39 
feet, which were tucked up under his hams, started on his errand. 
He shortly returned carrying a large plant of the Kava (a species 
of Pepper, Piper methysticum, L.), under his arm. It appeared 
just as it had been taken from the ground, the leaves, only, 
having been removed from the stems, they were about three 
feet long and ten or twelve in number, an inch in diameter 
at the base, and tapering toward the end. He brought the 
plant in a stooping posture, holding it in both his hands, the 
root towards me, and, having thrown it gently down upon the 
mat before me, withdrew. After it had lain upon the ground a 
few seconds, it was removed by the man who brought it, to the 
opposite end of the hall. A large bowl * of wood, having four 
short thick legs of the same, was taken down from a pillar 
of the house, against which it hung, and was placed before a 
young man, I believe the son of the Tue Tonga, the handsomest 
and the chief person in the assembly, who sat in the centre of 
the front row of those who filled the space opposite to us. A 
long bone (?) which I took to be the tooth of a narwhal, was 
then brought in, with which the root was broken and divided 
into separate pieces, the man holding the bone in a vertical posi¬ 
tion and pounding the root, also held upright, with the broad 
end of it, which done, the bone was taken out again, and 
the portions of root and stems, about six inches long, were 
distributed to the persons who sat on each side of the bowl, 
who, after scraping off the earth which adhered to the roots, 
and cleaning it well with the fibres of the cocoa-nut husk, 
broke off portions with their teeth and commenced chewing 
it. Whilst this part of the operation was performing, I was 
engaged in conversation with the Chief, and answering his 
questions. Presently after two men arrived, bearing upon a 
pole between them two baskets, one of which contained a baked 
pig and yams, the other, parcels of a kind of jelly made of 
arrow-root mixed with the juice of sugar-cane: these parcels 
were tied up in portions of the leaves of Banana, and were about 
as large as a good-sized pudding; they were about eight or 
ten in number. The appearance of the dish was not inviting, 
but upon experiment, being hungry, it was by no means to be 
despised. The pig was sent to the boat. There was enough, 
in all, for at least twenty people. 
The Kava root being masticated, the young man who presided 
over the bowl first threw his mouthfull into it; those who were 
* The bowl, and specimens of the Pepper, or Kava plant, are deposited in the 
Museum of the Royal Gardens.— Ed. 
