39S 



NA TURE 



[August 22, 1901 



The place selected for the ceremony fortunately was not far 

 from the ship. I went there at noon and found that a large 

 shallow pit or trench had been dug, about nine feet by twenty- 

 one feet and about two feet deep. Lying near by was a pile 

 containing some cords of rough wood and a pile of rounded 

 water-worn stones, weighing, I should think, from forty to 

 eighty 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 twelve o'clock. 



At 4.0 p.m. I w-ent over again and found the preparations 

 very nearly complete. The fire had been burning for nearly 

 four hours. The outer stones touched the ground only at the 

 edges of the pile, where they did not burn my hand, but as they 

 approached the centre the stones were heaped up into a 

 mound three or four layers deep, at which point the lowest 

 layers seen between the upper ones were visibly red-hot. That 

 these latter were nevertheless sending out considerable heat 

 there could be no question, though the topmost stones were cer- 

 tainly not red-hot, while those at the bottom were visibly so 

 and were occasionally splitting with loud reports, while the 

 flames from the burned wood near the centre of the pile pas.sed 

 up in visible lambent tongues, both circumstances contributing 

 to the effect upon the excited bystanders. 



The upper stones, I repeat, even where the topmost were 

 presently removed, did not show any glow to the eye, but were 

 unquestionably very hot and certainly looked unsafe for naked 

 feet. Native feet, however, are not like European ones, and 

 Mr. Richardson, the chief engineer of the ship, mentioned that 

 he had himself seen elsewl.ere natives standing unconcerned 

 with naked feet on the cover of pipes conveying steam at about 

 300° F. where no European foot could even lightly rest for a 

 minute. The stones then were hot. The crucial question was, 

 hma hot was the upper part of this upper layer on which the feet 

 were to rest an instant in passing ? I could think of no ready 

 thermometric method that could give an absolutely trustworthy 

 answer, but I could possibly determine on the spot the thermal 

 equivalent of one of the hottest stones trodden on. (It was sub- 

 sequently shown that the stone might be much cooler at one part 

 than another.) Most obviously, even this was not an easy thing 

 to do in the circumstances, but I decided to try to get at least a 

 trustworthy approximation. By the aid of Chief Engineer 

 Richardson, who attended with a stoker and one of the quarter- 

 masters, kindly detailed at my request by the ship's master, 

 Captain Lawless, I prepared for the rough but conclusive experi- 

 ment presently described. 



It was now nearly forty minutes after four, when six acolytes 

 (natives), wearing crowns of flowers, wreathed with garlands 

 and bearing poles nearly fifteen feet long, ostensibly to be used 

 as levers in toppling over the upper stones, appeared. They 

 were supposed to need such long poles because of the distance 

 at which they must stand on account of the heat radiated from 

 the pile, but I had walked close beside it a moment before and 

 satisfied myself that I could have manipulated the stones with a 

 lever of one-third the length, with some discomfort, but with 

 entire safety. Some of the uppermost stones only were turned 

 over, leaving a superior layer, the long poles being needlessly thrust 

 down between the stones to the bottom, where two of them 

 caught fire at their extremities, adding very much to the im- 

 pression that the exposed layer of stones was red hot, when in 

 fact they were not, at least to the eye. These long poles and 

 the way they were handled were, then, a part of the ingenious 

 " staging" of the whole spectacle. 



Now the most impressive part of the ceremony began, l^apa- 

 Ita, tall, dignified, flower-crowned and dressed with garlands of 

 flowers, appeared with naked feet and with a large bush of 

 "Ti" leaves in his hands, and, after going partly around the fire 

 each way uttering what seemed to be commands to it, went 

 back and beating the stones nearest him three times with the 

 " Ti " leaves, advanced steadily, but with obviously hurried step, 

 directly over the central ridge of the pile. Two disciples, 

 similarly dressed, followed him, but they had not the courage to 

 do so directly along the heated centre. They followed about 

 half-way between the centre and the edge, where the stones were 

 manifestly cooler, since I had satisfied myself that they could 

 be touched lightly with the hand. I'apa-Ita then turned and 

 led the way back, this time with deliberate confidence, followed 

 on his return by several new disciples, most of them not keeping 

 exactly in the steps of the leader, but obviously seeking cooler 



NO. 1660, VOL. 64] 



places. A third and fourth time Papa-Ita crossed with a 

 larger following, after which many Europeans present walked 

 over the stones without reference to the priest's instructions. 

 The natives were mostly in their bare feet. One wore stockings. 

 No European attempted to walk in bare feet except in one case, 

 that of a boy, who, I was told, found the stones too hot ana 

 immediately stepped back. 



The viisc cu scliie was certamly notewoirlhy. The site, near 

 the great ocean breaking on the barrier reefs, the excited crowd, 

 talking about the "red-hot" stone.s, the actual sight of the 

 hierophant and his acolytes making the passage along the ridge 

 where the occasional tongues of flame were seen at the centre, 

 with all the attendant circumstances, made up a scene in no 

 way lacking in interest. Still, the essential question as to the 

 actual heat of these stones had not yet been answered, and after 

 the fourth passage I secured Papa-Ita's permission to remove, 

 from the middle of the pile, one stone which from its size and 

 position every foot had rested upon in crossing, and which was 

 undoubtedly at least as hot as any one of those trodden on. It 

 was pulled out by my assistants with difficulty, as it proved to 

 be larger than I had expected, it being of ovoid shape with the 

 lower end in the hottest jpart cf the fire. I had brought over 

 the largest wooden bucket which the ship had, and which was 

 half-filled with water, expecting that this would cover the stone, 

 but it proved to be hardly enough. The stone caused the water 

 to rise nearly to the top of the bucket, and it was thrown into 

 such violent ebullition that a great deal of it boiled over and 

 escaped weighing. The stone was an exceedingly bad conductor 

 of heat, for it continued to boil the water for about twelve 

 minutes, when, the ebullition being nearly over, it was removed 

 to the ship and the amount of evaporated water measured. 



Meanwhile others, as I have said, began to walk over the 

 stones without any reference to the ceremony prescribed by 

 Papa-Ita, and three or four persons, whom I personally knew on 

 board the ship, did so in shoes, the soles of which were not burned 

 at all. One of the gentlemen, however, who crossed over with 

 unburned shoes, showed me that the ends of his trousers had 

 been burnt by the flames which leaped up between the stones, 

 and which at all times added so much to the impressiveness of 

 the spectacle, and there was no doubt that any one who stumbled 

 or got a foot caught between the hot stones might have been 

 badly burned. United States Deputy-Consul Ducorran, who 

 was present, remarked to me that he knew that Papa-Ita had 

 failed on a neighbouring island, with stones of a marble-like 

 quality, and he offered to test the heat of these basaltic ones 

 by seeing how long he could remain on the hottest part of the 

 pile, and he stood there, in my sight, from eight to ten seconds 

 before he felt the heat through the thin .soles of his shoes begin- 

 ning to be unpleasantly warm. 



A gentleman present asked Papa-Ita why he did not give an 

 exhibit that would be convincing by placing his foot, even for a 

 few seconds, between two of the red-hot stones which could be 

 seen glowing at the bottom of the pile, to which Papa-Ita 

 replied with dignity, " My fathers did ilot tell me to do it that 

 way." I asked him if he would hold one of the smaller, upper 

 hot stones in his hand. He promised to do so, but he did not 

 do it. 



The outer barriers were now removed and a crowd of natives 

 pres.sed in. I, who was taking these notes on the spot, left, 

 after assuring myself that the stones around the edge of the pit 

 were coiuparatively cold, although the centre was no doubt very 

 hot, and those below red hot. The real question is, I repeat, 

 how hot were those trodden on ? and the answer to this I was 

 to try to obtain after measuring the amount of water boiled 

 away. 



On returning to the ship this was estimated from the water 

 which was left in the bucket (after allowing for that spilled over) 

 at about ten pounds. The stone, which it will he remembered 

 was one of the hottest, if not the hottest, in the pile, was found to 

 weigh sixty-five pounds, and to have evaporated this quantity of 

 water. It was, as I have said, a volcanic .stone, and on minuter 

 examination proved to be a vesicular basalt, the most distinc- 

 tive feature of which was its porosity and non-conductibility, 

 for it was subsequently found that it could have been heated red 

 hot at one end, while remaining comparatively cool at the top. 

 I brought a piece of it to Washington with me and there de- 

 termined its specific gravity to be o'39, its s|.>ecific heat o'lg and 

 its conductivity to be so extremely small that one end of a small 

 fragment could be held in the hand while the other was heated 

 indefinitely in the flame of a blow-pipe, almost like a stick of 



