246 Voyage of the Novara. 



Tahitians to be found, who appear obstinately opposed to the 

 use of our alcoholized liquors, who on special festivities will face 

 every privation for the luxury of boozing over their kawa, 

 for which they sometimes pay five francs for a small piece. 



Formerly the process of chewing the kawa was performed 

 by the young girls, and then only by those who had the 

 finest teeth. Before beginning this delicate task, they were 

 required carefully to rinse their mouths and purify their 

 hands, for which purpose they made use of special vessels. 

 Wlien the roots had been slowly and equally chewed, and 

 had been changed into little cones held together by saliva, 

 they were mingled with water in a large wooden vessel 

 ( Umeli)y standing upon a tripod, and gently squeezed by hand. 

 In many of the islands this process of dilution is performed 

 by mixing cocoa-nut juice instead of the customary water. 

 The kawa is a very fluid substance, not very inviting in ap- 

 pearance at any time, but still less so when one has wit- 

 nessed the mode of preparing it. Usually it is of the colour 

 of cafe au lait ; but occasionally, when some of the leaves of 

 the plant have been mixed with the root, the beverage as- 

 sumes a greenish tinge, something like wormwood, al- 

 though to the palate it has nothing in common with that 

 substance. 



Kawa is drunk out of the half of the cocoa-nut shell, which 

 in the hands of a native skilled in carving" becomes a really 

 elegant beaker. Only famiUes of high birth, the Arii and 



