According to the 'Japan Herald,' on Monday last a party
of distinguished Americans (the American Minister and
his wife, two naval officers, and others) attended the
religious rites of the Ontake Jinsha, a powerful sect of
Shintoists.
A heap of burning charcoal was placed in a large furnace.
The officiating priest read a service over the fire,
after which the foreign visitors, to the number of seven,
including ladies, took off their shoes and walked over the
fire, their naked feet showing no sign of scorching.
The performance called forth, says the report, the
enthusiastic approval of the spectators.
Yet more recent is the next case, from Honolulu, the
reporter being Mr. Gorten, a correspondent of the 'Boston
Evening Transcript,' March 20, 1891. We quote the
passage:--
We have already witnessed still another strange sight
suggestive of necromancy and the incantations of the
East. Papa Ita, a Tahitan, has given us exhibitions of
the famous fire-walking which is still practised in the
South Sea Islands and parts of Japan and India. On the
vacant land swept a year ago by the Chinatown fire a great
elliptical pit was dug and a large quantity of wood placed
therein, on which were piled the lava rocks. All day the
fire burned till the stones were of a white heat; then
the white-haired native from Tahiti approached the fiery
furnace dressed in a robe of white tapa, with a girdle
and head-dress of the sacred ti leaves and a bundle of
leaves in his hand for a wand. Striking the ground with
the ti-leaf wand, he uttered an incantation in his own
language, which was a prayer to his gods to temper the
heat and allow him to pass; then calmly and deliberately,
with bare feet, he walked the length of the pit, bearing
aloft the ti-leaf wand. Pausing a moment on the other
side, he again struck the ground and returned over the
same fiery path. This was several times repeated, and he
even paused a few seconds when in the middle of the pit to
allow his picture to be taken. The stones were undoubtedly
hot and were turned by means of long poles just before the
walking, to have the hottest side up, and from between the
rocks the low flames were continually leaping up. The heat
that radiated to the spectators was intense. It was a fact
that others followed with shoes on, but no one could be
found to accept the standing offer of 500 dollars to any
one who would, with bare feet, follow Papa Ita. None but
natives of course believe there is anything supernatural,
but we cannot explain how he does it. It cannot be called
a fake, for he really does what he claims to do, and none,
so far, dare imitate him. The natives fall down before
him, as a great Kapuna, and many interested in the welfare
of the Hawaiians deplore these exhibitions, feeling it is
bad for the natives, in that it strengthens their old
bonds of superstition, to the undoing of much of the
advancement they have made. Just now Papa Ita is touring
the other islands of the group, and rumour has it that
his manager will take him to the Pan-American Exhibition
at Buffalo. In that case people in the States can see and
judge of this curious exhibition for themselves.
I end with the only instance (forwarded from a correspondent by Mr.
T. S. O'Connor) of the ascertained use of an ointment to diminish the
effect of the fire. Dr. Hocken and Colonel Gudgeon, as we saw, found no
trace of this device; nor is it mentioned in the Japanese evidence.
Port of Spain, Trinidad, B.W.I., June 8, 1897.
You referred some time ago to the fire-walkers. I have
seen some of these gents performing quite recently, and
got an explanation from a coolie customer of ours who
watched the business with me. It seems they rub themselves
with an oil, made from the root of the tabicutch (don't
know the Latin name), which has the property of producing
profuse sweat, and the two combine, causing an oily
covering which warms very slowly and is difficult to dry
up by heat. But even then it is essential that the men be
good Stoics. I give the explanation for what it is worth,
but saw the preparation myself, and had some of the stuff
scraped off a man, who was ready for the rite, put it on
a piece of tin and held it in the fire, and it certainly
neither dried up nor got hot in a hurry.
It is clear that this explanation does not explain several of the cases
wherein no anointing is used. We can only agree with Dr. Hocken that
the performances deserve the study of physiologists and physicians.
The explanation of Iamblichus, 'they walk on fire unharmed,' is that
'the god within them does not let fire harm them.' This implies that an
exalted psychical condition of the performers secures their immunity.
But in the cases where Europeans bore a part, and even in Dr. Hocken's
examination of the natives, there was no sign of other than the normal
mental condition. As fresh evidence comes in, it is perhaps not
impossible that science will interest herself in the problem.
[1] _G. B_. iii. 307, 308, citing _Internationales Archiv für
Ethnographie_ (1896), pp. 193-195.
[2] _G. B_. iii. 311, 312; Strabo, xii. 2-7, for Castabala in
Cappadocia; Virgil, _Æn_. xi. 784; and Servius's Commentary.
[3] _Primitive Culture_, ii. p. 281.
[4] _Ibid._ ii. p. 429.
[5] _Ibid._ i. p. 85.
[6] See note at end of chapter.
[7] _Studies in Psychical Research_, pp. 58-59.
[8] Dr. Dozous timed the 'miracle.' Boissarie, _Lourdes_, p. 49.
[9] I have not seen this account.
[10] See also Mr. Thomson's _South Sea Yarns._
[11] I would now withdraw the suggestion in the light of recent
evidence.
[12] _The Field_, May 20, 1899, p. 724.
[13] _Polynesian Journal_, vol. ii. No. 2, pp. 105-108.
[14] Serv. _Æneid_, vii. 800.
[15] _Annales des Sciences Psychiques_, July-August, 1899.
[16] In the _Wide World Magazine_ (December 1899), a Japanese lady
describes the performance witnessed by Colonel Haggard, already cited.