﻿9<3 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [vol. 47 



There are some facts bearing on the spread of the kava custom 

 among the islands which may enable us to determine the locality 

 whence it took its rise. 



It is of historic record when kava was introduced into Samoa 

 from Fiji. According to the native account this was not very long 

 ago. In the Papuan area the custom reaches its highest develop- 

 ment, while to some of the Polynesian settlements it has never been 

 carried, notably to Easter island, where, from the observations of 

 Paymaster \Y. J. Thomson, U. S. X., it is not known. The reason 

 for this is that the Easter islanders migrated before the custom 

 found its way into their ancestral home (probably Rapaiti, 2j° 35' 

 S. lat. ; 144 20' W. long.; year, 1400). 1 



There is strong probability that the Papuans invented kava, be- 

 cause among this people its use was prevalent and the plant was 

 systematically cultivated for the purpose of making the drink. The 

 use of kava cannot be traced to Xew Zealand, though the Maori 

 make use of a piper for tea and for toothache. 



In New Guinea, at Mowat, the natives at the puberty feast drink 

 the health of the young boys in a liquor called komata, made from a 

 plant grown locally. Prof. A. C. Haddon thinks this is kava. 2 



d'Albertis says: " Maino brought me some roots which the natives 

 chew for its narcotic and intoxicating properties." 3 This seems to 

 point to the familiarity with kava among the Papuans of New Guinea. 



A number of the arts and manufactures in the Pacific islands 

 seem to be due to the progressive, woolly-haired peoples. Canoe and 

 house building, stone-working, the use of the bow and armor, the 

 making of pottery and bark cloth, some of these as evincing supe- 

 riority, some as unique, may be credited to the Papuans. 



The desire for narcotics and stimulants would seem to have grown 

 from human necessity in response to a natural craving that must 

 be supplied like any other desire, as thirst and hunger. The com- 

 munity of the instinct is shown by the almost universal use of 

 stimulants and narcotics. Savors, flavors, and narcotics fall into the 

 class of foods. As from the plainest and most simply prepared food 

 there is an education to the appreciation of flavor and the refine- 

 ments of preparation, so from the simplest of all beverages, water, 

 there is a cultivation of the senses by the juice of the fruit, the nut, 

 and the sap of plants, and the saccharomyces that float in the air 

 soon put a vinous beverage into the hands of man. The origin of 



1 Peschel, The Races of Men. p. 349. 

 -Jour. Anthrop. Inst., xix, 1890, 4. p. 460. 

 d' Ubertis, n. [880. 



