FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 177 



interposition of Hormuzd "the devouring flame became as water, in 

 the midst of which slumbered the pearl of Zoroaster."^ 



Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego are said to have met a similar 

 experience when tlirown into the fire by Nebuchadnezzar," 



" Of the sage Vasta, whom his younger half brother formerly at- 

 tacked as the son of a servile woman, the fire which pervades the 

 world burned not even a hair, by reason of his perfect veracity."'" 



Two hundred years before Christ, Eurius established himself as the 

 leader of the insurgent slaves by breathing fire and smoke from his 

 mouth, and Barchochebas, the ringleader of the revolted Jews in the 

 reign of Hadrian, claimed to be the Messiah from his power of vomit- 

 ing flames from his mouth. The priestess of Diana Parasya in Cappa- 

 docia, as Strabo states, commanded public veneration by walking over 

 burning coals ; and Shiavak, the gentlest and most amiable character 

 in Shah-Nameh, proved in a similar manner, according Firdausi, his 

 innocence when accused by his father, Kaoos, of adultery with one of 

 his wives. Firdausi states that before doing so he apphed camphor to 

 his whole body and then passed rapidly through the fire unscathed. 

 Voltaire suggests that the feat is no very extraordinary proof of skill 

 or address when the movement is rapid and the face and hands are 

 well rubbed with ointment. It was thus that the formidable Peter 

 Aldobrandin, or the "fiery Peter," as he was called, managed when 

 he passed between two blazing fires at Florence in order to demonstrate 

 with God's help that his archbishop was a knave and a debauchee." 

 And in our own days we have read of a fireproof feat performed at 

 Benares in broad daylight and in presence of creditable witnesses, 

 not only by privileged persons but by any that willed it, fire being, 

 according to them, previously brought under control. '^ 



Mazdak, the Persian pseudoprophet and socialist, acquired great 

 influence over the weak-minded King Kobad by his mystic fire, 

 which was contrived to give answers, and Zoroaster was to a great 

 extent indebted to liis self-burning perpetual fire, which he always 

 handled freely without feeling sensitive to its touch, for the rapid spread 

 of his faith. According to Pliny the Hirpi family enjoyed the hered- 

 itary property of being incom])ustible, wliich they exhibited annually 

 in the temple of Apollo on Mount Socrate. 



Similarly Narpatarounal, or the festival of the fire, used to be held 

 annually in India in honor of Dharmaraja and Draupadi, who had 

 married five brothers at the same time, and every year quitted one irv 

 order to pass into the hands of another, but before doing which she 

 always carefully purified herself in fire in proof of her virtue. 



8 Dabistan I?, p. 219. 



» Daniel iii, 19—28. 



loManu VIII, p. 116. 



" Voltaire. Philosophical Dictionary, Ordeal. 



" See also the fiery ordeal of Are in the Wide World Magazine, vol. 1. No. 2. 



