Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-07
BY JOHN PRESTON.

ID JUN EREO4 OINs
CIENCE has failed in an effort to solve
' the mystery Of q savage pageant Of
Dance.
Just why certain tribe of Fijians
are able to walk barefoot without discomfort,
On rocks so hot to scorch the fingers of a
curious and perhaps doubtful white man Is a
question that defied carefully prepared in
Guiry.
It Arthur c. Pillsbury of Berkeley, Calf,
noted naturalist and creator Of the X-ray mo-
ton picture in medical research, who conducted
the expedition to the tiny island Of Mbengha
In the Fiji group, near Suva. Pillsbury had
heard fragmentary tales Of the strange Fire
Dance, but he longed to view it and to test
It himself. Better still, he hoped to return from
the romantic South Seas with Photographic
record of the mystic dance.
He has just returned from the expedition
reporting success in part. He not only watched
the weaving, grating dark forms of the savage
dancers, but he photographed the Fire Dance
And he photographed the feet of the dancers
after they had walked across the scorching hot
rocks.
The photographs bore out his own findings:
The feet Of the dancers were not even scared!
FURTHER than this, Pilisburys expedition
failed. He readily admits the failure. He
has no solution to the mystery which viii with
stand scientific analysis - ,a
Il vas skeptical ut first" he related. "The
ela1ng Was beyond reason. No living thing I
reasoned, could walk ON those red-hot rocks and
escape serious burns. tossed my handkerchief
onto the rocks. It smoldered for a minute. then
burst into flames and vas consumed The
dancers used no special preparations on the soles
0f their feet. e.. 49,
:. Such thing could not be. and yet-there
+ wag!"
The native chief, or priest Of the dance. told
a rn0kka of E~S%
In ones ability to tread On rocks blistering hot
without harm or even discomfort. Without
faith, It could not be done. The dancer would
perish.
Pillsbury went into an exhaustive research of
religious or rituaiistic fakery in an endeavor
% md the answer or some hint TO this phe-
nonaenon. Up through history. he learned men
OF scientific bent have turned searching eyes
upon similar feats IN most cases with results
disastrous TO the fakirs.
But here in this tiny palm-shaded island of
4bengha Of the Fijian group remote from
CIVILIZATION, was practical rite of IRE walking
which no white man had been able to brand
as takeFy. 1t was carried out In the open with
unt benefit Of darkness No special advantages
were demanded by the dancers Once having
OBTAINED the confidence Of the tribal chief the
investigator might watch and test and question
% his hearts content Which was exactly what
P4llsbury did.
Always the results were the same-a blank
WALL
TN other countries where fire walking is prac-
ticed today. the origin and meaning of the
custom has been lost in antiquity. It is said
20 survive to some extent, In India, Straits
Settlements, Trinidad and Tahiti While the
ritual varies in different lands it is essentially
the same. Priests, fakirs, devotees walk bare
foot over hot stones or ashes
1t was pretty well established that fire walk
ing Is practiced in Tahiti was little more than
mild form OF amusement staged for the edi-
ncaion or enjoyment of tourists Contrast
this performance with that Of the dark-skin-
ned F1Jlans, where no fakery ever has been
detected.
Said the Hindu Code of Manu-:
"He whom the flame does not burn is to be
eaken as truthful in his oath"
The savage tribesman of Mbengha does not
say that.
He says:
~He who has faith shall not be harmed bv
me God of Fire"
Indeed. the fire dance Is q dance of faith
rather than an ordeal by fire. as Pillsbury dis
covered in his investigation. 1855
TT was long ago that o Fijian chief did o
great favor for a powerful god Just how
long, even the Fijians cannot say for the sim
pie reason that they cannot count years
Fijian Is taxed not according to his years
but according to his height. Otherwise all