544 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1961 



of sirih {Piper hetle L.) as well. But the use of Piper hetle would in- 

 dicate an introduction of the practice from a direction contrary to that 

 hypothesized by Heyerdahl.^ 



Another habit mentioned by Heyerdahl is the drinking of kava 

 on special occasions in Polynesia. The drink in early days was made 

 by women, who chewed the roots of Piper methysticum Forst. f . for 

 that purpose. This practice Heyerdahl compares with the preparation 

 and drinking of chicha in Andean South America. This latter drink 

 originally was made only by women, who chewed corn; molasses is 

 added to the mixture and is followed by fermentation of the juice. 

 The result is a vile-smelling, milky suspension which is drunk to ex- 

 cess by certain classes of the population. In my opinion, the parallel 

 between kava and kasiri drinking, such as takes place among the In- 

 dians in the interior of Siu-inam, where the drink is made from fer- 

 mented chewed cassava {Manihot esculenta Crantz), is still stronger. 

 Here also the chewing is usually done by women. But this custom, 

 which occurs not only in Surinam but in many parts of the Amazon 

 Basin, is apparently not known to Heyerdahl. Merrill does not men- 

 tion Heyerdahl's arguments based on cocaine and kava. Apparently 

 these items escaped him since they are not found in the botanical 

 chapter of Heyerdahl's voluminous work. 



Having discussed the plant species regarded by a number of au- 

 thors as introduced into Polynesia from America and for that reason 

 mentioned by Heyerdahl in support of his theory, we should now 

 concern ourselves with the absence of certain American-cultivated 

 plants in the Polynesian area. It would have been very strange if 

 the migrating pre-Incas had brought of their crops only sweet pota- 

 toes and perhaps coconuts, and not corn {Zea mays L.), the most im- 

 portant food plant of pre-Columbian America. That this species 

 originated in America has been adequately demonstrated by the in- 

 vestigations of Mangelsdorf and his collaborators. The hypothesis 

 of Stonor and Anderson (1949) to the effect that corn was cultivated 

 in India before the arrival of Europeans is rejected by Mangelsdorf 

 and Oliver (1951) , who stated that there is no proof of the use of com 

 in Asia in pre-Columbian times. As to its use and popularity, they 

 compare maize in Asia with potatoes in Ireland. Merrill (1950, 

 1954) is convinced that corn reached India by the Portuguese trade 

 route from Brazil to Goa by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Heyer- 

 dahl, also convinced of the American origin of maize, has accordingly 

 some difficulties in explaining the established lack of corn in Polynesia 

 before the arrival of Europeans. He suggests the possibilities that 

 either the stock of corn was lost during the disembarkation of the 



» Actually, Piper betle Is nowhere used In Polynesia by the Polynesians themselves. Its 

 use extends from India east to the Solomons. The only Polynesians who use it are the 

 Polynesian "outliers" within Melanesia. 



