The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-02-07
DR.. BISHOP and SORCERY
HIS VIEWS ON PAPA ITA'S
PERFORMANCES
The Tahitian IAN Able Missionary of
The old Native Polytheism''-"Power-
full reinforcement"

DR.. Bishop in The Friend" devotes |
space to Papa tia and the |
recrudesCenCe of ancient Polynesian |
OF Papa Ita's perform !
anCe he says
a Polynesian kahuna or sorcerer |
from one of the Southern islands has |
just been giving in this city, exhibitions |.
Of his power to walk upon red-hot |
stones, before crowds of spectators. F.
The verified facts are as follows: \
trench Of six feet wide sixteen feet long !
and four feet deep was filled with dry
CordWoOd over which rocks were piled
to several feet in depth. The wood was
lighted and burned for several hours, !
bringing the stones to a considerable
heat All being in readiness and an
audience assembled within a Curtained
enclosure, paying one dollar apiece,
Papa tia proceeded to walk bare-foOted
over the heated stones First the
stones were punched and levelled by
long poles which took fire in the pro-
cess. Papa tia then went around the
trench, muttering incantations to his
gods, and thrashing the stones with a
bunch of u-leaves after which he walk
ed twice or thrice the length of the
heated stones with bare feet.
AT the close of the second perform
ance, a soldier named Murray followed
only stockings over his feet, repeating
the action. 1t would appear that the
stones We're far from being red-hot.
The city papers denOunCe the per-
Torrance as a fake and a fraud. That
this is the truth respecting II, would
seem to be confirmed by the fact that
Papa Ita's white managers resented
Murrays efforts to prove the fraud,
treated him with great violence Fiji
teen hundred dollars of tickets are said
to have been sold for the first perform
ance.
This fire walking is circumstantial-
~ described as a well-known perform
ance in the South Pacific Islands, and
in several Asatic countries, including
Japan. 1t is always accompanied by
idolatrOus incantations. We have
deemed it quite possible that the ka-
huna, or TOhunga, was able with no
real supernatural aid, but by the quasi
hypnotic effect of his incantations, to
generate in himself some kind of a
trance condition, allied perhaps to hyp-
notism. He might thereby avail him
self of some occult natural law, not un-
derstoOd by our present science. which
would enable him to repel and
Withstand the effects of heat. We pres
ent this as mere conjecture, in the in
terest Of denying any fancied superna-
tural intervention of the gods or de-
mons in whose existence and power
even the Christianized Polynesians
more or less believe.
The performances of Papa tia, as
described by the reporters. would seem
to belong to a lower and vulgar class of
mere deception. The venerable To-
hunga, however, received the Venerat-
ing homage of many enthusiastic Ha-
waiians, who believed him to possess
the great power of the gods (Acts s.
. a iC-
sionaTy of the old native Polythelsm.
Perhaps he is not much more so than
some of these old Hawaiian kahunas,
of whom the majority of the natives
still stand more or less in awe. Papa
tia is a powerful reinforcement to their
destructive influence which is a lead
ing factor in the wasting away of the
native race
Discussing the subject on it's psyco-
logical side, DIR. Bishop says:
We were formerly acquainted with
an Englishman of considerable mental
force who had made his home for thirty
years in remote district of Maui and
had raised Hawaiian family. He was
known to be a thorough believer in the
supernatural powers claimed by the
kahunas otherwise medicine men or
wizards There is ample evidence that
fine kahunas themselves believe in their
own magic powers, although they do
not scruple to reinforce those powers
with fraud to any extent. 1t seems
probable that in common with persons
Of their craft in all heather countries.
they have learned to employ physical
and mental laws of an occult sort, and
are thus enabled really to produce sick
ness and death, as well as to counter
act the same
These practices of sorcery are in
timately connected with the worship
OF the heather deites, both the greater
and the lesser gods. They are thus
powerful allies of heather idolatry.
Like all priest craft they are also
allied to political tyranny and are
destructive to political liberty. Who
ever opposes the despot stands in fear
of his ally the kahuna. Kalakaua I'M
dertook to propagate this unholy ter
ror in order to establish his own COR
rupt despotic power For this purpose
he organized sorcery in his Hale
Naua' society, and made himself the
chief sorcerer, and caused himself to be
habitually WOrshipped as a god.
"A late eminent Hawaiian is belieV-
ed 10 have gone to his death in conse-
quence Of kahuna Vaccinations. 1t
was probably true. He was an earnest
and active Christian, but that had not
sufficiently emancipated this good man
from inherited and deep rooted procli-
yities TO superstition, to enable him to
Withstand the insistent warnings and
admonitions OF his friends and associa-
ties added to those Of the sorcerers. The
writer has known prominent and hon
ored Hawaiian pastor to yield to the
Importantly of his family and employ a
sorcerer in a futile effort to save the
life of a sick relative. Next to social
immortality, sorcery is doubtless a chief
cause Of the wasting away of this ami
able Hawaiian race, both by direct and
indirect influence 1t is Numerically
opposed 10 all rational care of health
ana 10 sanitation"
TTrGuv