WHITE FIRE-WALKER

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 169, 13 April 1935, Page 18

WHITE FIRE-WALKER

An Englishmans Feat

An Englishman, who claims to be one of the only two white men ever to go through the ordeal of “walking the fire” in South Africa, is at present working in a Salvation Army hostel in London

He is Mr. A. I’. Commins, who, until he returned to England in 1932, had lived in South Africa since before the Boer War, when be went out from Aidershot to the Army Service Corps depot at Cape Town. Near Pietermaritzburg, in front of their temple, the Hindus “walk the fire” every Good Friday as a ceremony of purification. The tire is made in a trench 34 feet long and 8’ feet wide, in which 11 tons of pit props are set on fire and allowed to burn from early morning until, in the afternoon, they are a mass of red-hot ashes ready for the walk.

“Many white people believed that in some way this walk across fire was a fake,” Mr. Commins told a pressman. “I got interested in it and decided that if the Hindus could do it. so could I “I had a Greek friend named Hantzakos, and when I told him that I was going to try to walk the fire be said be would do it too.

“Special trains are run for people to see the ceremony, and there are always crowds to watch it. My wife was there when I walked it, and some idea of the heat can be got from the fact that, though she stood eight feet away, she had to hold her umbrella in front of her as a shield.

“There is intense preparation beforehand. We had to eat no meat of any kind, and we had to bathe each day and indulge in long periods of prayer and contemplation. This preparation lasted about fifteen days.

“On the morning of the fire walk we presented ourselves at the Hindu temple. , “There were two dozen of us who were to walk the fire. We—myself and my Greek friend—were the only white men. but there were a couple of women.

' "First of till, a band of twine was placed round our wrists, sealing the oath to walk. Coloured marks were

also placed between our eyes. Then we walked barefooted from the temple to a running stream a mile away, “We stood in this stream from about one o’clock until . about three o’clock in the afternoon. We wore nothing but yellow shorts and a yellow vest. Just before we left the stream I was doused with water over my head, but I did not feel at all cold. “Most of the Hindus were in a frantic state of hysteria. The chief walker fell back into a cataleptic state, but then recovered. By this time all of them were in such a state that they wanted to run to the fire. I was. as far as 1 could gather, still in my normal state.

“We then walked back to the temple gates, in front of which, at a distance of about 20 yards, was the fire. From the temple gates we walked straight across the fire.

“Strangely enough, I felt no emotion. From the time that I Offered to do the fire walk I seemed to be at peace. My heart never beat more quickly. I felt pleased. The thing did not seem to concern me any more, beyond the fact that it was going to be done —and would be done.

"Here’s the funny thing. My friend got over without a blister. I was immune until the last three steps of that walk. "v

“First of all in the walk was the Hindu leader, then came my friend the Greek, and then myself. We walked steadily, though' some of the Hindus hurried over.

“Until the last three steps all I felt was that it was like walking over warm sand. Then, on the third step from the end. I felt my foot burned. The next step the other foot was burned, and with the third and last step my first foot was burned again. The Hindus knew I had been burned, and they said it was because of .the gold cross which I had insisted on wearing round my neck. “I stayed with the Hindus for a week because I could nots walk, and then went back to Johannesburg, where I laid up for several weeks. My feet healed perfectly, and to-day there is no trace of the burns.”