I did.not enter the lodge again that night, as the mat-
ter looked, to say the least, uncanny.
“On another bccasion I visited a lodge where a
‘medicine smoke” was in progress. There were about a
dozen Indians in the lodge. After the smoke was over,
a large copper kettle, about two feet deep, and the
same or a little more in diameter, was placed empty on
the roaring fire in the middle of the lodge. The med-
icine man who was stripped, with the exception of a
cloth around his loins, was all this time singing a “med-
icine” in a low voice.
“The pot after a short while became red-hot, and
a pole being passed through the handle, it was lifted
in this state off the fire and placed on the ground, so
close to me that the heat was almost unbearable. On
the pole being withdrawn the medicine man sprang to
his feet and, still singing his song, stepped with both
naked feet into the red-hot kettle and danced for at
least three minutes in it, still singing to the accompan-
iment of the Indian drums. I was so close, as I have
before said, that the heat of the kettle was almost un-
bearable, and I closely watched the performance, and
I
saw this Indian dance for some minutes with his bare
feet in it.
On stepping out he seemed none the worse;
but how he performed the a& was and is still a mys-
tery to me.”
Similar feats are performed by the fetish men of
India “under control;” and tests given by “spirit me-
dim”
w under control” sometimes include the hand-
ling of fire, red hot glass, etc., with bare hands with-
out injury. God has protded his faithful in the flames
(Dan. 3: 19-27), and it seems that he does not always
hinder Satan’s use of such power.
Dr. Ashmore, of long experience as a missionary
in China, says,-
“I have no doubt that the Chinese hold direct
communications with the spirits of another world. They