Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/102

90 The anonymous writer interviewed a few of those who took part in the ceremony as to whether they felt any pain or whether they protected their feet by rubbing them with the juice of plants. (Mr. H. Beauchamp, editor of the Madras Mail, says "the most common explanation of the immunity from burning is that a decoction of the Aloe indica is used"; he gives an account of this process.) This suggestion was received with resentment and considered profane. One young man asked in astonishment what greater protection could be needed than that of the goddess, in whose saving power he had the greatest faith. He explained that the majority of the performers, at the time of the actual fire-walking, are beside themselves with religious fervour and feel absolutely no burning sensations while crossing the fire, and all the after effects amount but to a feeling similar to that caused by being pricked with a pin. Any mishap is attributed by the devotees to their own frailties, rather than to any want of a saving power in the goddess. The author states that he is "entirely satisfied that this fire-walking is no fraud perpetrated by professional people."

Mr. Thurston also quotes Mr. H. J. Stokes, Indian Antiquary, ii., 1873, for the Tanjore district, the Abbé Dubois for Malabar, and the records of the Madras Government (1854), for other cases in Madras, Ganjám, North Arcot, Salem, Tinnevelly, Gódávari, Nellore, and Kistna, but these do not give any new facts of importance. It is worth noting, however, that the ceremonial is (or was) not confined to the Hindu community. A reference is made to a paper by Mr. M. J. Walhouse, in the Indian Antiquary, 1878, for analogous customs in other lands.

I venture to suggest that this curious case—a collective hallucination, by night, of the Madonna in an oak-tree—is neither one of "tree-worship" nor of worship of "wood-spirits." In the Dor-