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. 



