The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-08-17
THE ORDEAL OF FIRE
MYSTlFYING RITES CELEBRATED BY
THE ORIENTALS.
Walking With Bare Feet Over Flam-
ing Stones and Emerging From the
Pit Unburned-Dr. HOcken Saw This
Done and Describes the Act.


Done and Describes the Act
Andrew Lang. who has written ex-
tensively on myths, rituals and strange
human practices, has made a collection
of stories that remind one of the ex-
periences of Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego. In India, Japan and a num-
Der of the south sea islands a custom still
survives which is known as the fire
walk" Sometimes it is prefaced with
incantations, and it is usually followed
by feast The religious part of the
ceremony is conducted by priests. The
origin of the custom, both in respect to
time and place, is apparently unknown.
but it is possible that the rite has now
lost some of its earlier significance and
detail. 9,
The essential feature of the perform
ance. at least from the point of view Of
the uninitiated, is walking barefoot over
a bed of stones that have been rendered
red or white hot by fire. The stones are
laid at the bottom of an excavation like
that prepared in New England for a
Rhode Island clambake. Logs are cut
into suitable lengths and piled over the
rocky foundation. and these are then ig-
nited. From four or five hours to a day
is consumed in this part of the prepare
ton, which has been preceded, of course,
by the work of digging the pit or oven
and arranging its rocky foundation. The
embers having been hastily raked off
and q redhot or white hot surface having
been exposed, several men descend into
the oven and walk more or less leisure
~ across the stones. In most cases they
suffer no apparent harm.
One of the narratives was presented to
the New Zealand institute in 1898 by DIR.
T. Nj. Hocken and describes scene
which he witnessed in one of the Fiji
isands-Mbenga. 20 miles south of Suva.
Through the cooperation of civil officers
and the steamship company the small
clan on Mbcnga that still possess the
wonderful power was persuaded to give
an exhibition, and several whites accom-
panied the doctor. One of them, a gov
eminent meteorologist, carried Their
momcter that would register up to 400
degrees f. When these guests arrived
on the scene, they found hundreds of ma
tives assembled in characteristic Fiji cos
tune. The preparations had been under
taken long enough in advance to avert
any delay. The oven was % or 80 feet
long and s feet broad and was shaped
like a saucer The deepest part of the
depression was Is feet long. The visitors
saw the stones yet covered with embers,
which were removed in their presence by
means of long poles bearing loops Of
green withes.
Walking beside the pit before this stage
of the proceedings the man with the
thermometer recorded Il temperature of
ia degrees. After the stones were I'M
covered he hung his instrument out over
the center of the oven. six feet above the
stones, whereupon the mercury rose to
2S2 The solder was melting, and the
instrument was liable to be ruined if left
in that position any longer. What the
temperature was on the stones them
selves can only be conjectured, but DR..
Hocken declares that they were white
hot" and that low flames from small
Goals between the stones could be seen
leaping up around them.
Two of the men who were to walk
through the fire were examined by DR..
Hocken before their daring act. They
wore garlands about the neck and waist
HelT lcel anu legs were euilTelI DdTe.
The soles were soft and flexible, showing
that they had not been rendered perma
nently callous in any way. In order 20
detect chemicals that might have been
applied for this occasion the doctor did
not hesitate to use touch, smell and taste.
He licked the natives feet with truly sci
entifc zeal. But no explanation of what
was to follow could be discovered. Final
ly, at an appointed signal, the seven or
eight natives who took part in the per-
Torrance came down in single file to the
oven and then walked across the stones
from one end to the other of the pit.
They spent less than half a minute there.
Immediately after they emerged DIR.
Hocken again inspected their feet, but
could find no sign of burning or blister
ing.
Another historian mentions a fire walk
in which the passage was made no less
than five times Miss Teuira Henry re-
counts similar incidents in the Polynesian
Journal, and adds that her own sister and
a niece also walked over the stones. Mr..
Lang picked up stories of the practice in
Japan, where several women pretended
to have done the same thing, although
corroborative evidence is lacking
An Englishman who tried the expert
ment himself. and was accompanied in
his undertaking by three of his fellow
countrymen, furnishes Mr.. Lang with a
short account He is Colonel Gudgeon,
British resident on one of the Society is
lands, Raiatea. The glowing stones on
this occasion afforded path u feet long.
The act Of walking over them preceded
the ceremony of cooking the ii plant and
was first performed by a priest and his
attendant They went down into the
oven, bearing branches of the ii tree. On
leaving the pit the priest offered a bifur-
Gated branch to Colonel Gudgeon, saying,
81 hand my power over to you" The at
tendant did the same to one of the other
whites. The remaining two Englishmen
held no Ii branches, but merely walked
behind Colonel Gudgeon.
Three of them escaped without harm.
The fourth, who. by the way, looked
backward. after starting, was somewhat
burned. Green branches of ii were thrown
on top of the stones an hour later and
took fire; this fact affords a hint of the
heat Yet Colonel Gudgeon says: 81 felt
something resembling slight electric
shocks, and the tingling sensations con-
tinued hours afterward, but that was all.
The tende- skin of my feet was not even
hardened by fire.
All such ventures do not result so hap
PLY. Several accidents are reported. At
Benares, for instance, the walkers were
burned enough on one occasion to be
sore for two days The Brahman master
of ceremonies explained, however, that
'the control of the fire was not so COM
plete as usual. because the images of the
sanctuary had been defiled by the touch