The Hawaiian gazette., 1900-12-18
SALAMANDER
MYSTERIES
Papa Ita's Art Viewed
By Savants,
ISLAND FIRE WALKERS
Accounts Of Those Who Have Seen
and Studied the Secret
MarveIs.
r HE publication in the Advertiser

he puDllCdtlOn IN the AuVeTtlSel
OF the presence in Honolulu o.
one of the marvellous fire walk
ers of Tahiti has aroused intense in
terest. Students of mystic lore ant
Polynesian antiquities and custom
have been brushing UP their reading
on the subject. Papa Ita, the ageC
Tahitian, who claims to be one of the
modern salamanders, is awaiting in Z
private home here the making ready
Of place for his curious exhibition
The feat which Papa tia will accom-
plish IL his gods and spirits do not fai
him, is not new one, for it is Gus.
tom descended from the ancients of his
own islands, and hundreds of years
ago very similar ceremonies were held
by the people of South India. Fire
walking was also feature of old
Egyptian festivals and religious occa-
sions.
How 1t Is done, or what the secret
Of it's accomplishment, no one has
ever been able to say, but reliable au-
thorities state that there is nothing of
the fake element about the perform
ance. 1t is an undeniable fact that the
fire-walkers do walk on fire, and if
by other means than the power given
them through the spirits which they
summon with their ti-leaf wands, peo-
pie who have witnessed the ceremony
have been unable, even by the keenest
observation and closest study, to dis
cover what.
On the island of Maritius the fire
walking ceremony is part of the an
nual festival, and is performed every
year. Prevailing has been referred
to by writer's on the subject as THE
Maritius Miracle" and it Is a matter
of record that at one time the COVER
nor of the Fiji Islands, hearing that
some of his guests were incredulOus,
caused the ceremony to be performed
for the vice-regal party, before about
five hundred native spectators
The Polynesian Society have given
much attention to the question recent
ly in its quarterly journals, and late
number contains an interesting arti-
Gle on the subject written by Miss
Teuira Henry, Of Kukui street, this
city. Miss, Henry was herself born in
Tahiti and lived there number Of
years, and her article aroused much
comment from able writers and people
who had been eye-witnesses of the
ceremony. Miss Henry gives a full
account of the performance with a
translation of the lamentations accom-
panying the feat. According to her
account the fire-walking is ceremony
that goes with the feast of ti-root, per-
formed when the huge oven is made
ready for the baking OF the feast.
In an excavation some thirty feet
across, both ways, logs and sticks are
piled, and the stones are placed on top.
The logs are then set fire underneath
and within a period of twenty-four
hours have burned low, leaving the
stones at white heat, ready for the
baking of the ti-root feast. 1t is then
that the sorcerer calls upon his spirits,
summoning them with his ti-leaf
wand, and calling upon them in the
chant of incantation:
20, spirits who heated the oven! Let
it die out Oh, dark earth-worms; Oh,
light earth-worms! Fresh water and
salt water heat of the oven, and red
ness of the oven, hold up the footsteps
of the walkers, and fan the heat of the
bed ;'Oh, cold beings! Let us lie in the
midst of the oven! Oh, Great Woman
who-sets-fire-toth e-skies! Hold the
fan, and let us go into the oven for a
little while!'
Still chanting, the leader steps into
followed by the people who are to par
take of the feast, waving the wand,
and circling about over the stones,
without burn or pain.
The Great Woman ho-sets-fre-to-
the-skies" is the leading spirit of the
walkers, and to her is attributed
the possession of the dread lightning
and thunderbolt.
Miss Henry does not attempt to eX-
plain the miraculous performance, but
leaves the solution of the surprising
feat to scientists. Her statement is
merely the statement of an eye-wit- |
ness.
A Mr.. Hastwell, in a San Francisco
pamphlet, gives the following account |
1.-The natives Of Raiatea have some
performances so entirely out of the
ordinary course of events as to insti- |
tute inquiry as to proper solution. On
the goth of September, 1885, l Witness
ed the wonderful, and to me inexplica-
BILE, performance OF passing through /,
the Fiery Furnace" The furnace
that saw was an excavation of three
or four feet in the ground, of circular
form, sloping upward, and about thirty
feet across. The excavation was fired
with logs and wood. and then covered
with large stones. A fire was built
underneath and kept burning for about
day When / witnessed 1t, on the
second day, the flames were pouring |
up through interstices of the rocks, |
which were heated to a red and white |
heat. When everything was in readi-
ness, and the furnace still pouring out
its intense heat, the natives marched
up, with bare feet, to the edge of the
furnace, where they halted for a mo-
ment, and after few passes OF the
wand. made of the branches OF the
ii plant by the leader, who repeated a
few words in the native language, they
stepped down on the rocks, and walked
leisurely across to the other side, step
ping from stone to stone. This was
repeated Ave times, without any prep
aration whatever on their feet, and
without injury or discomfort from the