Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-02-05
TELLS STRANGE STORY
OF Hindu Who Walked Through Ere
Naked Unhurt.

In recent sermon Or. Il. T. Austin
pastor of Plymouth Spiritual thufeh'
pofnted out the claim OF ihple "litele
that men had under certain conditions
walked nnhurt in fire. and The similar
claim of modern psychics that uilae'
snirit power they were immune from any
III effects from fire. He contrasted tue
account in the third chapter OF oanlei o.
the three Hebrew children Walking uh-
hurt in the midst of the fiery furnace
and the case of Thakne kanto at Mails
mould near Dacca, India. who recently
nassed unhurt repeatedly through the
hottest fires. barefoot and with naked
limbs. through flames that reached to his
waist.
The story. said Dr. Austin, was given
by the editor on the authority OF several
evewitnesses, one of them, Prumahdus
Chose. deputy magistrate of his district.
Kanto, who had a reputation for walk
ing through the sacred fire. having an
noupced an ordeal.< hundreds throngeu
the way, and among them Chose and
three friends all intent on deciding Tor
themselves whether or not the reputation
of Kanto was justified by fact or arose
from some method of public deception
on arriving at the place, the article
stated. the crowd was too dense TO allow
their approach to the Enclosure within
which the trying experiment was TO be
made. Finding a friend, however, in the
person of one of Kantos disciples, they
were piloted through the crowds and
We're admitted.
A square of l. feet in the center had
been marked out and eXcavated to
depth of nine inches, and two adjoining
piles of wood were placed within it, light
ed and carefully tended for more than
an hour, until bed of living Goals was
formed into mound of fire above which
still circled the flames. When the fires
We're fuzzy prepared and the heat so in
tense that no one could stand eomforta-
bly, within Is feet of il, Kanto appeared
barefoot, bare limbed and clad in loin
cloth and with sheet over his shoulders.
He stood facing the fire moment Then
chanting a song he boldly climbed the
mound, the flames reaching to his waist,
passed through the fire four times and
sustained no hurt,
While Chose and his comrades We're
wondering. the editor stated, if Kanto
had not prepared his body for the ordeal
by means of some chemical preparation,
his followers taking the ashes from his
feet and applying them to their own
feet. also walked unhurt through the
fire. Kanto issued an invitation to any
and all who desired to pass through the
fire TO remove their shoes and approach.
Chose and his companions immediately
approached and kanto placed his hands
on the head of each. They all testified
to a wonderful change in their bodily
at Kanto's touch, the cooling
down of the whole body and a sudden
feeling of mexpressble joy. They thea
walked through the fire three times
without hurt. Thinking that in some
mysterious way the fire had lost its
power, they threw paper and other in
nammable material on the mound of
Goals to see them instantly shrivel under
the intense heat
DIR. Austin contended that from an
evidential point of view the ordeal at
Maismoudi was better supported and
more believable than the story of the
Hebrew children, since it belongs 10 the
present age and had a number of living
witnesses to substantiate it.