The Firewalkers of Fiji The People of Paradise

Specially chosen programmes from the BBC archive.

For this Collection, Sir David Attenborough has chosen documentaries

from the start of his career.

More programmes on this theme, and other BBC Four Collections,

are available on BBC iPlayer.

SINGING

Fiji lies almost in the centre of the Southwest Pacific.

It is an isolated group of islands but the main island,

the biggest island of all, Viti Levu, is, in fact, a vital link

in the chain of air routes which cross the Pacific.

And perhaps precisely because it has an international airport,

its main town is a thriving, modern town with cinemas

and a wireless station and fine shops and new modern buildings.

But Fiji has 300 islands in the group

and you don't have to go far outside the capital, Suva, to find places

where the old ways of life still continue relatively unchanged.

We were lucky.

We travelled, for a short part of our time in Fiji,

with a hereditary paramount chief.

And the paramount chiefs in Fiji still retain a great deal

of their power and authority.

And when one visits an island, all the people gather together

and he is received with all the ceremonial customs of the past.

He wears not his European clothes,

but his ancient, traditional costume, with his face painted.

PEOPLE CHATTER

First, the paramount chief is offered tambua, a carved whale's tooth.

These are very highly valued by the Fijians and, in offering one,

the village is paying the greatest possible

sign of respect to their chief.

After the tambua has been accepted, other gifts are made -

pandanus mats, young coconuts

and sucking pigs, which together symbolise the wealth of the island.

When these presentations are complete, then kava is prepared.

Kava, or yaqona, as it's called here in Fiji,

is drunk throughout the Pacific.

It's made by mixing the crushed roots

of a kind of pepper plant with water.

And no important ceremony can take place without kava being drunk.

The mixing of it, in rituals such as this one,

is a very solemn and sacred occasion.

Indeed, in the old days, people who broke the rules of the ceremony

might be sentenced to death immediately,

and warriors with clubs would stand by, ready to execute such sentences.

Even today, at an important Fijian occasion,

feelings may run very high

if all the rules of the ceremony are not scrupulously observed.

And now the cups of kava are taken to the chief.

CHANTING

Kava is not alcoholic but it does contain a mild drug

which, if you drink too much,

may make you a little unsteady on your legs.

It has a slightly antiseptic, sharp taste,

but once you get used to it, it's extremely refreshing

and pleasant, particularly in hot weather.

We certainly HAD to get used to it

for in the weeks that were to follow,

we drank it four or five times each day.

To celebrate the chief's arrival at the island,

everyone had dressed up in ceremonial costume.

The Fijians are very proud of their hair.

50 years ago, the men used wear it long like this

but few do so nowadays.

The girls, however, have not all given up the practice.

Next, there were to be sports.

The game to be played was called tiqa, or javelin-throwing.

And it's rather different from the European version.

The length of the throw is measured

not to the place where the javelin first touches the ground,

but to where it finally comes to rest.

So part of the skill is to throw it

so that it slithers along the ground for as long a distance as possible.

And there's another difference.

The lady supporters of the opposing team line up to punch you

on your arms in an attempt to weaken your muscles before you throw.

That's all part of the game.

CHANTING

If you are really tough,

then you don't hurry to get past the ladies' punches.

In fact, you hang about to show that you don't care how much you are hit,

you can still throw a prodigious distance.

And it's all part of the game

for your opponents at the other end of the pitch to yell derisively

and dance about and generally try to put you off.

CHEERING AND CHANTING

LAUGHTER

CHEERING AND CHANTING

And that went farthest of all.

Now everybody changes ends

so that the other team may try to beat the first team's best throw.

CHEERING AND CHANTING

When many villagers gather together in one place, the Fijians often

take the opportunity to practise one of their ancient methods of fishing,

which requires large numbers of people if it's to be successful.

It's a method in which, for the most part of the time, at any rate,

nets are not used

and the fish are deceived by a special rope, called the rau,

into thinking that they can't escape beyond it into the open sea.

And to make the rau,

you need, first of all, a large supply of coconut leaves.

SINGING

Lengths of thin creepers are tied together to form a rope

and the palm fronds are twisted around it.

Everyone takes part in making the rau and, indeed,

everyone is needed, for when it's finished,

it will be over a quarter of a mile long.

It's this rope which is used to keep the fish

penned inside one part of the lagoon.

SINGING

The villagers had decided that they would fish among the reefs

just offshore from the village.

And the day after the rau was completed,

it was taken out in boats and laid in a huge semicircle in a lagoon

when the tide was at its highest.

MEN SHOUT TO EACH OTHER

PEOPLE SHOUT TO EACH OTHER

PEOPLE CHATTER

At the farthest point from the shore,

the men were right out of their depths

and one of the village boats patrolled the circuit,

dropping off people who were to swim alongside the rau.

PEOPLE SHOUT TO EACH OTHER

And this is how the fish are fooled.

The leaves of the rau, when shaken up and down,

rattle together making a noise under the water.

And this frightens the fish

and they're driven inwards towards the beach.

LAUGHTER

CHEERING

Slowly, the people move towards the shore.

As the size of the circle was reduced,

so the rau was hauled up onto the sands.

The tide, too, was rapidly ebbing

so that the water was becoming shallower and shallower,

and the fish, trapped within the ever-contracting circle,

became more and more frenzied.

Yet, still, they could easily escape

if only they dared swim through the clattering leaves of the rau,

and, indeed, unless there are sufficient numbers of people

standing around the rau and shaking it,

shoals of fish may do just that and break out.

Now the end is approaching.

The circle is getting so small,

the people are standing almost shoulder to shoulder.

PEOPLE CHATTER

Now there's no escape at all for the fish.

Everybody grabs spears or hand nets and snatches what fish he can.

CHEERING

Although the preparations had taken quite a long time -

a whole day is spent in making the rau

and three or four hours standing in the warm waters of the lagoon -

the haul seemed to be a good one.

Everybody was getting a good share of fish.

I thought that the catch was enormous but the people said

that it wasn't really a good fish drive, as fish drives go.

The headman, who had organised it, they said, had been overambitious.

He had tried to enclose too big an area of the lagoon.

For a rau of this size to be worked really efficiently,

there should have been almost twice as many people in the sea, they said.

But nobody appeared to mind very much and it seemed to me that

although the day's fishing had been successful enough, it wasn't

the prospect of a large catch of fish which made people take part in it.

It was because it was a jolly good party

and there's no people in the world who enjoy a good party

more than the Fijians.

SINGING

As you saw, nearly everybody was wearing European-style shorts

and brightly patterned shirts.

And that's what nearly all Fijians wear most of the time,

even in the remotest places.

But the Fijians are extremely proud of their ancient rituals

and ceremonies, and for those,

they always wear customary costume with their faces painted.

And perhaps the most famous of all these ancient rituals

is the fire-walking.

Fire-walking is practised in one tiny island only.

The island of Mbengga.

And Mbengga lies just off the main island of Viti Levu.

Indeed, as you sit

in your comfortable modern hotel in Suva,

you can look across the bay of bright blue water and there you can see

the silhouette of purple mountains which, in fact, are Mbengga.

We crossed over to Mbengga to see the fire-walking.

And in a sort of natural theatre, girdled by hills,

we found a deep pit had been dug.

This was the fire pit.

The men, wearing ceremonial costumes of pandanus-leaf skirts

dyed red and yellow and green,

with their faces painted with soot for the ritual

began to build a huge stack of wood in the fire pit.

While they were doing so, I talked to one of them.

How did this fire-walking begin?

It dates right back to so many years ago.

There lived a tribe in hilly village of Mbengga called Nasese.

They used to gather together into a house every evening

to tell stories.

The listeners would bring presents for the storytellers.

So one of them, the listeners, one of them named Tui Na Ivilankata,

went up a stream to look for an eel.

A sort of fish, an eel?

Yes, a sort of fish. He went up the creek.

When he came to the source, he found a pond which was quite muddy,

so he thought, "There must be an eel in this pond."

So he started digging, he thrust his hand into the hole,

and he got hold of something slippery.

At the same time, there was a voice ringing out from the hole.

It said, "Help!

"Let me go and I will make you the best navigator in the world."

So Tui Na Ivilankata said,

"No, I am the only best navigator in the world,

"I do not know any other person who can equal me."

- Yes. - The voice said again,

"Let me go, I will make you the most handsome man in the island."

Tui Na Ivilankata replied,

"No, I am the only most handsome man in the island.

"Wherever we gather, I attract the attention of all women."

ATTENBOROUGH LAUGHS And, so the voice said again,

"Let me go and I will be able to save you from terrific heat."

- Heat? - Heat, yes.

"Now, would you explain to me how we go about it?"

So he started off, "First you must dig a hole in the ground.

"That is your lovo.

"And you must collect some firewood, some big stones, light the fire,

"and heat up all these big stones.

"When the stones are red hot, break out the embers,

"then you can walk on those stones without burning your feet."

So, they came out together, and preparations were made,

so when the stones were red hot, the embers were raked out,

so they walked hand in hand around the lovo, four times.

- What, the man and the eel? - The man and the eel.

In the form of a very tiny... very tiny, uh...man.

- A sort of fairy or a devil? - A sort of fairy, yes.

So they walked around the lovo four times and the fairy said...

Uh...

"Do not be afraid,

"we must be buried in the lovo for four days and four nights."

Tui Na Ivilankata said, "No, I cannot do that.

"You might play some sort of trickery if we do that."

So Tui Na Ivilankata...

Tui Namoliwai the name of the devil, that is,

Tui Namoliwai said, "Right, if you are afraid,

"then you must bury some masawe, the roots of the masawe,

"instead of you."

- That's a tree, isn't it? - That's a tree, yes.

So that was done.

And the fire-walking has been passed on from fathers to sons till today.

Although all the logs had been collected for days beforehand

and piled in heaps close by, it nevertheless took several hours

to build this giant bonfire.

And it was easy to see

from this huge stack of heavy, dry timbers

that when it was set alight,

there was going to be a gigantic blaze, producing tremendous heat.

Some of the stones were buried in the heart of the bonfire.

Others were thrown near the top,

just beneath the uppermost layer of logs.

The ritual prescribes that the stones must be in continuous fire

for at least eight hours,

and, as the ceremony was due to take place in mid-morning the next day,

the blaze had to be started in the middle of the night.

Within a few minutes,

the heat was so intense that it was impossible to stand

within 20 feet of the fire without feeling that your skin was scorching.

The boulders, as they roasted,

began to crack with noises like pistol shots

and burning-hot splinters of stone

came flying through the air to land at our feet.

INTENSE CRACKLING

The next morning, exactly eight hours after the fire had been lit,

the men who were to walk on the stones,

together with their attendants who were to prepare the pit for them,

marched out of the village, headed by the chief,

and, behind him, the tribal priest.

They passed quite close to the lovo, the fire pit,

but it was taboo for any of them at this moment to set eyes

on the blistering hot stones on which they must walk within half an hour.

The men who were actually to walk on fire left the column

and disappeared into this small house some 20 yards from the lovo.

There, they will sit in darkness and meditation

until the pit has been made ready for them.

The attendants, led by the priest, marched onwards to the pit.

The great bonfire had now almost burnt out, but, even so,

the heat was so great that if you stood on the edge of the pit,

it hit your face like a physical blow.

A few smouldering timbers on the top of the stones

had first to be removed.

EXCITED SHOUTING

Once the logs had been dragged away, then the searing-hot stones

had to be levelled to make a flat surface

on which the performers could walk.

20 minutes had passed since the last timbers had been removed

but, even so, there could be no question

that the stones were still intensely hot,

certainly hot enough to burn human flesh.

At last, all was ready and the priest called to the men in the hut.

PRIEST SHOUTS

HE SHOUTS

As soon as the men had made one circuit

of the fiercely hot boulders, the priest gave another order.

MEN CHANT

All the men who had walked remained in the centre of the pit chanting,

as steam from bundles of leaves rose around them.

THEY CHANT

The masawe vine was thrown into the pit

as the little eel god had ordained.

THEY CONTINUE TO CHANT

And then, finally, the leaves and the roasted boulders

were covered with earth and buried.

THEY CHANT

As the performers came out of the pit, I talked to one of them.

And when you were in the hut, where you stayed for half an hour,

what do you do?

I just sit down and prepare.

You sit and prepare?

- Yeah. - How do you prepare?

I just keep ready.

- Uh...do you do anything special? - No.

- Nothing? - Nothing.

- Do you...do you think about anything?

Well, I'm just thinking that I'm going to walk...the hot stones.

- And does that worry you? - No, not at all.

- Not at all? - No.

Do you... It is dark in there? Do you shut your eyes?

- No. - You just... Do you talk?

- Yes, we talk. - What do you talk about?

Just talk about that you're going to...walk on the hot stones.

And when you come out of the hut, and you go into the lovo, uh,

what does it feel like, walking on the stones?

Before we step onto the hot stones,

we feel some strength go into our body.

- Some stranger? - Some strength.

- Strength? - Yes, we feel...

don't feel...normal

as we are.

- You don't feel normal? - Yeah. A bit different.

And when you walk onto the stones, what do you feel in your feet?

- Nothing. - Nothing at all?

- No. - May I just look at your feet now?

- And they are not burnt at all. - No.

No, not at all. No.

How many times have you done it?

Well, it's the first time I have...

- It's the first time? - Yes.

- And were you frightened? - No.

Why do you think that you don't get burned?

Because we believe in the old...

..these, they have done this and nothing happened to them, so...

- Do you think that I could do it? - I think so. Anybody can do it.

Anybody can do it?

But are there not some taboos which one has to obey?

Yes, there are some laws you've got to obey before you step in.

What are the laws?

- That coconut... - Mm-hm.

Don't eat the coconut before you step in.

- Don't eat coconut? - Four days. Yes.

Keep out from eating this coconut.

And if I obeyed those laws, I could walk on the stones, could I?

And it burn!

THEY LAUGH

Thank you very much.

Some years ago,

a team of doctors carried out a scientific investigation

into how it was that the Fijians could walk on hot stones in that way.

There were a lot of explanations which were examined.

Some people pointed out that, of course, if you walked barefoot

all your life, the bottom of your feet had

hard, thick skin on it, which is perfectly true.

But even hard, thick skin burns

when it touches boulders as hot as that, and those people were unburned.

Other people said, "Well, a boulder, when it cools,

"it has a microscopic skin on the top of the stone, as it were,

"which is quite cool,

"and that when you have perspiration from your feet

"and putting onto the slightly cool rock, this forms

"a sort of cushion - you don't get burnt, if you tread very quickly."

But then those people didn't walk very quickly.

And, indeed, no-one could produce an explanation which was so convincing

that they were prepared to put it to the test, anyway,

by trying to walk themselves.

But there was a more simple question

which I myself couldn't find an answer to, and that was,

why do they do it?

I asked quite a lot of people, and they just said,

"Well, this was a power which has been given us and given our ancestors

"and because we are men from Mbengga, we must do it."

In fact, one of them said, "You are not really a true Mbengga man

"until you have gone fire-walking."

That's the explanation they gave me, and I pass it straight on to you.

Well, after we left Mbengga,

we set off for the remotest and farthest-out islands of Fiji,

and what we found there I'll tell you about next time.

SINGING