﻿KAVA DRINKING AS I'KUTISED BY THE PAPUANS 

 AND POLYNESIANS 



By WALTER HOUGH 



Among' the customs peculiar to the inhabitants of the South Pacific 

 islands, perhaps the most noted is that of the preparation and drink- 

 ing of a narcotic beverage called ava, kava, or yakona. Much of its 

 notoriety arises from the repulsive way in which it is sometimes made. 

 Aside from this, it is characteristic of a certain oceanic area, and 

 seems to be as strikingly limited to this area as is the stick-and- 

 groove method of making fire. The custom, however, is not confined 

 to one ethnic stock, many notices in literature showing that both 

 Papuans and Polynesians practise it. In many of the islands the 

 liquor is concocted by chewing the root of the Macro pi per methysti- 

 cum, or long pepper, ejecting the comminuted mass into a bowl, 

 adding _ water, straining out the pulp, and drinking the fluid. In 

 other localities it is made by simply grating the root and adding 

 water. 



The plant from which kava is made is a shrub of the natural 

 order Pipcracccc. It is about six feet high, with stems ranging from 

 an inch to an inch and a half in thickness; the leaves are cordate 

 and from four to eight inches long. This family is the source of 

 the pepper of commerce and contains several species that are of 

 medicinal and commercial importance. 



In making kava, the root and base of the stem are used. The 

 roots usually weigh from two to four pounds, though sometimes as 

 much as 22 pounds. Several varieties are distinguished by the na- 

 tives ; for instance, in Tahiti there is a yellow variety called marca ; 

 another, which becomes pink on exposure to the air, is called avini-ute. 



Chewed when freshly gathered, the root first tastes sweet and 

 aromatic, then bitter, acrid, and pungent. It provokes abundant 

 secretion of saliva and in a few r seconds occasions a sensation of 

 burning on the tongue. The root contains about fifty percent of 

 starch, a little pale-yellow essential oil, two percent of an acrid resin. 

 and one percent of the neutral crystalline principle methysticin. called 

 kavahin. To the latter principle we must attribute the toxic qualities 

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