as Pujari.' Another says, 'I got down into the
fire at the east end, meditating on Draupati, walked through to the west,
and up the bank.' Draupati is a goddess, wife of the Pandavas. Mr.
Stokes reports that, according to the incredulous, experienced
fire-walkers smear their feet with oil of the green frog. No report is
made as to the condition of their feet when they emerge from the fire.

Another case occurs in Oppert's work, The Original Inhabitants of India
(p. 480). As usual, a pit is dug, filled with faggots. When these have
burned down 'a little,' and 'while the heat is still unbearable in the
neighbourhood of the ditch, those persons who have made the vow . . .
walk . . . on the embers in the pit, without doing themselves as a rule
much harm.'

Again, in a case where butter is poured over the embers to make a blaze,
'one of the tribal priests, in a state of religious afflatus, walks
through the fire. It is said that the sacred fire is harmless, but some
admit that a certain preservative ointment is used by the performers.' A
chant used at Mirzapur (as in Fiji) is cited. {171}

In these examples the statements are rather vague. No evidence is
adduced as to the actual effect of the fire on the feet of the
ministrants. We hear casually of ointments which protect the feet, and
of the thickness of the skins of the fire-walkers, and of the
unapproachable heat, but we have nothing exact, no trace of scientific
precision. The Government 'puts down,' but does not really investigate
the rite.

Psychical Parallels

I now very briefly, and 'under all reserves,' allude to the only modern
parallel in our country with which I am acquainted. We have seen that
Iamblichus includes insensibility to fire among the privileges of Graeco-
Egyptian 'mediums.' {172} The same gift was claimed by Daniel Dunglas
Home, the notorious American spiritualist. I am well aware that as
Eusapia Paladino was detected in giving a false impression that her hands
were held by her neighbours in the dark, therefore, when Mr. Crookes
asserts that he saw Home handle fire in the light, his testimony on this
point can have no weight with a logical public. Consequently it is not
as evidence to the _fact_ that I cite Mr. Crookes, but for another
purpose. Mr. Crookes's remarks I heard, and I can produce plenty of
living witnesses to the same experiences with D. D. Home:

'I several times saw the fire test, both at my own and at o