502 MYSTIC ISLES 



"But, Raiere, my friend," I protested, "you are a 

 Christian, and only a day ago ate the breadfruit at the 

 communion service. Fire-walking is etene; it is a 

 heathen rite." 



"Altar replied the youth. "No, it is in the Bible, and 

 was taught by Te Atua, the great God. The three boys 

 in Babulonia were saved from death by Atua teaching 

 them the way of the Umuti." 



"Where will the Umuti be?" I inquired. "I must 

 see it." 



"By the old til up the Aataroa valley, on Saturday 

 night." 



That was five days off, and it could not come soon 

 enough for me. I was eager for this strangest, most 

 inexplicable survival of ancient magic, the apparent only 

 failure of the natural law that fire will burn human 

 flesh. I had seen it in Hawaii and in other countries, 

 and had not reached any satisfying explanation of its 

 seeming reversal of all other experience. I knew that 

 fire-walking as a part of the racial or national worship 

 of a god of fire, had existed and persisted in many far 

 separated parts of the world. 



Babylon, Egypt, India, Malaysia, North America, 

 Japan, and scattered Maoris from Hawaii to New Zea- 

 land all had religious ceremonies in which the gaining 

 and showing of power over fire was a miracle seen and 

 believed in by priests and laity. Modern saints and 

 quasi-scientists had claims to similar achievements. Dr. 

 Dozous said he saw Bernadette, the seeress of Lourdes, 

 hold her hands in a flame for fifteen minutes without 

 pain or mark, he timing the incident exactly by his 

 watch. Daniel Dunglas Home, the famous Scottish 



