540 THE FIRE WALK CEREMONY IN TAHITI. 



wji.s Inirncd, and I was told that all those who followed him throiioh 

 the fire were expected not to tui'n until the^' had reached the other 

 side in safety, when he again entered the fire and led them back })y 

 the path by which he had come. I was further told by several who 

 had tried it that the heat was not felt upon the feet, and that when 

 shoes were worn the soles were not burned (for those who followed 

 the priest's directions), but it was added b}' all that much heat w'as 

 felt about the head. 



Such absolutely extraordinary accounts of the performance had l)een 

 given to me by respectable evewitnesses and sharers in the trial, con- 

 firming- those given in Hawaii, and, in the main, the cases cited b}^ Mr. 

 Lang, that I could not doubt that if all these were verified by my own 

 observation, it would mean nothing less to me than a departure from 

 the customary order of nature and something very well worth seeing 

 indeed. 



I was glad, therefore, to meet personally the priest, Papa-lta. He 

 is the finest looking native that I have seen; tall, dignified in l)earing, 

 w^ith unusuall}' intelligent features. I learned from him that he would 

 perform the ceremony on Wednesday, July 17, the da}^ before the 

 sailing of our ship. 1 was read}' to provide the cost of the fire, if he 

 could not obtain it otherwise, but this proved to be unnecessary. 



Papa-lta himself spoke no English, and I conversed with him briefly 

 through an interpreter. He said that he walked over the hot stones 

 without danger by virtue of spells which he was able to utter and by 

 the aid of a goddess (or devil as ra}' interpreter had it), who was 

 formerly a native of the islands. The spells, he said, were something 

 which he could teach another, I was told by others that there was a 

 still older priest in the island of Raiatea, whose disciple he was, 

 although he had pupils of his own, and that he could "send his spirit" 

 to Raiatea to secure the permission of his senior priest if necessar3\ 



In answer to my inquiry as to what preparations he was going to 

 make for the rite in the two or three days before it, he said he was 

 going to pass them in prayer. 



The place selected for the ceremony fortunatel}' was not far from 

 the ship. 1 went there at noon and found that a large shallow pit 

 or trench had been dug, about 9 by 21 feet and about 2 feet deep. 

 Lj'ing nearby was a pile containing some cords of rough wood and a 

 pile of rounded water-worn stones, Aveighing, I should think, from 

 40 to 80 pounds apiece. They were, perhaps, 200 in number, and all 

 of porous basalt, a feature the importance of which will be seen later. 

 The wood was placed in the trench,^ the fire was lighted and the stones 

 heaped on it, as I was told, directly after I left, or at about 12 o'clock. 



At 4 p. m. 1 went over again and found the preparations very nearly 

 complete. The fire had been burning for nearly four hours. The 

 outer stones touched the ground onl}- at the edges of the pile, where 



