WALKING ON BURNING COALS, ETC. 301 



a considerable time. At the commencement of 

 his exhibition he introduces the ball into his 

 mouth, and while he breathes through it the fire 

 is revived, and a number of burning sparks are 

 projected from his mouth. These sparks are too 

 feeble to do any harm, provided he inhales the 

 air through his nostrils. 



The kindred art of walking on burning coals 

 or red-hot iron remounts to the same antiquity. 

 The priestesses of Diana at Castabala in Cappa- 

 docia were accustomed, according to Strabo, to 

 walk over burning coals ; and at the annual 

 festival which was held in the temple of Apollo 

 on Mount Soracte in Etruria, the Hirpi marched 

 over burning coals, and on this account they were 

 exempted from military service, and received 

 other privileges from the Roman Senate. This 

 power of resisting fire was ascribed even by 

 Varro to the use of some liniment with which 

 they anointed the soles of their feet. 



Of the same character was the art of holding 

 red-hot iron in the hands or between the teeth, 

 and of plunging the hands into boiling water or 

 melted lead. About the close of the seventeenth 

 century, an Englishman of the name of Richard- 

 son rendered himself famous by chewing burning 

 coals, pouring melted lead upon his tongue, and 

 swallowing melted glass. That these effects are 

 produced partly by deception, and partly by a 

 previous preparation of the parts subjected to 

 the heat, can scarcely admit of a doubt. The 

 fusible metal, composed of mercury, tin, and 

 bismuth, which melts at a low temperature, 

 might easily have been substituted in place of 

 lead; and fluids of easy ebullition may have 



