lobes, and a string of black beads. Devotees present as offerings limes, plantains, arrack, toddy, sugar-cane, and various kinds of cooked grains, and other eatables. The goddess is taken in procession from her shrine to the burning-ground, and placed in front of the figure. The pujari (fisherman), who wears a special dress for the occasion, walks in front of the idol, carrying in one hand a brass cup representing the skull which Siva carried in his hand, and in the other a piece of human skull bone, which he bites and chews as the procession moves onward. When the burning-ground is reached, he performs puja by breaking a cocoanut, and going round the figure with lighted camphor in his hand. Goats and fowls are sacrificed. A woman, possessed by a devil, seats herself at the feet of the figure, and becomes wild and agitated. The puja completed, the assembled multitude fall on the figure, and carry off whatever they can grab of the articles placed on it, which are believed to possess healing and other virtues. They also smear their bodies with the ashes. The pujari, and some of the devotees, then become possessed, and run about the burning-ground, seizing and gnawing partly burnt bones. Tradition runs to the effect that, in olden times, they used to eat the dead bodies, if they came across any. And the people are so afraid of their doing this that, if a death should occur, the corpse is not taken to the burning-ground till the festival is over. "In some cases," Herbert Spencer writes, [163] "parts of the dead are swallowed by the living, who seek thus to inspire themselves with the good qualities of the dead; and we saw that the dead are supposed to be honoured by this act."