The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-12-07

trodden upon. 1t was pulled out by my
assistants with difficulty, as 1t proved to be
larger than 1 had expected. it being of
ovoid shape with the lower end in the hot
test part of the fire. / had brought over
the largest wooden bucket which the ship
had and which was half filled with water,
expecting that this would cover the stone,
but 1t proved to be hardly enough. The
stone caused the water to rise nearly to the
top of the bucket, and it was thrown into
such violent ebullition that a great deal of
it boiled over and escaped weighing. The
stone was an exceedingly bad conductor of
heat for it continued to boil the water for
about twelve minutes, when, the ebulltion
being nearly over. it was removed to the
ship and the amount of evaporated water
measured
SHOES NOT SCORCHED.
Meanwhile. others. as 1 have said. be-
gan to walk over the stones without any
reference to the ceremony prescribed by
Papa-Ita, and three or four persons whom
l personally knew on board the ship, did
in shoes, the soles of which were not
burned at all. One of the gentlemen, how
ever. who crossed over with unburned shoes,
showed me that the ends of his trousers
had been burnt by the flames which leaped
up between the stones, and which at all
times added so much to the impressiveness
of the spectacle; and there was no doubt
that anyone who stumbled or got a foot
caught between the stones might have been
badly burned United States Deputy Consul
Ducoran, who was present, remarked to
me that he knew that Papa-Ita had failed
s~Ll
marble-like quality. and he offered to test
the heat of these basaltic ones by seeing
how long he could remain on the hottest
part of the pile, and he stood there, in my
sight, from eight to ten seconds before he
felt the heat through the thin soles of his
shoes beginning to be unpleasantly warm
"A gentleman present asked Papa-Ita
why he did not give an exhibit that would
be convincing by placing his foot even for
a few seconds, between two of the red-hot
stones which could be seen glowing at the
| bottom of the pile, to which Papa-Ita re-
piled with dignity: My fathers did not tell
| me to do it in that way 1 asked him If
| he would hold one of the smaller upper
stones in his hand. He promised to do so.
| but he did not do 1t.
1.-The outer barriers were now removed
| and crowd of natives pressed in. I, who
was taking these notes on the spot, left
| after assuring myself that the stones
| around the edge of the pit were compare
| lively cold, although the center was no
| doubt very hot and those below redhot
| The question. 1 repeat, How hot were those
| trodden upon? and the answer to this I was
| told to obtain after measuring the amount
of water boiled away.
"On returning from the ship this was
estimated from the water which was left
in the bucket (after allowing for that
spilled over) at about ten pounds. The
stone which it will be remembered was one
of the hottest, If not the hottest, in the
pile was found to weigh sixty-five pounds
/ and to have evaporated this quantity OF
water 1t was, as 1 have said, a volcanic
stone, and on minuter examination proved
| to be a vascular basalt, the most dis
tinctive feature of which was its porosity
and nonconductibility, for it was subse-
| quently found that it could have been
heated redhot at one end while remaining
comparatively cool at the top. 1 brought a
| piece of it to Washington with me and
! there determined its specific gravity to be
| 2.39, its specific heat 10 and its conductivity
to be so extremely small that one end of a
| small fragment could be held in the hand
| while the other was heated indefinitely In
| the flame of blow pipe almost like a stick
| of sealing wax. This partly defeated the
| aim of the experiment (to find the TEN.
| perature of the upper part of the stone)
| since only the mean temperature was
| found. This mean temperature of the hot
| test stone of the upper layer as deducted
| from the above data was about 10
Fahrenheit, but the temperature of the sur
| face must have been indefinitely lower
The temperature at which such a ston,
| begins TO show a dull red In daylight is
so far as / am aware, not exactly deter
mined. but it is approximately 1900 to 400
ITO conclude, 1 could entertain no doub
that / had witnessed substantially tn,
scenes described by the gentlemen cited
and have reason to believe that I saw
| very favorable specimen of fire walk
1t was a sight well worth seeing. 1t was {
most clever and interesting piece of savag,
magic but from the evidence 1 have Jus
given / am obliged to say almost regret
fully that 1t was not miracle"