The Mystery of the Firewalkers.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 263, 30 September 1902, Page 3

The Mystery of the Firewalkers.

The most novel feature of the recent Coronation excursion to the Islands was the fire-walking at Fiji, a remarkable ceremony, in which a number of natives walked barefooted across a shallow pit paved with white hot stones. Dr Fulton, of Dunedin, who witnessed this performance, read an interesting paper on the subject at the meeting of the Otago Institute on Tuesday evening, and advanced a feasible explanation of what at first sight appears an inexplicable mystery. In the doctor’s opinion the whole performance is nothing more than a “ smart piece of jugglery.” Me believes that the secret of the feat lies in the nature of the stones. Volcanic rocks are bad conductors of heat, and the basaltic stones used by the fire-walkers did not throw off their heat to anything like the extent that an ordinary stone did, nor would matter coming in contact with them for a fractio i of a second be burned in the same manner as in the case of ordinary stones. According to the doctoi over an hour elapsed from the time the burning wood was pulled out of the pit until the fire-walkers made their way across, and in the interval, of course, the stones would have time to cool considerably. Then the fire-walkeis o dy tonk from 1-1 to 16 seconds to make 2o or 80 steps across the pit, s) that ih > sole of the foot would at no lime bo in contact with the hot stone for more than half a seo si. Dr Fulton suggests that th° oolness of the fire-walkers’ feet after em-rging from the pit might be produced by placing the'sole of the foot in cold water, a method of treatment which would make beat much more endurable. His theory as to the slow radiation of heat from the stones is supported by the nature of the preparations made by the fire-walkers. When the radiation is slow the inside of the stones does not receive the amount of heat expected naturally, and it is significant that the fire-walking did not take place till all the stones had been split up and the flat inner surfaces faced upward. Experiments made at the Otago University with basaltic rock have, it is stated, borne out Dr Fulton’s contention regarding the feeble radiation of heat from the rock. In the light of this explanation the firewalking does not appear so very wonderful after all.