170 THE AVA DRINK. 



form from the lower classes, and are seldom 

 disfigured by the swellings and ulcers frequent 

 among the latter, which we ascribed to the 

 great use of salt in their preparations of meat 

 and fish ; the former, however, are much in- 

 jured by immoderate indulgence in the Ava 

 drink. Those who suffered most from it had 

 their whole bodies covered with a white erup- 

 tion : their eyes were red and inflamed, they 

 trembled much, and could scarcely hold up 

 their heads. This beverage does not shorten 

 the lives of all who use it too freely, as Terai- 

 opu, Kau, and several other chiefs addicted to 

 it, were old men ; but it brings on premature 

 and diseased old age. Fortunately, this luxury 

 is the exclusive privilege of the chiefs. The 

 son of Teraiopu, a boy of twelve years old, 

 often boasted of having obtained the right of 

 drinking Ava, and showed with much com- 

 placency a spot on his loins where the eruption 

 was already visible. 



" Notwithstanding the great and irreparable 

 loss which the sudden violence of these Sand- 

 wich Islanders has occasioned us/' (in the death 



