on to one's clothes. The heat, too, is of course unpleasant, and the actual fire-walking, when at length it does begin, occupies but a few brief moments. Be it understood that our object is nowise to deter any one from witnessing what, after all, is a curious spectacle, but simply to warn him that, like other genuine curios, it must be paid for. A similar remark applies even more strongly to the "Ordeal by Boiling Water." Far better read Mr. Lowell's account, which is very graphic and entertaining, than devote hours to seeing the rite itself, which is deadly dull, consisting, as it does, in the dipping of bamboo fronds into boiling water, brandishing them in the air, and letting the spray fall in a shower over the performer's body, while prayers, incantations, and gyrations are kept up ad infinitum.
**********
The preceding article had just been written when, in September, 1900, it being reported that no less than seven foreigners had taken part in the "miracle," we wrote to one of them, Prof. Percy Hillhouse, of the Imperial University, Tōkyō, to request an account of the proceedings. That gentleman's reply was as follows:—
"I went to the Imagawa Kōji temple on the 17th September, with a secret desire to cross the glowing coals myself; but though I saw all sorts and conditions of Japanese crossing, I was unable to screw up my courage quite to the sticking point until a number of Harvard graduates, who had carefully examined the soles of those who had crossed, themselves walked over. I at once took off my socks, and pushed my way through the crowd to the end of the bed of charcoal. There was a flattened heap of salt at the beginning of the path; and after rubbing both feet well into this, I stepped across at a sharp walking pace and got to the other end safely. Before I started, a priest dusted me all over with a large mop of gohei; and after I had crossed, the priest at the other end made me stop and rub my feet in the pad of salt at the end of the fiery path. No sooner was I safely over than I crossed again with no evil result. As each foot touched the charcoal, it
