The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-06-18


nothing remains but a quantity of
charred embers and few half-burned
logs. In due time the embers are drag
ged or fished out by means of vines at
tached to long sticks, the end of the
vine having a running loop, which is
placed over the log. The partially
burned logs and embers having been
removed, green sticks, eighteen or
twenty feet long, are then inserted into
the oven among the heaps of hot stones
and using these as levers the stones
are distributed evenly over the surface
of the whole floor of the earth-oven.
Sometimes the heat is so terrific that
the operators are unable directly to
| manipulate the levers themselves, so
they are compelled to rest the poles on
| the sides of the oven, and then pull on
| them by means of vine ropes. The
| Fijians who take part in this ceremony
| make for themselves out of the broad
banana leaf a special kind of garment
| to shelter their bodies from the heat
given off by the white-hot stones.
| When the big embers have been remov-
| ed, the wood ashes are swept away by
| means of whisks fastened to the ends
! of long sticks, and then nothing re-
mains in the oven save the clean layer
| of glowing stones. These preliminar-
| les, after the fire has burned itself out,
| occupy about half an hour, and then
all is ready for the ceremony itself. At
a given signal the performers, bare
legged and bare-footed, excepting for
the anklets of dried fern leaves, crowd
into the pit and begin walking lesurely
about as if on a fashionable promenade.
Here is the narrative of person who
witnessed the ceremony: Jonathan, q
/ native magistrate led the way into the
pit, closely followed by fourteen others.
| They marched round about the oven,
moving slowly and leisurely, and tread
ing firmly on the red-hot stones. The
spectacle held me spellbound. Every
moment I expected my nostrils to be
assailed with the smell of burning hui
| man flesh, but 1t was not SO: and as I
looked in the faces of the men strolling
about in the lovo, could see no emo
ton whatever depicted, but merely the
inscrutable impassivity of feature COM
mon to many savage races. Some of
the bystanders threw bundles of green
leaves and branches into the oven, and
then Immediately the men inside were
half hidden in the clouds of steam that
| arose from the Kissing, boiling sap.
Handerchiefs were also thrown in, and
| afforded an unmistakable proof that
there was mo deception. Before these
lace trifles reached the floor of the oven
they were aljght and almost consumed
by the great heat. Presently Jonathan
and his followers marched out of the
inferno, and were promptly examined
by the governors commissioner Not
only was there not the least trace of
! burning, but even their anklets, which
were of dried fern leaves, and there
fore extremely infammable, were not
so much as singed'
Jonathan himself was closely cross
examined by the government officials
present--of whom he stood in great
awe-and he declared with perfect cam
dor, There is no trick. Why should
there be? ! and my forefathers have
done this thing for generations, long
before the white man came into the is
lands. Some of us may not believe the
legend Of the Fairy Chief Mollwai, but
/ do believe that it has been given to
my tribe to pass unframed at all times
through the masawe oven.' Another
official eyewitness declares 1.-The men,
had not anointed themselves with any
preparation whatsoever" Traders
missionaries and others who have wit
messed the ceremony cannot explain it,
and some have endeavored to do the
thing themselves, with the most horri-
BILE and disastrous results.
One official theory given by Lord
Stanmores aide-de-camp, is contained
in the following: 1T venture to think
that tho ordinary mortal who visits
tropical chimes has no idea of the
amount of heat the natives can bear on
the soles of their feet. Let any one put
which the tropical sun has been playing
for hours, and the result will be that
he will find himself extremely anxious
to withdraw it as speedily as possible.
The native, however, can go all day on
the rocks and not feel the heat. In fact,
he has on the soles of his feet nat
ural sort of leathery substance--a nom
conductor of heat-perhaps an eighth
of an inch thick He can even peel off
the skin of the soles of his feet and
yet feel no pain" Lord Stanmore him
self, however, in a letter to the writer,
, directly contradicts the inference here
conveyed. IF we accept this theory
he says In affect, "the thing excites no
wonder. Il is not, however the case
that the natives feet are so insensible
| have often seen the hardest of ma
tives, crossing a short extent of the
shingly bed of a river in the hot sun
shine, compelled to run off and cool