attention in these pages, I hope they will find
some amusement in following the fortunes and
misfortunes of all manner of strange folk who
once bewildered the wise men of their day. If
I have accomplished that much, I shall feel
amply repaid for my labor.
HOUDINI.



CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. Fire worship.--Fire eating and heat resistance.--The
Middle Ages.--Among the Navajo Indians.--Fire-
walkers of Japan.--The Fiery Ordeal of Fiji

II. Watton's Ship-swabber from the Indies.-Richardson,
1667.--De Heiterkeit, 1713.--Robert Powell,
1718-1780.--Dufour, 1783.--Quackensalber, 1794

III. The nineteenth century.--A ``Wonderful
Phenomenon.''--``The Incombustible Spaniard, Senor
Lionetto,'' 1803.--Josephine Girardelli, 1814.--John
Brooks, 1817.--W. C. Houghton, 1832.--J. A. B.
Chylinski, 1841.--Chamouni, the Russian Salamander,
1869.--Professor Rel Maeub, 1876. Rivelli (died 1900)

IV.--The Master--Chabert, 1792-1859