August 



"] 



NA TURE 



397 



we have applications to curvature, envelopes, singular 

 points and tracing of curves. 



The second part of the book contains the fundamental 

 methods of the integral calculus, including a slight treat- 

 ment of double and triple integrals and their applications 

 to surfaces and volumes. 



There is also a short chapter on differential equations, 

 giving the methods of dealing with some of the simpler 

 forms, and the concluding chapter contains applications 

 to such subjects as moments of inertia and the deflection 

 of beams. 



Compared with recent English treatises on the calculus 

 for engineering and physical students, the work before 

 us appears slight and superficial in its technical appli- 

 cations. But as an elementary te.\t-book on pure mathe- 

 matics it has decided merit, and is evidently the production 

 of an experienced teacher. 

 Album de Aves Amazonicas. Organisado pelo Dr. 



Emilio A. Goeldi, Director do Museu Paraense. 



(Museu Paraense de Historia Natural e Ethnographia, 



1900.) 

 The illustrated supplement to Dr. Goeldi's "Aves do 

 Brazil," of which the first part, consisting of twelve 

 coloured plates designed by Senor Ernesto Lohse, has 

 been issued, will when completed give a good general 

 idea of the avifauna of those regions. The birds repre- 

 sented in the present fasciculus comprise the cormorants, 

 grebes, gulls, terns, waders, plovers, herons, egrets, 

 boatbill, storks, spoonbills, rails, geese, ducks, toucans 

 and kingfishers, as well as those two curious forms, the 

 hoactzin and the sun-bittern. In herons and their allies 

 the country is very rich, and two plates illustrate ten 

 species of toucan, both se.xes in this, as well as in other 

 cases, being figured when desirable. Several species 

 are figured on most of the plates, and they number eighty 

 in all. But one plate is entirely devoted to a beautiful 

 illustration (produced from an instantaneous photograph 

 taken in 1900) of a breeding-place of the scarlet ibis. 

 The crowd of graceful scarlet birds, backed by the rich, 

 deep greenery of the western tropics, must afford a sight 

 worth going to South .America to see. There are pleasing 

 bits of tropical scenery in the background of the plates, 

 which form quite pretty pictures. The work has been 

 printed at Ziirich, and although the designs are on a 

 rather small scale, and too much must not be expected 

 of colour printing, the illustrations of the birds strike us 

 as being decidedly good, and we readily recognise at a 

 glance several old South American acquaintances. The 

 supplement will be most useful to any one travelling in 

 the country who takes even a passing interest in natural 

 history. The plates, like Dr. Goeldi's recently completed 

 "Aves do Brazil," maybe regarded as decidedly popular, 

 and on that account will doubtless prove the more 

 generally useful. 



Qualitaiivc Chemical Atialysis, Organic and Inorganic. 



By F. Mollwo Ferkin, Ph.D. Pp' viii-l-266. (London : 



Longmans, Green and Co., 1901.) 

 This book begins with a general account of dry reactions 

 and reactions in solution, attention being paid both to 

 the manipulative and the theoretical aspects. Then 

 follows the usual account of metals in groups with their 

 tests, and afterwatds come the acids. The remaining 

 third of the book is devoted to what is called organic 

 analysis, and here appears the most distinctive feature, 

 namely, a list of tests for a great variety of organic sub- 

 stances — acids, alcohols, sugars, nitrogenous bases, 

 glucosides and alkaloids. The intention of the author, 

 as declared in the preface, has been " to write a book in 

 which theory and practice are more or less dovetailed." 

 It is difficult to find any realisation of this in the large 

 section devoted to organic substances, but the treatment 

 of the inorganic section is more m accordance with the 

 stated object. A. S. 



NO. 1660, VOL. 64] 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[ Th< Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to co) respond with the writers of rejecei 

 mantiscripts intended for this or any otiier part of NaTUKE, 

 Ko notice is taken of anonv'iious communications.'^ 



The Fire Walk Ceremony in Tahiti. 



The very remarkable description of the " Fire Walk" col- 

 lected by Mr. Andrew Lang and others had aroused a curiosity 

 in me to witness the original ceremony, which I have lately been 

 able to gratify in a visit to Tahiti. 



Among these notable accounts is one by Colonel Gudgeon, 

 British Resident at Raratonga, describing the experiment by a 

 man from Raiatea, and also a like account of the Fiji fire cere- 

 mony from Dr. T. M. Hocken, whose article is also quoted in 

 Mr. Lang's paper on the " Fire Walk," in the Proceedings of 

 the Society for Psychical Research, February, 1900. This ex- 

 traordinary rite is also described by Mr. Fraser in the " Golden 

 Bough," and by others. 



I had heard that it was performed in Tahiti in 1S97, and 

 several persons there assured me of their having seen it, and one 

 of them of his having walked through the fire himself under the 

 guidance of the priest, Papa-Ita, who is said to be one of the 

 last remnants of a certain order of the priesthood of Raiatea, 

 and who had also performed the rite at the island of Hawaii 

 some lime in the present year, of which circumstantial newspaper 

 accounts were given, agreeing in all essential particulars with 

 those in the accounts already cited. According to these, a pit 

 was dug in which large stones were heated red hot by a fire 

 which had been burning many hours. The upper stones were 

 pushed away just before the ceremony, so as to leave ihe lower 

 stones to tread upon, and over these, "glowing red hot" (ac- 

 cording to ihe newspaper accounis), Papa-Ita had walked with 

 naked feet, exciting such enthusiasm that he was treated with 

 great consideration by ihe whites, and by the natives as a God. 

 I found it commonly believed in Tahiti that anyone who chose 

 to walk after him, European or native, could do so in safety, 

 secure in the magic which he exercises, if his instructions were 

 exactly followed. Here in Tahiti, where he had "walked" 

 four years before, it was generally believed among the natives, 

 and even among the Europeans present who had seen the cere- 

 mony, that if anyone turned around to look back he immediately 

 was burned, and I was told that all those who followed him 

 through the fire were expected not to turn until they had reached 

 the other side in safety, when he again entered the fire and led 

 them back by 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 by all that much heat was felt about the head. 



Such absolutely extraordinary accounts of the performance 

 had been given to me by respectable eyewitnesses and sharers in 

 the Irial, confirming tho.se given in Hawaii, and, in the main, 

 the cases cited by 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- 

 Ita. He is the finest looking native that I have seen ; tall, 

 dignified in bearing, with unusually intelligent features. I 

 learned from him that he would perform the ceremony on 

 Wednesday, July 17, the day before the sailing of our ship. I 

 was ready to provide the cost of the fire, if he could not obtain 

 it otherwise, but this proved to be unnecessary. 



Papa-Iia 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 viriue of spells which he was 

 able to utter and by the aid of a goddess (or devil as my inter- 

 preter 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 slill 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 

 necessary. 



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. 



