The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-02-01

him that he would perform the cere-
mony on Wednesday, July II. the day
| before the sailing of our ship. 1 was
ready to provide the cost of the fire, if
| he could not obtain it otherwise, but
| this proved to be unnecessary
| Papa-Ita himself spoke no English,
| and L conversed with him briefly
| through an interpreter. He said that
| he walked over the hot stones without
danger by virtue of spells which he was
! able to utter and by the aid of a god
dess Cor devil as my interpreter had it,,
| who was formerly a native of the Is
| lands. The spells, he said. were some
thing which he could teach another. L
was told by others that there was a
still older priest in the island of Raia-
tea, whose disciple he was although he
had pupils of his own, and that he
could ''send his spirit to Raiatea to
secure the permission of his senior
priest if necessary.
The place selected for the ceremony
was not far from the ship. 1 went there
at noon and found that a large shall
low pit or trench had been dug, about
nine by twenty-one feet, and about two
feet deep. Lying near by was a pile
containing some cords of wood, and a
pile of rounded water worn stones
weighing IOTly To eighty
apiece. There were, perhaps, 200 of
these all of porous basalt-a matter of
Importance. as will be seen. The wood
was placed in the trench and the fire
lighted at about noon.
At 4 p. m. 1 went over again, and
found the preparations very nearly
complete. The fire had been burning
about four hours. The outer stones at
the edge of the pile did not burn my
hands, but in the center of the pit they
were heaped up into mound of three
or four layers deep, and the lower lay
erS seen between the upper were red
hot. The upper stones We're sending out
considerable heat, nevertheless, while
those at the bottom would explode oc-
casionally with loud reports The up
per layers did not show any glow. but
would have been unsafe for
naked feet, although it must be borne
in mind that native feet are not Euro
pean feet. The chief engineer of the
ship had told me he had seen natives
standing unconcerned with naked feet
on pipes carrying steam at 800 degrees
Fahrenheit.
1t was now nearly forty minutes after
(, when six native acolytes, wearing
crowns of flowers, wreathed with gar
ands and bearing poles nearly fifteen
eet long, ostensibly to be used as levers
n topping over the upper stones, ap-
Oeared. They were supposed to need
.hese long poles because of the distance
hey must stand from the fire, but much
hOrter ones could have been used with ,
,ut great discomfort. And now the i'm
1ressive part of the ceremony began.
pa tia, tall. dignified. fiower-crowned,
appeared with naked feet and with a
arge bunch of ''ti'' IL aVeS in his hands =
md after going partly around the fire
ach way, uttering what seemed to be
commands to it, went back, and, beat
ng the stones, nearest him three times
With the ii leaves, advanced steadily, {
tut with obviously hurried step, direct I
Y over the central ridge of the pile. s
Two disciples, similarly dressed, fol-
owed him, but they had not the courage
o do so directly along the heated CEN +
en- They followed about half way be- s
ween the center and the edge, where I
he stones were manifestIy cooler, since {
had satisfied myself that they could 5
e touched lightly with the hand Pa c
"a tia then turned and led the way ]
Jack, this time with deliberate con- I
dence, followed on his return by sew C
raj new disciples, most of them not
eeping directly in the steps of the lead 5
r but obviously seeking cooler places. L
third and fourth time Papa tia cross g
d with a larger following, after which n