THE FIJI FIRE-WALKING MYSTERY.

Evening Star, Issue 11693, 26 September 1902, Page 7

THE FIJI FIRE-WALKING MYSTERY.

DR FULTON CALLS IT “SAVAGE MAGIC.” Dr Robert Fnlton, M.6.0.M., Ediq., paid a visit to the Fiji Islands on the occasion of the receit Coronation celebrations there. He had the rare opportunity of witnessing the ceremony of “ Vilavilalvcvo,” or firewalking, as it is called. Dr Pulton thinks the name is a misnomer, for it is really “heat-walking.” Tho ceremony has been described at various times, notably by Dr Hocken years ago, and by Mr W. Burke, F.R.P.S., -more recently; but Dr Pulton’s observations on this last performance include reference to so many new points that the resume of the paper following will be read with interest. By way of preface, it may be explained that several members of the Nga Ngalita tribe, alleged by the South Sea Islanders to be specially gifted in the way of heat-resisting, assembled at the island of Mbenga (near Suva) at Coronation time this year. The ceremony consists of walking across stones which have been heated on fop of a huge fi.ro for two days. “the fire-walkers.” There was no mistake about the heat of the fire, but Dr Fulton claims that while the assistants were stirring up the atones in the pit so as to level them the stones had time to cool from their white heat. The stirring-up process took more than an hour, being accompanied by much yelling and hauling and heaving that looked suspiciously like dramatic effect. More than an hour before the stirring-up took place Dr Fulton could not bear to go within sft of the fire; afterwards he found the heat diminishing, though there was undoubtedly a very great heat in the centre. When the fire-walkers came, Dr Fulton and Dr Smith (Dunedin) both examined ihe first fire-walker, aud found him to be of fine physique, with a pulse a little over 90 and hands and feet cooler than the rest of the body. The feet were perfectly clean and odorless, and no preparation was. to be detected on them. The soles were yellowish white, perfectly smooth and pliable, and like soft kid. The man wore a sulu of dry Hibiscus hark and Ganna leaves, with small anklets of a dry bracken exactly similar to our Pteris aquilina. The firewalkers came in a body. Dr Fulton’s description is graphic. “ Now, in dead silence on our part, but amid exclamations of astonishment from the onlooking natives, the mystic band of a dozen me a appeared from the depths of the cocoanut grove and walked deliberately across and twice round ( he heated stones. Looking back on it now it seems like a strange dream. Above and around us are the beautiful feathery fronds of the cocoanut, with palm trees meeting overhead and almost shutting out the blue sky. Hero a huge Ivi tree, with its lovely dark-green leaves and curiously-buttressed stem, serves as a vantage from which half a score of black faces aud frizzled heads peer down. From a tree on tide side a great spider . , . sways in an almost imperceptible breeze; on the other side a kinexnatograph, busily clicking out its films, lays by a store of pictures . . . there, on the heated stones, that band of fantastic-ally-dressed magicians move across the kaleidoscope and are gone. Quicker than I can write it, the men had completed their walk, and had passed into the gloom of the forest once more!" Each man as he walked kept his eyes on the stones. One of them was intercepted after the “ walk ” and examined by the doctors, but as they could not be sure he waa the same man they had previously examined the fact that his pulse was about 120 could not bo relied upon as a comparison. There was a distinct smell of cocoanut oil on the bodies, but not on the hands, feet, or legs of the men. The soles or the feet of the last man seemed cool on his coming off, jf not cold, but on running the hand up the leg a most pronounced difr ference in temperature was observable. It was very marked—on the calf like that of a person in a high fever. Unfortunately, Dr Fulton had lost his thermometer, and the temperatures could not be token. A SCEPTIC. Dr Fulton said he was forced to discredit the tale of the “ searching of the handkerchief on the shoulder” which Dr Hot-ken mentioned, and which was reported by Lady Thurston in the Polynesian Society’s Journals, vol. 2. The earlier “firewalkers ” may have had different methods of procedure, but Dr Fulton found credence of , the story difficult ia the face of his .experience. “Whatever power the native may,.have. to prevent his feet from scorching,” said Dr Fulton, “ I know of nothing which will abolish the inflammability of dry bracken or dry, fine wispa of ribbon wood bark; nor can one conceive of any reason why the short, black, crisp hairs "on the legs should not show the least sign of scorching or burning if subjected to great heat, or to heat sufficient to scorch a handkerchief on thi shoulder.” Dr Fulton noticed that some of the walkers wore the same anxious, almost frightened, appearance on. their faces as mentioned by Dr Colquhoun at the time of Dr Hocken’s visit. Again, Dr Fulton went to the edge of the pit immediately liter the ceremony and stirred some of the -tones with his foot. He stood for a few seconds on one or two, and found that they did not brown his boots, though evidently too hot to handle. He asked a native, to get him one of the stones, and to the doctor’s .astonishment the man coolly walked up and began to move the heated stones about with his bare feet! This was not one of the “fire-walking” men, but one of those who Lad come down from Suva. “ This,” said the doctor, ■‘rather shook my faith in the ‘one-tribe’ theory, and made me form an idea, not yet removed from my mind, that any of the natives can perforin the feat if they choose; but they prefer from a ‘ theatrical point of view’ that it remain the monopoly of the Nga Ngalita tribe.” This native raked out a piece of stone from the heap, but it was too hot to hold in the hand, and being carried back to the steamer was accidentally diepped overboard at the gangway, as even then it was unpleasantly hot, although some hours out of the fire. AN EXPLANATION OP THE “MYSTERY.”

Dr. Fulton did not wish to detract from the interest of the Fiji excursions, but it was, ho felt, only right to dispel the prevalent idea that science could offer no explanation of these “feats of magic.” Firet, the arrangements for heating the stones were peculiar. They were piled np on top of a heap of wood, and in this position subjected to an enormous heat, poured into them from below and all around. -If what was required were merely a surface of red-hot stones for walking upon, a much easier method would be to lay flat stones on the floor of the pit, and then to light and maintain a huge fire on top of them. That this was not what was wanted is most significant, as will bo understood later on. The fact that the stones only “occasionally fail through ” after forty-eight hours of burning underneath them pointed to a possibility of some of the lower logs being absolutely green, or they would have been burnt through long before, and the heaps of stones collapsed. Then aa to the period of time occupied by the “ wajc,’ Many of the most expert photographers present calculated that the time occupied was from fourteen to sixteen seconds, and some said even less. In that apace of time the performers took twenty-five to thirty steps, consequently the sole of the foot was at no time in contact with hot stone for more than hid! a-second. The idea that the “ walk ” was made poss : ble from long continued use of the bare native foot to ground contact was disproved by the experience of Colonel Gudgeon, who, on his own “bare and sensitive feet,” waited.over the hot stones, and felt no burning but only a sorb of electrical pricking. To this were to bo added the observations that the feet were soft and pliable, and not at all leathery or horny though possibly less sensitive than the feet of Europeans The explanation had to be sought in the stones themselves, as would be granted in view of the doctor’s boots not being browned bv the hot stones. Another point not previously noted was the cool temperature of the sole of the foot. This Was well marked both before and after the “walk,” and may have been due to placing the feet in cold water for a short time before the performance It was quite possible that In the interior of the island there were places where iced water was obtainable, for islands all through the group contained largo caves with water in them at a low temperature. This was mentioned because it was difficult to account for the temperature of the feet, noted

by Dr Fnlton and Dr Smith independently, au«l subsequently confirmed by trials. . It ms a well-known fact that one could with cold' feet beer for a long time (up to a minute in some instances) heat from a fire which for five second* &t ordinary foot temperature would be insupportable. Provided that the beat was not enough to scorch the skin, there Was, every 'reason to believe why, in such a ceremony as this, a cold foot should have a great advantage over a foot at ordinary body temperature. v Cold,” said the doctor,. “ seems to me the most likely adjuvant to the slow-conducting and slow-radiating nature of tho stone, which is tho main factor in this ‘jugglery.’ Of any local application like cocaine or alum there is no evidence whatever, and from Df Hocken’s observations such seems impossible.” As to the stones which were walked upon, they appeared to be of a dense black basalt, many of them round in shape, and before heating somewhat like Moeraki boulders. During the heating process they frequently exploded, probably from expansion of the interstitial water contained ini them from the time of their solidification. Dr Fulton remarked, en passant, that the statement that the natives would not allow the real stones to be removed, but “ palmed off ” another sort, was incorrect. Tho visitors were allowed to take any, and as many, of the stones as they liked, and there was no attempt to prevent the most minute investigation of the subject. There did not appear to be any of the stones lying about, and Dr Fulton’s efforts to find similar rock on the shore and beach of tho island failed to discover anything like it. He therefore concluded it was brought from inland, probably from near some extinct volcanic crater. This seemed to him likely, as many obseivers considered the stone of the nature of basalt. Some termed it “ volcanic ” and some “hard conglomerate.”- Dr Marshall, of the Otago School of M’.nes, had examined a fragment which the author had submitted. The report said that the fragment bad been microscopically examined, and found to be an augite-andesite ol the ordinary type —an aggregate of plagio-clase-augite and a little hornblende, set in a fine-grained ground mass of felspar microlites. Augite-andesite was commonly found in the Auckland goldfields and the volcanic region of the North Island, many kinds being found around Dunedin. Dr Fulton said it was acknowledged “that the stones used are of a special kind, and are earned around from one island to another, the performers refusing to walk on any other kind. Ibis points away from the prevalent conclusion that the mystery is in the ‘ walkers ’ and not in the ‘ walked upon.’ ” THE STOKES ABE POOR CONDUCTORS AND POOR RADIATORSWhat struck one at once on handling the stone was its extraordinary tenacity of heat, or, in other words, its extremely slow throwing-off of its heat by cooling or radiation. Even after frequent and often continuous dippings in cold sea water and fresh stream water the stone seemed little or no cooler. This gave a clue to the solution. The stone took two days to get to its “ proper ” condition, for the natives refused to walk before that time had expired, and yams, taro, etc., when placed among the stones after the ceremony took, they assert, two days. to cook. Darwin gives an account of native cooking on ordinary stones (heated by a few sticks), “wherein it is stated that the food was ready in a quarter of an hour.’ This, added to the fact that vegetables cooked in an ordinary oven in a couple of hours should remain in the “lovo” for forty-eight and not be burnt to cinders, again pointed to one conclusion. Such stones evidently did not radiate rapidly, and given a foot in contact with them for one second the heat penetrating into that foot was not more than a fraction of what would come from a stone of different composition in the same space of time. “I draw the conclusion that this volcanic stone docs not burn matter coming into contact with it to the extent that many other heated bodies would.” Another remarkable fact, which seemed to have hitherto escaped notice, was that fresh stones were used for each performance. Heaps of fresh boulders appeared in all pictures of preparation for fire-walk-ing, and the method of heating seemed in every way identical. So far as Dr Fnlton could gather, the natives never used the same stones twice for the “ walk.” He, with others, however, noticed that the “ supers ” were most particular in turning and returning the stones till the flattened or smooth side was uppermost. The significance was evident. “The stones originally rounded were split by the action of the heat into segments, in many cases preserving on one side a convex surface, which, I think, received more of the heat, being part of the original outside; the flattened or fractured surface, on the other hand, being from the inside, received, owing to poor conduction, a less amount of heat. It would he possible for the ‘ walkers ’ to avoid any stone which did not show a flattened or fractured surface, and that choice, I think, would lessen the amount of heat absorbed into the foot. This seems to me a point for future observers to look into.” Fresh round stones were used every time, and during the walking all, or nearly all, were split up. It had to be borne in mind that while the stones lay in the oven the upper surface of each was practically the only part that was cooling, as the lower and greatly heated surfaces were all in contact. That made the “ mean ” heat of the stones seem so great when removed from the fire, and the comparative coolness of one surface remained unsuspected. So long as the stone remained in the highly-heated “lovo,” radiation was infinitesimal,. from the peculiar character of the stone and the high temperature of the surrounding air. Radiation began to.be more rapid when the stones were removed to a cooler atmosphere. The well-known fact that volcanic rocks were bad conductors of heat came into the calculation, and as Ion" a period as eighty-seven years was known to have elapsed after eruption (in the case of Jorullo, in Mexico) before the lava lort its heat. In many cases vegetation bad been able to exist on the hardened crust of lava which a few inches below was giving off vapor. Thus, it was almost certain that these island rocks, being of igneous origin, were slow in radiation and conductivity.

EXPERIMENTS. # . To further prove this, experiments had been made by Professor Park, of the Otago School of Mines, as to the relative conductivity and rate of radiation of this and ordinary rocks. Professor Park found that, taking the thermal conductivity of copper as equal to 1,000, the relative conductivity of three other bodies was: slate 7.63, andesite (the fire-walkers’ stone). 6.67, rhyolite 2.3s—that is to say, the andesite stone is a very feeble conductor of heat. In testing the radiation, iron being the standard at 100,. the relative rate of marble was 62, rhyolite 50, andesite 48, and basalt 45.' Thus, the stones walked upon in Mbenga and Tahiti respectively proved to be the lowest in radiating power of all the substances tested. From these experiments Dr Fulton felt justified in concluding that "the fractured or inside surface of the stone does not, owing to slow conductivity, receive nearly the amount of heat one would expect. Secondly, owing to the slow radiation of heat also proved by these experimerits, the foot is not burnt when coming into contact with the stone for a second or less.” . PEOFESSOB LXNGLEY’s EXPEEIHKNTS. After paying a compliment to the Otago Mining School’s utility, and thanking Dr Marshall and Professor Park for their assistance, Dr Fulton passed on to refer to an article by Professor Langley {Smithsonian Institute) in ‘Nature.’ This corroborated his facts, with ' the exception that the Tahitian preparation was stated at four hours instead of forty-eight. There was no flame darting up,*as described by Professor Langley. This gentleman had estimated the “ mean ” temperature of the stone after removal from die fire at 1,203deg F., but the professor had concluded that the. walkad-on surface was a'most certainly indefinitely lower. Professor Langley had staled that when the nati.es had tried to use a marble-like quality of stone they had failed, and one performer had declined to put hds foot into the flame or between the stones, on the clever and

plausible ground that “aiy father* did not toll me to do ft that way. The stone,-be-ing examined at Washington, mi pronounced to be “a volcanic stone,” “vesicular basalt, the mßgt distinctive feature* borne its extreme porosity end hon-conducti-bility.” It coaid be heated red hot at one end while it kept comparatively cool at the other. Dr Fulton disagreed with the criticism of Profesor Lan ploy's article by Mr R. M. Laing, M.A., B.Sc., whose paper appeared in the ‘WeekW Press' (Carv>tchurth]. He thrtMr Lain? illo-gicallyj-pmpared the store-wa’k’ne with the “hot-coats walking" at Mauritius. Dr Fnlton claimed that until the performances in Mauritius, Japan, or elsewhere had been witnessed and-reported upon in a strictly iudicial manner by an authoritative scientist one could not accept the statement that men walked upon red-hot coals. The thanks of the scientific world were due to Professor Langley for bis work. CONCLUSION. Summing up, Dr Fulton said; “In conclusion. I repeat that the main factor in this rtrange apparent immunity from burning at MVmra is the a'ow radiation of heat from these bnfultic stones. The stores are gradn* a'lv heated until split by the expansion of the water therein, and are then carefully arranger I frac+ured surface upwards. Owing to poor conduction, the inside of the atone or fractured surface is not nearly so hot as the spectators imaghrf. The general heat of the “lovo” is so great that radiation from each individual piece of stone is infinitesimal, and much less than it is when me stone is removed from the oven to a cooler surrounding atmosphere. Owing to the peculiar character of the stone, its radiating rowers .are extremely feeble. The foot, is «nly momentarily in contact with the heated stone. The foot is naturally cold or artificially cooled. These, I think, are the reasons for the facility with which the magicians perform their ‘fire walk,’ and I most say that it is a smart piece of jugglery or (as Professor Langley calls it) ‘savage magic,’ and not by any means an inexplicable mystery.” The above is a summary of Dr Fulton’s very interesting and valuable paper, and it adds one more stone to the pile of scientific literature which, with She aid of the Otago Institute, we are building up. The article has endeavored to embrace all Dr Fulton’s points and as much of the illustration as possible in our columns. . REFERENCES. Dr Fulton referred to the following literature in bis remarks. —Christchurch ‘ Weekly Press,’ July 16, 1902; ‘ New Zealand Graphic,’ July 10, 1902; Auckland ‘Weekly News,’ July 17, 1902; ‘Transactions’ N.'/. Institute, vol. 31, p. 667; ‘ Camping Among Cannibals,’ by A. St. Hill Johnston (Macmillan’s, 1886); ‘ Nature,’ August 22, 1901; ‘Journal of the Polynesian Society,’ vols. 2 and 5; Darwin’s ‘Naturalist’s Yoyaco Round the World’; ‘Encyclopaedia Britannica.’