FIRE-WALKING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 164, 13 July 1935, Page 10 (Supplement)

FIRE-WALKING.

STILL UNEXPLAINED MYSTERY

ANAESTHESIA THEORY.

VAKIOUS METHODS FOLLOWED.

One of the most mysterious of all primitive ceremonies is that of firewalking, during which those taking part pass barefooted over stones or embers made intensely hot. Apparently they feel no pain and suffer no harm. Even to-day science can furnish no satisfactory solution to the problem. The most famous exponents of the art in Fiji are the members of the Sawau social group. They seem to have inherited the power of being able to walk fearlessly with bare feet over stones terrifically hot, the temperature of which may be judged from the statement of the District Commissioner, that ho has seen green saplings, when used to remove the logs which are ignited to heat the stones, repeatedly burst into flames. There is no preparation for the feet, and no sign of scorching of the skin is to be detected after the walk is completed. As a result of something like 100 years' contact with civilisation, the natives of the group do not now confine their ordeal to ceremonious occasions. They have a keen eye to business, and exhibit their prowess for profit before tourists and others. Under whatever conditions the feat of fire-walking is performed, it must be admitted to be a remarkable one. Those who have undertaken researches into the cercmony are of the opinion that in practically every case it originated as a religious rite. One of the most remarkable features about the ceremony is its widespread character, for it is common to many races, and lias been known in nearly every age. It is rather startling to find that it still survives in Bulgaria, but is more common in tropical areas, as in India, Tahiti, Trinidad, the Straits Settlements, Mauritius, and Fiji. _ It has also been performed from time immemorial in Japan. Horniness of Soles. When the rite is carried out as a strictly religious function, it is generally preceded by involved preparations, and incantations to the gods, after which the priests, fakirs, devotees, or whoever are to undergo the ordeal, walk over the burning objects. In many cases the rite was associated with spring festivals, and the exposure of the performers in this way was believed to ensure bountiful harvests. Careful watch has been undertaken by a large number of observers, and their reports differ as to whether the performers suffer from burns. In most cases, at any rate, injuries seem very superficial. How the nerformers escape from receiving serious burns is an unexplained mystery. It has been suggested that the preliminary rites, during which those to take part in the rite work themselves up into a frenzy, induce a kind of anaesthesia. Perhaps one of the factors which helps the performers in fire-walking ceremonies is the extraordinary thickness of the soles of the feet of many native tribes. Sir Bindon Blood once remarked that he had noticed in Africa, in the case of Zulus killed by wild animals, that the soles of the feet were often left untouched; while Professor Seligman saw a Melanesian walk barefooted over a heap of broken bottle glass rather than make a detour of a few yards. He also said that the only time it fell to him to operate on a Melanesian foot he was discommoded by the thickness, or horniness, of the sole. Most native tribes go ba/efooted, and it is reasonable to suppose that this custom leads to the feet becoming very hard. Englishman's Performance It is on record that about a century ago a Staffordshire man, for a guinea, ran along a bar of red-hot iron at the works where he was employed and where the men went about barefooted. The local belief was that their feet were so hard that they were not burnt if a man moved quickly. In 1927 Indian settlers at Pietermaritzburg, Natal, carried out the rite of fire walking in fulfilment of a vow, and no injuries were seen on their feet afterwards. While the thickness of the soles of the feet may account to some extent for immunity from injury, it certainly does not explain everything. A year ago a performance was given befoie the Rajah in the State of Baudh. The Indian natives walked along a 15ft trench full of glowing red-hot embers, to the accompaniment of much drum-beating, horn-blowing and dancing. The trench was two feet wide and two feet deep, and the embers six inches deep. Mr. Herbert Ponting, the well-known photographer, took part in a noted firewalking ceremony held, twice a year at the Shinto temple of Ontake, Tokyo. A section 10ft by 12ft and a foot deep was hollowed and filled with burning pine charcoal. A pathway was beaten across it with long poles. Incantations were made to the god of water and the god of fire, and ' the priests worked themselves into a state of exhilaration amounting almost to frenzy. They then dipped their feet in salt, and walked unharmed over the red-hot charcoal and at the other end diDped them in salt agaii.