Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/238

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. ix. MA*. 21, 1914.

of my stay there some attempt was, indeed made to get the natives to perform the ceremony for the benefit of tourists on boarc some of the steamships which traded to Fiji, but the Fijian Government wisely, I think has always been averse to the people being exploited for purposes of curiosity or show.

Besides Dr. J. G. Frazer, other writers have discussed this subject, notably the late Andrew Lang, in connexion with the Folk- Lore Society, I believe, though I cannot now say when. I am glad that my friend Dr. Bolton Corney, late Chief Medical Officer of Fiji, in his letter to MB. USSHER confirms what I have always understood to be the case, viz., that by whatever means, be they psychological or physical or both, immunity is afforded to the walkers, there is no doubt that it is a genuine fire ordeal ; in other words, that the stones are unmistakably hot. A friend of mine who once saw the ceremony performed told me that, in order to test this, after it was over he placed his pocket-handkerchief on the stones, and that it was immediately scorched and charred.

But my immediate object in writing is this: MR. USSHER (p. 151) speaks regretfully of his not having kept an illustration of this feat which appeared in a pictorial maga- zine a few years ago. I would like to tell him that I have a series of five excel- lent photographs of this " fire-ceremony," as it was called, taken by a well-known photographer Mr. J. W. Lindt of Mel- bourne who came down to Fiji in the nineties specially to take photographs of Fijian scenery, and for whom, with Govern- ment assistance, I believe, a special re- hearsal of the ceremony was arranged. The illustrations show : (1) Heating the oven ; (2) Removing the embers ; (3) Levelling the hot stones ; (4) Walking into the oven ; (5) The rush (when others than the " walkers," dracsena leaves having been thrown on the stones, crowd into and across the " oven ").

If MR. USSHER will kindly communicate with me, I shall be most happy to arrange an opportunity for him to see my book of Fijian photographs at my house ; or if it will be more convenient to him, and as perhaps others might like to see them too, I will, with the Editor's permission, leave my book for a time at the offices of ' N. & Q.' for his or their perusal.

I may add that in 1898 (9 S. ii. 44) your correspondent DR. ALEX. LEEPER of Mel- bourne sent to * N. & Q.' a very interesting account of the above ceremony, taken from

The Melbourne Argus of 24 May of that year, to which I would refer MR. USSHER, as it is one which, in many particulars, con- firms Dr. Corney's letter to him.

J. S. UDAL, F.S.A. Conse rvative Club, S.W,

THE WILD HUNTSMAN : HERLOTHINGI (11 S. viii. 487; ix. 15, 76, 152, 197). This spectre, like the famous " White Lady," makes his appearance in more than one country. When last in the Sumava (Bohmerwald) region I asked a friend who knows every foot of the country, and the natives if the Wild Huntsman was heard of there. He said that the older peasantry would talk fearfully of him in boisterous weather. He hunts with two hounds, one of shrill and the other of deep bark. FRANCIS P. MARCHANT.

Your correspondent doubtless remembers Charles Reade's description of the " Gabriel Hounds " in chap. xi. of ' Put Yourself in his Place.' E. G. W.

PAGE FAMILY (US. ix. 191).- No; the two William Pages are not identical. He of the pedigree at the above reference was son of William of Wickham, Kent, gent. : St. John's Coll., matric. 13 Nov., 1629, aged 18 (subs. Paidge); B.A. 5 June, 1632; M.A. 3 May, 1636 ; D. Med. 6 July, 1653. He had been admitted to Merchant Taylors' School 1621 ; born 4 Nov., 1610 (see Robinson, i. 105).

The other was of Harrow-on-the-Hill, pleb., matric. Balliol Coll. 7 Nov., 1606, aged 16; B.A. 26 April, 1610; M.A. 2 July, 1614 (incorporated at Cambridge, 1615); FeUow All Souls Coll. 1619; B.D. 12 July, 1621 ; D.D. 5 July, 1634 ; Rector or Master of the Free School at Reading until sequestered 1644, and also from the Rectory of Hannington, Dorset, 1646 ; Rector of East Lockyng, Berks, until death 24 Feb., 1663/4, buried in the chancel (see Wood's
 * Athen.,' iii. 653 ; and Addit. MS. 15,670).

CLEARANCES ON SCOTCH ESTATES^ (11 S. x. 188). Possibly Mr. Lloyd George was referring to the rigour of the Laird of Ellan- gowan against the gipsies and other poor r olk upon his estat e, to be found in ' Guy Mannering,' vol. i. chap. vi. and after. There is also a paper by Scott on * The Plant- ng of Waste Lands ' in The Quarterly Review, 1827 (and see ' Miscellaneous Prose Works,' 1836, vol. xxi.). A. R. BAYLEY.

[Hugh Miller has an account of the devastation f the Highlands in ' My Schools and Schoolmasters * t the end of chap, xiii.]