The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1923-03-16
DELIGHT IN PAIN
Fire Walkers Take Barefooted
"StroIls" Through Flames.
cheerfulIy With the Idea of Pleas
ing Their Gods.

Repulsive, heathenish rites, includ-
of red-hot embers, as practiced today
by the fire walkers" of Malaysia,
are described by an eyewitness, A.
Il. Iverson, formerly of Takoma Park,
now stationed at Singapore as a Sew
enth-day Adventist missionary, in COM
munications recently received by his
friends in the national capital.
This ceremony OF fire walking"
says Mr. Iverson, usually takes place
in the planting season and Is sup
posed to insure bountiful harvest; !;
1t also has to do with vows, each per-
son making a VOW, religious or other
wise, being required to go through
this ordeal and confirm it,
First, an excavation was made in
the ground, about a foot deep, ten
feet wide and 80 feet long. Several
carloads of wood we're placed In this,
after the fire had been kindled, and
left to burn for about an hour.
Then, just before the ceremony
started, the Goals were so raked out
that they covered the entire excava-
ton. These people did not walk
through the flames, but through the
live Goals
was another smaller excavation about
the width of the large pit, but three
or four feet deep. This was filled
with water, and l think they poured
in 100 or more gallons of perfectly
good milk. The fire walkers stepped
into this as soon as they were through
the fire. / presume 1t soothed their
poor, burned, blistered feet
Finally all was ready, and the four
gods were lifted to the shoulders of
their carriers, so that they could look
down on the people as they walked
through the fire. Then it seemed that
bedlam reigned. Police were help
less to keep order. The cheers and
yells were deafening, for as they came
In the participants all wanted to
rush through the fire at once But
there were scores of men to hold them
back, and let only few In the pit at
a time. If they were all allowed to
rush In as they wished, some would
be sure TO lose their footing, fall on
the Goals, and be trampled and burned
to death. We read how In Christ's
time demoniacs walked through the
fire without hurt, and as / watched
these poor heather 1t really seemed
that some of them were so possessed
of the devil that they Gid not even
feel the heat of the live Goals upon
which they stepped.
First came the men. Some walked
deliberately. Some hurried. Some
seemed unhurt as they stepped into
the milk and water, but some tainted.
One man l noticed In particular. He
walked through and then came back
up one side and down the other before
stepping out into the cooling liquid
In the throng were some who had
long pins thrust through their tongues !;
others had long needles thrust through
one cheek and out through the other
OF course this was to appease the
wrath of the gods or to court their
special favor. Then came some men
with pins in their bodies, stuck
through the flesh and then out again.
Some had hundreds stuck all over
their bodies, some at random, others in
the form OF designs. Toward the last
came men who carried large arches of
flowers weighing all of 20 pounds, sup
ported over their heads by hooks
buried in the flesh just below the
shoulders.
After the men had passed the wom-
EN- came. Some went through without
fiinching but many were on the verge
Of fainting before they reached the
fire, and larger numbers tainted as
they came out at the farther end. One
woman stumbled and fell full length in
the fire, but men nearby rushed to the
rescue"