Food and Toxicants of the Natives. 245 



commerce is erroneously confomided with arrow-root, the 

 latter being chiefly procured from the Antilles and India, 

 more especially from Marantha Indica and Marantha arundi- 

 nacea. The pia is also much used in Tahitian households in 

 the preparation of small sweet cakes {Poe-'pia\ and is a not 

 unpalatable substitute for wheaten flour. 



VII. Hoi, or yams (Dioscorea alata)^ of which useful tuber a 

 variety of species are extensively used on the island. 



VIII. Umard, or sweet potato [Convolvulus Batata), preferred 

 by the natives to the European potato, and widely cultivated, 

 though it has somewhat degenerated in Tahiti. 



IX. Fare-rupe (Pteris esculentum), a kind of fern, the root 

 of which was in former times much used for food here, as also 

 in New Zealand. 



There still remain to be noticed two plants of much inter- 

 est, from the roots of which the Tahitians, prior to the arrival 

 of the Europeans, obtained strong intoxicating beverages.* 

 These are the ti-plant {^Cordyline Australis) and the kawa, or 

 ava [Piper methjsticum), of which latter fourteen varieties are 

 known to the natives. 



The cultivation of this species of pepper is at present pro- 

 hibited in Tahiti, and kawa-drinking has accordingly fallen 

 into entire disuse. Only on the peninsula are a few aged 



* The fermented juice of the orange, the pine-apple, the imndanus fruit, the span- 

 dias dulcis, and the wild bananas, were also used in former times for the preparation 

 of intoxicants. Since the introduction of European spirits, the natives discriminate 

 all foreign drinks as Ava-jmjida, their own being named Ava-maohi. 



