文档介绍：MIRACLE MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS
MIRACLE MONGERS
AND THEIR METHODS
BY HOUDINI AUTHOR A
1
MIRACLE MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS
CHAPTER ONE
FIRE WORSHIP.--FIRE EATING AND HEAT RESISTANCE.--IN
THE MIDDLE AGES. --AMONG THE NAVAJO INDIANS.-- FIRE-
WALKERS OF JAPAN.--THE FIERY ORDEAL OF FIJI.
Fire has always been and, seemingly, will always remain, the most
terrible of the elements. To the early tribes it must also have been the
most mysterious; for, while earth and air and water were always in
evidence, fire came and went in a manner which must have been quite
ountable to them. Thus it naturally followed that the custom of
deifying all things which the primitive mind was unable to grasp, led in
direct line to the fire- worship of later days.
That fire could be produced through friction finally came into the
knowledge of man, but the early methods entailed much labor.
Consequently our ease-loving forebears cast about for a method to ``keep
the home fires burning'' and hit upon the plan of appointing a person in
munity who should at all times carry a burning brand. This
arrangement had many faults, however, and after a while it was
superseded by the expedient of a fire kept continually burning in a
building erected for the purpose.
The Greeks worshiped at an altar of this kind which they called the
Altar of Hestia and which the Romans called the Altar of Vesta. The
sacred fire itself was known as Vesta, and its burning was considered a
proof of the presence of the goddess. The Persians had such a building in
each town and village; and the Egyptians, such a fire in every temple;
while the Mexicans, Natches, Peruvians and Mayas kept their ``national
fires'' burning upon great pyramids. Eventually the keeping of such fires
became a sacred rite, and the ``Eternal Lamps'' kept burning in synagogues
and in Byzantine and Catholic churches may be a survival of these
customs.
There is a theory that all architecture, public and private, sacr