84 NOTES AND COMMENTS [AuGUST 
The Ordeal by Fire. 
A YEAR or two ago, Drs. Hocken and Colquhoun of Dunedin witnessed 
the fire-walking ceremony in Fiji, and their scientific zeal led them to 
lick the soles of the feet of the natives who were about to walk over 
the red-hot stones to ascertain whether any substance had been applied 
to them. Colonel Gudgeon, British resident at Rarotonga, has now 
gone one better and walked over the stones himself, and appears to 
have enjoyed it. 
In the March number of the Journal of the Polynesian Society, 
published in Wellington, N.Z., he says that the tohunga, or priest, first 
took across Mr. Goodwin, at whose place the ceremony was performed. 
He then said to Mr. Goodwin, “I hand my mana (power) over to you; 
lead your friends across.” Mr. Goodwin then led Colonel Gudgeon 
and two other Europeans across. Colonel Gudgeon got across 
unscathed, and only one of the party was badly burned. They all 
walked with bare feet, and after they had done so, about two hundred 
Maoris followed. Colonel Gudgeon did not walk quickly across the 
oven—which was about 12 feet in diameter—but with deliberation, 
for he feared that he might tread on a sharp point of the stones and 
fall, as his feet were very tender. His impression as he crossed the 
oven was that the skin would all peel off his feet, but all he felt when 
the task was accomplished was a tingling sensation, not unlike slight 
electric shocks, on the soles of his feet, and this continued for seven 
hours or more. Many of the Maoris thought that they were burned, 
but they were not, at anyrate not severely. Although the stones were 
hot enough an hour afterwards to burn up green branches, the skin of 
Colonel Gudgeon’s feet was not even hardened by the fire. 
We should like to know the experience of Dr. Craig, who was 
badly burned. Was he one of the percentage who are said to be 
non-susceptible to suggestion? Or is the solution elsewhere ? 
American Species of Peripatus. 
THE suggestive value of the systematic study of the species of Peripatus 
is well known. ‘The isolated position of the type, its archaic and syn- 
thetic characters, its wide distribution, its great diversity of structure 
within narrow limits, the differences in the modes of development in 
the several species, and other considerations, lend special interest to the 
detailed working out of the taxonomy. The student of species is here 
almost forced to face the problem of origins. 
In a recent communication on the American species (Comptes 
Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, exxvii. 1899, pp. 1344-1346) Mr. E. L. 
Bouvier notices some results of general interest. He mentions the 
