Freedomite Doukhobor Mary Braun took her first mouthful of food in 47 days Thursday while her friend Tina Zmaeff continued her fast for freedom into the 48th day.

Zmaeff is still mentally alert, [Dianne Brown] said, and for the time being will remain in the Matsqui health unit where Braun is now recovering. If Zmaeff gets too dehydrated, doctors may decide to transfer her to hospital.

Zmaeff, 62, and Braun, 66, are serving eight-year sentences for a 1985 arson near Castlegar.

Freedomite Doukhobor Mary Braun took her first mouthful of food in 47 days Thursday while her friend Tina Zmaeff continued her fast for freedom into the 48th day.

Braun made the decision to break her lengthy hunger strike about noon Thursday after being visited at Matsqui institution by a group of friends and relatives from the Kootenays.

Corrections Canada spokesman Dianne Brown said Braun is still very weak and has started taking soft foods, fruit and liquids.

Both women are still very weak and confined to their beds, she said.

Zmaeff is still mentally alert, Brown said, and for the time being will remain in the Matsqui health unit where Braun is now recovering. If Zmaeff gets too dehydrated, doctors may decide to transfer her to hospital.

"She's weak and still alert and she needs assistance to get around," Brown said.

She said the visitors spoke to both women, but were unable to encourage Zmaeff to start eating.

Zmaeff, 62, and Braun, 66, are serving eight-year sentences for a 1985 arson near Castlegar.

Both women stopped eating Feb. 1, saying they would not touch food again until they were freed.

After a 48-day fast a year ago, both women were paroled, but they lit another fire last August and were sent back to jail to serve their original sentence, plus an extra six months for the new charge. They were also pardoned in 1983 after another lengthy prison fast.

The Doukhobor women have a long history of fasting for their freedom which corresponds to their long criminal records for arson, a crime they commit to show their religious opposition to material goods.

In the past 17 months, Braun has gone without food for at least 241 days on several long-term fasts, while Zmaeff has starved herself for at least 227 days.

"We encourage them to take food. They are reminded every day of the implications of continuing fasting," Brown said.

The women refuse medical examinations, though there now is a nurse nearby 24 hours a day. A doctor must try to judge their condition by looking at them. No one knows how much weight they've lost.