cool.  We caught four or five of the performers as they came out, and closely examined their feet.  They were cool, and showed no trace of scorching, nor were their anklets of dried tree-fern leaf burnt.  This, Jonathan explained, is part of the miracle; for dried tree-fern is as combustible as tinder, and there were flames shooting out among the stones.  Sceptics had affirmed that the skin of a Fijian’s foot being a quarter of an inch thick, he would not feel a burn.  Whether this be true or not of the ball and heel, the instep is covered with skin no thicker than our own, and we saw the men plant their insteps fairly on the stone.’

* * * * *

Mr. Thomson’s friend, Jonathan, said that young men had been selected because they would look better in a photograph, and, being inexperienced, they were afraid.  A stranger would share the gift if he went in with one of the tribe.  Some years ago a man fell and burned his shoulders.  ’Any trick?’ ’Here Jonathan’s ample face shrunk smaller, and a shadow passed over his candid eye.’  Mr. Thomson concludes:  ’Perhaps the Na Ivilankata clan have no secret, and there is nothing wonderful in their performance; but, miracle or not, I am very glad I saw it.’  The handkerchief dropped on the stone is ‘alive to testify to it.’  Mr. Thomson’s photograph of the scene is ill-developed, and the fumes of steam somewhat interfere with the effect.  A rough copy is published in Folk-Lore for September, 1895, but the piece could only be reproduced by a delicate drawing with the brush.

The parallel to the rite of the Hirpi is complete, except that red-hot stones, not the pyre of pine-embers, is used in Fiji.  Mr. Thomson has heard of a similar ceremony in the Cook group of islands.  As in ancient Italy, so in Fiji, a certain clan have the privilege of fire-walking.  It is far enough from Fiji to Southern India, as it is far enough from Mount Soracte to Fiji.  But in Southern India the Klings practise the rite of the Hirpi and the Na Ivilankata.  I give my informant’s letter exactly as it reached me, though it has been published before in Longman’s Magazine: 

Kling Fire-walk

’Dear Sir,—­Observing from your note in Longman’s Magazine that you have mislaid my notes re fire-walking, I herewith repeat them.  I have more than once seen it done by the “Klings,” as the low-caste Tamil-speaking Hindus from Malabar are called, in the Straits Settlements.  On one occasion I was present at a “fire-walking” held in a large tapioca plantation in Province Wellesley, before many hundreds of spectators, all the Hindu coolies from the surrounding estates being mustered.  A trench had been dug about twenty yards long by six feet wide and two deep.  This was piled with faggots and small wood four or five feet high.  This was lighted at midday, and by four p.m. the trench was a bed of red-hot ashes, the heat from which