Chapter 15: Walking Through Fire

Perhaps the topic of this paper may be ranged under the head of ‘Magic, ‘ though in many cases the rite of passing through fire is sanctioned by religion, and the immunity of the performers is explained by the protection of gods. The immunity is really the curious feature. Mr. Frazer describes the Chinese vernal festival of fire in spring, connected as it is with the widespread custom of ‘renewing the fire’ at a certain season. The chief performers are labourers, who must fast for three days and observe chastity for a week; while they are taught in the temple how to discharge the difficult and dangerous duty which is to be laid upon them. ‘The fire is made in an enormous brazier of charcoal, sometimes twenty feet wide.’ The fire is gratified with salt and rice, thrown on it by a Taoist priest. Further, ‘two exorcists, barefooted, and followed by two peasants, traverse the fire again and again till it is somewhat beaten down.’ The procession of performers then walks through amidst much excitement. Their immunity is ascribed to the horny consistency of the soles of their feet, and they suffer if the fire touches their ankles.[1] Various Indian examples are given by Mr. Frazer. Captain Mackenzie found the performance remote from the ‘sensational, ‘ and thought that only girls with tender soles were likely to suffer. A case is also quoted from Strabo, women being the performers, and the instance of the Hirpi of Soracte is well known.[2] Mr. Frazer is interested mainly in the religious, magical, or ritual significance of the rite, which varies in different places. To me, on the other hand, the immunity of the performers appears a subject worthy of physiological inquiry.

The subject occurs everywhere in history, legend, folklore, law, and early religion, and yet nobody has thought it worth while to collect the ancient reports and to compare them with well-authenticated modern examples. In Mr. Tylor’s celebrated work, ‘Primitive Culture, ‘ only one or two casual allusions are made to the theme. ‘They built the high places of Baal, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and daughters to pass through to Moloch, ‘ that is to pass through the fire, ‘whether in ritual or symbolical sacrifice.’[3] As a supposed rite of purification the ceremony is again touched upon lightly.[4] Again: ‘The ancient ceremony of passing through a fire, or leaping over burning brands, has been kept up vigorously in the British Isles, ‘[5] namely, at the midsummer ceremonies, when it is, or was, the custom to jump over, or run through, light fires. Nobody would guess that a rite of passing deliberately, and unscathed, through ovens or furnaces yet exists in Japan, Bulgaria, the Society Islands, Fiji, Southern India, Trinidad, the Straits Settlements, the Isle of Mauritius, and, no doubt, in other regions.

We must distinguish between such sportive playing with fire as prevailed recently in our isles and the more serious Fire Ceremony of Central Australia, which tests endurance on the one hand, and the apparent contravention of a natural law on the other. Again, we must discount the popular reply that the hand can be rapidly plunged into molten metal and withdrawn without injury, for we do not happen to be concerned with such a brief exposure to heat. Once more, the theory of the application of some unknown chemical substance must be rejected, because, as we shall prove, there are certainly cases in which nothing of the kind is done. Moreover, science is acquainted with no substance--alum or diluted sulphuric acid, or the like--which will produce the result of preventing cauterisation.[6] Sir William Crookes, at least, is not familiar with any such resources of science. His evidence as to fire-handling by D. D. Home is familiar, and I understand that Mr. Podmore can only explain it away by an hypothesis of a trick played in a bad light, by means of an asbestos glove or some such transparent trick.[7] Perhaps he adds a little ‘hallucination’ on the part of the spectators. But asbestos and hallucination are out of the question in the cases which I am about to quote.

Home was, or feigned to be, in a state of trance when he performed with fire. The seeress of Lourdes, Bernadette, was also in religious contemplation when she permitted the flame of a candle to play through her clasped fingers (which were unscathed) for a timed quarter of an hour.[8] Some Indian devotees, again, aver that they ‘meditate’ on some divine being while passing over the glowing embers, and the Nistinares of Bulgaria, who dance in the fire, are described as being in a more or less abnormal mental condition. But even this condition is absent in the well-attested Raiatean and Fijian examples, in which also no kind of chemical preparation is employed. Finally, where savages are concerned, the hardness of the skins of their feet is dwelt upon, as in the Chinese case already quoted. But, first, the sole of the boot would be scorched in the circumstances, while their feet are not affected; next, the savages’ feet were not leathery (so Dr. Hocken avers); thirdly, one of the Europeans who walked through the fire at Rarotonga declares that the soles of his own feet are peculiarly tender. Thus every known physical or conjectured psychical condition of immunity fails to meet the case, and we are left wholly without an ascertained, or a good conjectural, ‘reason why’ for the phenomena.

I shall begin with the most recent and the best authenticated cases, and work back in time, and in civilisation. Mr. Tregear, the well-known lexicographer of the Maori and the allied Mangarova languages, lately sent me the twenty-ninth number of ‘The Journal of the Polynesian Society, ‘ March 1899, Wellington, N.Z. Professors Max Müller and Sayce were Honorary Members of the Society, which studies Polynesian languages, customs, and conditions. Mr. Tregear attests the upright, truth-telling character of the British official, who is the narrator of his own experiment. As the journal is not widely circulated in England, I quote the whole of the brief report.

THE UMU-TI, OR FIRE-WALKING CEREMONY
BY COLONEL GUDGEON, BRITISH RESIDENT, RAROTONGA

[In this Journal, vol. ii p. 105, Miss Teuira Henry
describes this ceremony as practised in Raiatea, of the
Society group. We have lately received from Colonel
Gudgeon the following account of his experiences in
walking barefooted across the glowing hot stones of a
native oven, made in Rarotonga by a man from Raiatea.
Since the date of the paper quoted, it has come to
light that the Maoris of New Zealand were equally
acquainted with this ceremony, which was performed by
their ancestors. On reading Colonel Gudgeon’s account
to some old chiefs of the Urewera tribe, they expressed
no surprise, and said that their ancestors could also
perform the ceremony, though it has long gone out of
practice.--EDITORS.]

I must tell you that I have seen and gone through the fire
ceremony of the Umu-ti.

The oven was lit at about dawn on the 20th of January,
and I noticed that the stones were very large, as also
were the logs that had been used in the oven for heating
purposes.

About 2 P.M. we went to the oven and there found the
tohunga (a Raiatea man) getting matters ready, and I
told him that, as my feet were naturally tender, the
stones should be levelled down a bit. He assented to this,
and evidently he had intended to do so, for shortly after,
the men with very long poles, that had hooks, began to
level the stones flat in the oven, which was some 12 ft.
in diameter. He then went with his disciple and pointed
to two stones that were not hot, and instructed him the
reason was that they had been taken from a marae, or
sacred place.

He then unwound two bundles, which proved to be branches
of a large-leaved Ti (or Dracæna) plucked, it is said,
from two of these trees standing close together, and it
is said that the initiated can on such occasions see the
shadow of a woman with long hair, called te varua kino
(evil spirit), standing between the trees. The right-hand
branch is the first plucked, and it is said that the
branches bend down to be plucked.

So much for the Shamanism, and now for the facts.
The tohunga (priest) and his tauira (pupil) walked
each to the oven, and then halting, the prophet spoke a
few words, and then each struck the edge of the oven with
the ti branches. This was three times repeated, and then
they walked slowly and deliberately over the two fathoms
of hot stones. When this was done, the tohunga came
to us, and his disciple handed his ti branch to Mr.
Goodwin, at whose place the ceremony came off, and they
went through the ceremony. Then the tohunga said to Mr.
Goodwin, ‘I hand my mana (power) over to you; lead your
friends across.’ Now, there were four Europeans--Dr. W.
Craig, Dr. George Craig, Mr. Goodwin, and myself--and I
can only say that we stepped out boldly. I got across
unscathed, and only one of the party was badly burned;
and he, it is said, was spoken to, but, like Lot’s wife,
looked behind him--a thing against all rules.

I can hardly give you my sensations, but I can say this:
that I knew quite well I was walking on red-hot stones
and could feel the heat, yet I was not burned. I felt
something resembling slight electric shocks, both at the
time and afterwards, but that is all. I do not know that
I should recommend every one to try it. A man must have
mana to do it; if he has not, it will be too late when
he is on the hot stone of Tama-ahi-roa.

I cannot say that I should have performed this wizard
trick had I not been one of the fathers of the Polynesian
Society, and bound to support the superiority of the New
Zealander all over Polynesia--indeed all over the world. I
would not have missed the performance for anything.
To show you the heat of the stones, quite half an hour
afterwards some one remarked to the priest that the stones
would not be hot enough to cook the ti. His only answer
was to throw his green branch on the oven, and in a
quarter of a minute it was blazing. As I have eaten a fair
share of the ti cooked in the oven, I am in a position
to say that it was hot enough to cook it well.

I walked with bare feet, and after we had done so, about
200 Maoris followed. No one, so far as I saw, went through
with boots on. I did not walk quickly across the oven,
but with deliberation, because I feared that I should
tread on a sharp point of the stones and fall. My feet
also were very tender. I did not mention the fact, but
my impression as I crossed the oven was that the skin
would all peel off my feet. Yet all I really felt when
the task was accomplished was a tingling sensation not
unlike slight electric shocks on the soles of my feet, and
this continued for seven hours or more. The really funny
thing is that, though the stones were hot enough an hour
afterwards to burn up green branches of the ti, the very
tender skin of my feet was not even hardened by the fire.
Many of the Maoris thought they were burned, but they were
not--at any rate not severely.

Do not suppose that the man who directed this business was
an old tohunga. He is a young man, but of the Raiatea
family, who are hereditary fire-walkers.
I can only tell you it is mana--mana tangata and mannatua.

On this report a few remarks may be offered. (1) No preparation of any chemical, herbal, or other sort was applied to the Europeans, at least. (2) ‘The handing over the mana’ (or power) was practised by Home, sometimes successfully (it is alleged), as when Mr. S. C. Hall’s scalp and white locks were unharmed by a red-hot coal; sometimes unsuccessfully. A clergyman of my acquaintance still bears the blister caused when he accepted a red-hot coal from the hand of Home, as he informs--me by letter. (3) The ‘walk’ was shorter than seems common: only 12 ft. (4 paces). (4) A friend of Colonel Gudgeon’s was badly burned, and the reason assigned was a good folklore reason, since the days of Lot’s wife, of Theocritus, and of Virgil: he looked behind. (5) The feeling as if of ‘slight electric shocks’ is worthy of notice. (6) Colonel Gudgeon clearly believes that a man without mana had better not try, and by mana, here, he probably means ‘nerve.’ As we can hardly suppose, in spite of Home, that mana, in a supernormal sense, can be ‘handed over’ by one man to another, Colonel Gudgeon’s experience seems equally to baffle every theory of ‘how it is done.’ Perhaps we can all do it. People may make their own experiments. Perhaps Colonel Gudgeon faced fire in a manner so unusual as a result of Dr. Hocken’s description of the Fijian rite at Mbenga, an isle twenty miles south of Suva. This account was published in the ‘Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, ‘ vol. xxxi. 1898, having been read before the Otago Institute on May 10, 1898, and is here reprinted in full as follows:--

AN ACCOUNT OF THE FIJI FIRE CEREMONY

BY DR. T. M. HOCKEN, F.L.S.

Amongst the many incidents witnessed during a recent visit
to the tropical island of Fiji, probably none exceeded
in wonder and interest that of which I propose to give
some account this evening, and to which may be applied
the designation of ‘fire ceremony.’ It is called by the
natives ‘vilavilairevo.’ In this remarkable ceremony a
number of almost nude Fijians walk quickly and unharmed
across and among white-hot stones, which form the pavement
of a huge native oven--termed ‘lovo’--in which shortly
afterwards are cooked the succulent sugary roots and pith
of the Cordyline terminalis, one of the cabbage trees,
known to the Maoris as the ‘ti, ‘ and to the Fijians as
the ‘masawe.’ This wonderful power of fire-walking
is now not only very rarely exercised, but, at least as
regards Fiji, is confined to a small clan or family--the
Na Ivilankata--resident on Bega (= Mbenga), an island of
the group, lying somewhat south of Suva, and twenty miles
from that capital.

A small remnant of the priestly order at Raiatea, one of
the Society Islands, is yet able to utter the preparatory
incantation, and afterwards to walk through the fire.
It exists also in other parts of the world, as in parts
of India, the Straits Settlements, West India Islands,
and elsewhere. Very interesting accounts of the ceremony
as seen at Raiatea and at Mbenga are to be found in the
second and third volumes of the ‘Journal of the Polynesian
Society, ‘ and in Basil Thomson’s charming ‘South Sea
Yarns.’ These descriptions filled our small party of
three--my wife, Dr. Colquhoun, and myself--with the desire
to witness it for ourselves, and, if possible, to give
some explanation of what was apparently an inexplicable
mystery. Our desires were perfectly realised.
The Hon. Mr. A. M. Duncan, a member of the Legislative
Council of Fiji, and agent at Suva of the Union Steamship
Company, to whom I carried a letter of introduction from
Mr. James Mills, the managing director of that Company,
was most courteous and obliging, and promised his best
efforts in the matter. His energy and ready response
succeeded, with the result that a large party from Suva
enjoyed such a day as each one must have marked with a red
letter.

It was necessary to give the natives three days in which
to make their preparations--constructing the oven and
paving it with stones, which then required heating for
thirty-six or forty-eight hours at least with fierce fires
fed with logs and branches. They had also to gather their
stores of food to form the foundation of the huge feast
whose preparation was to succeed the mystic ceremony.
During these three days we lost no opportunity of
collecting from former witnesses of the ceremony whatever
information or explanation they could afford, but with
no very satisfactory result: the facts were undisputed,
but the explanations quite insufficient. Some thought
that the chief actors rubbed their bodies with a secret
preparation which rendered them fireproof; others that
lifelong friction on the hard hot rocks, coral-reefs, and
sands had so thickened and indurated the foot-sole that it
could defy fire; but all agreed as to the bona fides of
the exhibition. The incident recounted in the ‘Polynesian
Journal’ was also confirmed--where Lady Thurston threw
her handkerchief upon the shoulder of one of the actors,
and though it remained there but a few seconds before
being picked off by means of a long stick, it was greatly
scorched.[9]

The story or legend attached to this weird gift of
fire-walking was told us, with some variation, by two or
three different people, and it is mainly as follows: A
far-distant ancestor of the present inheritors of this
power was walking one day when he espied an eel, which
he caught, and was about to kill. The eel squeaked out
and said, ‘Oh! Tui Na Galita (= Eng-Galita), do not kill
me; spare me. I am a god and I will make you so strong in
war that none shall withstand you.’ ‘Oh, but, ‘ replied Na
Galita, ‘I am already stronger in war than any one else,
and I fear no one.’ ‘Well, then, ‘ said the eel. ‘I will make
your canoe the fastest to sail on these seas, and none
shall come up with it.’ ‘But, ‘ replied Na Galita, as it
is, none can pass my canoe.’ ‘Well, then, ‘ rejoined the
eel. ‘I will make you a great favourite among women, so
that all will fall in love with you.’ ‘Not so, ‘ said Na
Galita, ‘I have one wife, of whom I am very fond, and I
desire no other.’ The poor eel then made other offers,
which were also rejected, and his chances of life were
fading fast when he made a final effort. ‘Oh, Na Galita,
if you will spare me, I will so cause it that you and your
descendants shall henceforth walk through the masawe
oven unharmed.’ ‘Good, ‘ said Na Galita, ‘now I will let
you go.’ This story varies somewhat from that told in the
‘Polynesian Journal.’[10]

The eventful morning was blazingly hot and brilliant,
and the vivid-blue sky was without a cloud as we steamed
down towards Mbenga in the s.s. Hauroto. Mr. Vaughan,
an eminent inhabitant of Suva, who has charge of the
Meteorological Department there, was of our party, and
carried the thermometer. This was the most suitable for
our purpose procurable; it was in a strong japanned-tin
casing, and registered 400° Fahr. We had also three
amateur photographers.

Owing to the numerous coral-reefs and shallows, we finally
transhipped into the Maori, a steamer of much less
draught. Approaching the silent verdure-clad islet, with
its narrow beach of white coral sand, we saw a thin blue
haze of smoke curling above the lofty cocoanut trees at
a little distance in the interior, which sufficiently
localised the mysterious spot. We now took the ship’s
boat, and soon, stepping ashore, made our way through a
narrow pathway in the dense bush until we came to an open
space cleared from the forest, in the midst of which was
the great lovo, or oven.

A remarkable and never-to-be-forgotten scene now presented
itself. There were hundreds of Fijians, dressed according
to the rules of nature and their own art--that is, they
were lightly garlanded here and there with their fantastic
likulikus of grass, ornamented with brilliant scarlet
and yellow hibiscus flowers and streamers of the delicate
ribbonwood. These hung in airy profusion from their necks
and around their waists, showing off to advantage their
lovely brown glossy skins. In addition, many wore clean
white cotton sulus, or pendant loin-cloths. All were
excited, moving hither and thither in wild confusion, and
making the forest ring again with, their noisy hilarity.
Some climbed the lofty cocoa-palms, hand over hand, foot
over foot, with all the dexterity of monkeys. The top
reached, and shrouded amongst the feathery leaves, they
poured down a shower of nuts for the refreshment of their
guests.

The celerity with which they opened the nuts was something
astonishing, and afforded an example, too, as to the mode
of using stone implements. A stout strong stick, 3 ft.
long, and sharpened at both ends, was driven into the
ground, and a few smart strokes upon it soon tore from the
nut its outer thick covering. The upper part of the shell
was then broken off by means of a long sharp-edged stone
as cleanly and regularly as the lid of an egg is removed
with a knife, and then was disclosed a pint of delicious
milk--a most welcome beverage on that over-poweringly hot
day.

The great oven lay before us, pouring forth its torrents
of heat from huge embers which were still burning fiercely
on the underlying stones. These were indeed melting
moments for the spectators. The pitiless noontide sun,
and the no less pitiless oven-heat, both pent up in the
deep well-like forest clearing, reduced us to a state of
solution from which there was no escape. Despite this the
photographers took up their stations, and others of us
proceeded to make our observations. The lovo, or oven,
was circular, with a diameter of 25 ft. or 30 ft.; its
greatest depth was perhaps 8 ft., its general shape that
of a saucer, with sloping sides and a flattish bottom,
the latter being filled with the white-hot stones. Near
the margin of the oven, and on its windward side, the
thermometer marked 114°.

Suddenly, and as if Pandemonium had been let loose, the
air was filled with savage yells; a throng of natives
surrounded the oven, and in a most ingenious and effective
way proceeded to drag out the smouldering unburnt logs and
Cast them some distance away. Large loops of incombustible
lianas attached to long poles were dexterously thrown
over the burning trunks, much after the manner of the
head-hunters of New Guinea when securing their human prey.
A twist or two round of the loop securely entangled the
logs, which were then dragged out by the united efforts
of scores of natives, who all the while were shouting
out some wild rhythmical song. This accomplished, the
stones at the bottom of the oven were disclosed, with here
and there flame flickering and forking up through the
interstices. The diameter of the area occupied by those
stones was about 10 ft., but this was speedily increased
to a spread of 15 ft. or more by a second ingenious
method. The natives thrust their long poles, which were
of the unconsumable wi-tree (Spondias dulcis), between
the stones at intervals of perhaps 1 ft. A long rope-like
liana--wa--previously placed underneath the poles, and
1 ft. or 2 ft. from their extremities, was now dragged
by scores of lusty savages, with the effect of spreading
and levelling the stones. This done, our thermometer
was suspended by a simple device over the centre of the
stones, and about 5 ft. or 6 ft. above them; but it had
to be withdrawn almost immediately, as the solder began
to melt and drop, and the instrument to be destroyed. It,
however, registered 282° Fahr., and it is certain that had
not this accident occurred, the range of 400° would have
been exceeded, and the thermometer burst.

During all these wild scenes we had seen nothing of the
main actors--of the descendants of Na Galita. Doubtless
to give more impressive effect, they had been hiding in
the forest depths until the signal should be given and
their own supreme moment arrive. And now they came on,
seven or eight in number, amidst the vociferous yells of
those around. The margin reached, they steadily descended
the oven slope in single file, and walked, as I think,
leisurely, but as others of our party think, quickly,
across and around the stones, leaving the oven at the
point of entrance. The leader, who was longest in the
oven, was a second or two under half a minute therein.
Almost immediately heaps of the soft and succulent leaves
of the hibiscus, which had been gathered for the purpose,
were thrown into the oven, which was thus immediately
filled with clouds of hissing steam. Upon the leaves and
within the steam the natives, who had returned, sat or
stood pressing them down in preparation for cooking the
various viands which were to afford them a sumptuous feast
that evening or on the morrow.