Forlong - Rivers of Life

Fire Worship.
the mythical wife of the Pāndoos, did this, after defilement through the touch of Kichaka,
and because Sita proved her purity by fire. Where the British Government can
prevent this rite, flowers are thrown into the fire-pit, which seems as if the fire were
looked upon as a female energy. Fire-treading is commonly accomplished by digging a
deepish narrow pit, and filling it with firewood, and then, when the flames are scorching
hot, leaping over it; usually the rite begins by first walking closely around the fire,
slowly at first then faster and faster, with occasional leaps into and out of it in the
wildest excitement. Mr Stokes, of the Madras Civil Service, thus describes the rite as it
came officially to notice in April 1873. In a level place before the village deity, who
was Drupadi Ama (Mother D.), a fire-pit in size 27 by 7½ feet, by 9 inches deep,
was excavated east and west, and the goddess set up at the west end. Six Babool or
Acacia trees (this being a fiercely buming wood) were cut and thrown in; thirteen
persons trod this fire, and one died from the effects. They followed each other, some
with tabors, others ringing a bell, and each, after passing through the fire, went into a
pit filled with water, called “the milk pit.” All merely wore a waist cloth, and had
their bodies daubed over with sandal. The one who died., fell into the fire and had
to be pulled out. The fire waa lit at noon and “walking it,” took place at two
p.m., when it had become very bright and hot. The Poojore, or priest of the temple,
said it was his duty to walk annually through the fire, and tha.t he had done so
for seven or eight years. It was the mother of the dead man who had vowed
that if her son recovered from an attack of jaundice she would tread the fire; but
the old woman being blind, her son fulfilled the vow. Some said that the dead
man hirnself had vowed thus to the Goddess Drupadi: “Mother, if I recover, I shall
tread on your fire.” Death is rarely the result of this practice, but Mr Stokes adds that
a few years ago, a mother and her infant died from the effects.
Fire-leaping or walking was practised till very lately in several remote parts of the
British Isles, and still obtains in many parts of Russia and Skandinavia, always, of
course, at the great Solar phases. In The Englishwoman in Russia, p. 223, a writer
says that, “On mid-summer eve, a custom still (1855) exists in Russia among the
lower classes that could only be derived from a very remote antiquity, and is perhaps
a remnant of the wornhip of Baal. A party of peasant women and girls assemble in
some retired unfrequented spot and light a large fire over which they leap in succession.
If by chance one of the other sex should be found near the place, or should have
seen them. in the act of performing the rite, it is at the imminent hazard of his life, for
the women would not scruple to sacrifice him for his temerity.” The writer was
assured that such instances had often been known. Thus this “Fire-dance” is a very
serious matter, and one which, under these circumstances, we can learn very little about:
from its secret practice here by women it is clearly connected with Agni, the Procreator
or Fertiliser. Our ancestors were inveterate fire-worshippers, especially at the four
great solar festivals, as will be detailed in my chapter on Keltic Faiths. They thought
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