The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-01-12
PAPA ia
WILL WALK
Preparations are Nearly
Completed.
HAS NO FEAR OF FIRE
The Aged Tahitian Will Dance Over
Red Hot Lava Rock in His
Bare Feet.

q firewalker will really walk.
Those who have been waiting
for Papa Ita's wonderful performance
thing is at last in readiness. Papa
TIA has carefully selected the stones
which are to be heated, and they are
being piled in a great mound out in
the burned district, near the ruins of
Kaumakapili Church, where a tract of
land has been leased from the Bishop
Estate by A. H. Lewis, Papa Ita's
manager.
A fence is being erected around the
mound Of stones, and seats are being
put up to accommodate 1,500 or 1000
people. The oven is fifteen by thirty
five feet, and great loads of wood have
been brought for the heating Of the
stones. Promptly at 1 o'clock in the
afternoon of Saturday the fire will be
lighted, and it will burn with a steady
heat until half-past seven O'clock in
the evening, when it will be allowed
to die down, and the aged Tahitian will
walk through the furnace.
The only personal preparations Papa
tia will make, he says is that of pro-
yiding himself with ti-leaf wand. In
the dead of night the magic ti-leaf is
to be picked by Papa tia, who will go
alone in the darkness and select it
at II O'Clock p. M, Friday. With this
ti-leaf, he says, he will summon his
spirits of protection and immune from
the harm of the dread element, he will
walk over the mound of glowing stones,
unscathed, though the heat of them
be such as to incinerate paper or 9TH
er light fabric thrown UPON them, and
such as to keep ordinary mortals a
very respectable distance away. The
stones are of lava, and each one has
been selected with great care by the
firewalker. BY Saturday morning they
will all be in place in the excavation
and ready for the lighting of the fire.
Never before has the ceremony been
attempted on foreign soil, though 1t
has been witnessed in Tahiti many
times by English speaking~people. The
first exhibition on American soil will
take place next Saturday in Honolulu.
1t will certainly be most wonderful
thing to witness, if Papa tia is sue
cessful, and that he will be, for per-
sons have seen him go through the
ceremony before, just as he pictures it.
He has been extensively written up
in newspapers and magazines.
j. Lamb Doty, American Consul at
Tahiti, gave the following signed state
ment to Mr.. Lewis upon the departure
of Papa TIA and himself for the ISL
ands:
Upon demand Of Mr.. A. H. Lewis.
I, the undersigned, certify herewith
that I know it to be a fact that in
July, 1898, a great oven had been pre-
pared (by some people Of the Leeward
Islands) close to Papeete, on the oc-
casion of the French national fete.
The stones of this oven were
great quantity of firewood and at that
point, in the presence of 1000 people,
who witnessed this spectacle, a dozen
or SO of them from the Leeward ISL
ands marched through this fiery fur
mace with their bare feet, without,
however, meeting with the least acct
dent or inconvenience.
1T appears that this custom of walk
ing through red-hot oven is very DID,
They attach some of their old heather
superstitions to it, but it can, no doubt,
be explained on scientific grounds.
81. LAMB DOTY,
"U. S. Consul of Tahiti.
"Papeete, November 9, 1907
The French resident representative
of the government at the island Of
Huahine, has also given a similar let
ter to the outside world.
Papa tia cannot, nor does he attempt
to explain the seeming miracle. He
only knows that his forefathers have
done it before him, and he attributes
is to the powers of the spirits he calls
upon. They are summoned in a weird
incarnation, accompanied with the
waving of the magic ti-leaf wand.
The coming event has created great
interest and excitement throughout the
city and country, and Papa TIA ex-
poets a big aggregation of spectators.
1t will be a weird thing to look upon,
and no doubt Papa Ita's expectations
will be fully realized. 1t is understood
that he will give only the one perform
Hance.