FIRE-WALKING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 697, 23 December 1909, Page 8

FIRE-WALKING.

■ - -AN;; I!BAT.>>''-; ; -, (By CorrospooJoot.i.. - ■ '. '';• "■■',..; ■'", Auckland, Decerabor 21. ■Writinß. from Atiu (Cook : Islands) a cprrefpondorit of au Auckland' paper- supplies an account of a "fire-walking".-:featvve.ry similar to' that performed ;by the : .natives of Beg'a (FijiJ.UiHe'says: The exh'aordiiiary'firo-walkinß feat knora-ts "uinu h" which' iiasj.lohg- been practised'"in the Island of Raiatea and pmts of.-, tho Pacific lias, recently: been -intro.-'. uiiced' to- Atiu by'.To Avarua, a native of bciabor'a. ;.'i'ho performancu -consists of walking, bare-footed ' through a great shallow' pit fllied with..large. ■ superheated stones ; 'which, under -ordinary circumstances,'- would--' burn-: the sblesloff-- the.: : feet at once,-but strange; to say in'- this - performance it ■: does not.? have; : this effect;. The. coremony.- took , place on .October' 21 rat the Main Settlement .within- an 'enclosure of; corrugated ir'ohi!• the : admission-;being Is. per head-.-. . The fire of hugel6gg for heating the stones .had been burning for 12 hours when wo arrived , , on -tho scene at.'S/aimijTaiid tho assistants.'then started;.to ittk'o 'out -the blazing logs and loyol the stones.' ■ Tho:. pit or over.- : (umu); was; about 20ft. Jorig-, by :12ft. , bicad with a stop of perhaps 22ft. down on to tho . heated .stones. ■Wheni; all. was- :, ready' a hynin vfas sting and prayer offered. • To Avariia- and his two disciples, attired .in their "Sunday , besf'jand profusely decorated with flowers,' stiod iu:-a row., at 'tlio '-edge' of tho pit, boat tho stones with bunches 'of ti, and after thrioe : repeating an incantation in tho I'ahitian tbngiie • they, lik.e : tho threo Hebrew heroes of old,: went, through the'fiery furnace!' stepping '.deliberately; from-stone to stone ■ to . the /other ".■ side arid were- not burnt in ■ any ■way. Tβ.'.Avarua then called on; others .to follow tHem . over the : heated stones, exhorting them-at the Same'-timo' , ti>- go straight forward- and not torlook back or (like lot's wife) they- would como to grief. Qnitea mim-ber'didtso',.including-the resident''Agent-Major. Large, who- in' order to , test' fully.'wcnt twice the ; ordeid; 'and though he felt the' heat-intensely-ohhia face his,'feet; were nqt scorched in' , the slightest. How, it is that'the nnprotectM ,, feet of.-.pooplo whbVtako'.part:in the ceremony of the. "Uran ■ ti". aro not .[butat. is" a mystery: that "I.;, have 'iiover .heard' ex--plained^ , '.The : heat'is-so.'great that the 1 green'. w66d! '.poles; : used' in rakinp/Qiit'the burniug logs, are speedily; ablazoV'/ihe liatives assured me .that, the- heated", stones in -'tlio oven in quGStiqn would have cooked' several ' wholo piga or a ■'. wholo bullock or two and some hundred weighta., of vegetables. Tho tibovo description , tallies with an , account of 'an "iimu ti" hold at Rarotonga some years ago, contributed by Colonel Gudgeon (lnte;resident commissioner of this group) tothe "Journal of tho Polynesian SociefJ" at.the ,time.: Ho also took part iu , tho coremonyi and' escaped scath-' loss;, button the' same occasion Dr.'- Cfed. Craig, of .Barotqiiga.tnow'of. New Zealand) wlio-'cs-sayed ',to , 'take l part in tho performance,, was not so fortunate,- for., he. got.- tho .'soles'- of'liis feot badly .iscorched, , but ■ I understand ,this was-duo tn . his slipping.; off -one ■of the ■ stones on to tho burning ombors, ondnotto any want of :Maori.'mana,as , , wasiplayfully sngjtcsted by■Colonel',Gudgeon- in .his>account of the 'affair.