190 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



and pure white marble-like body, sways in an almost imper- 

 ceptible breeze ; on the other side a kinematograph, busily- 

 clicking out its films, lays by a store of pictures for reproduc- 

 tion in far-distant lands ; there on the heated stones that 

 band of fantastically 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. To me they appeared to walk around the pit — that is, 

 near the periphery ; but I was assured by others that they 

 really crossed the centre. However, there were so many 

 things to watch that one was bound to miss something. 

 Each man, as he walked, kept his eyes fixed upon the stones. 

 One of the fire-walkers, as he came off the stones, was de- 

 tained by Mr. Duncan, in order that we should again try and 

 find out what we could in the interests of science. To begin 

 with, the statement made by Dr. Hocken (Trans. N.Z. Inst., 

 vol. xxxi.) as to the " scorching of the handkerchief," which, 

 however, he had got second-hand, and did not himself con- 

 firm, must be taken " with a grain of salt." 



It is possible that the earlier "fire-walkers " had different 

 methods of procedure, but it is difficult to understand the 

 "handkerchief story" of Lady Thurston (/i) in the face of 

 the following : The man came off the heated stones ; there is 

 no doubt of that. That he was the man we first examined 

 we could not swear ; they were all exactly alike to us, and 

 came on and off so quickly that it would be perfectly easy for 

 one man to be substituted for another, dressed as they were 

 in the same kind of necklaces, sulus, anklets, &c. Now, 

 whatever power the native may have to prevent his feet from 

 scorching, there is nothing that I know of which will abolish 

 the inflammability of dry bracken or dry fine wisps 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 the shoulder. 



The man we examined after the " walk " had a pulse of 

 120 ; but this observation is not worth much, for the reason 

 that we could not be sure that he was the man we had pre- 

 viously examined. I noticed the anxious, almost frightened, 

 appearance on the countenances of some of the " walkers " — 

 this fact was mentioned by Dr. Colquhoun, of Dunedin, on 

 the occasion of Dr. Hocken's visit. If this was a second 

 examination of the same man, the rise in pulse rate may be 

 accounted for by the mental excitement and the intense sur- 

 rounding heat. There was a distinct smell of cocoanut-oil on 

 the bodies, but not on the hands, feet, or legs of the men. 

 On feeling the soles of the feet of the man who came off they 



