148 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
were gathered the men of the village who received us with full 
formality. Their age-old ceremony centers about the making and 
serving of kava, the native drink which is prepared from the roots 
of the Piper methysticum. The powdered root is thoroughly 
mixed with water in a finely carved wooden bowl of perhaps four 
or five quarts capacity. The fiber is then removed by dragging a 
loose strand of bast through the mixture, wringing the fluid back 
into the bowl, and shaking out the fragments. This is repeated a 
score of times when the milky kava is cleaned and duly pro- 
nounced as ready to serve. During the half hour required for the 
making of the kava, half a hundred of Fijian men, seated on the 
ground, chanted a ritual in deep sonorous voices. 
The master of ceremonies then presented a cup of kava to each 
of the guests in turn, and in order of their rank. On these ocea- 
sions the kava is served in a half shell of a large coconut, which 
has been carefully smoothed. Some of these cups worn by long 
usage become lined with a precipitate like mother-of-pearl and 
these are greatly valued by the natives. I rather dreaded the 
ordeal of drinking the kava when my turn came, for courtesy 
compels one to take the bowl in both hands and to drink its con- 
tents without pausing for breath. When emptied the cup is set 
spinning on the mat towards the cup bearer who serves the next 
in order. I found the beverage not unpleasant to the taste. Kava 
is widely used by the natives and by many whites as well. It is 
non-alcoholic but undoubtedly possesses an alkaloid, as it becomes 
a habit with those who use it. We saw no ill effects or physical 
detriment following its use by natives, though we were informed 
that prolonged indulgence brought on a temporary paralysis of 
the legs, but the brain, fortunately, remains clear. 
The afternoon took us still farther upstream and the evening 
found us welcomed to the village of Namuamua at the junction of 
the Navua river with the ‘Wainikoroiluva. This was another 
pleasant village having the characteristic broad stretch of open 
grass with the houses grouped around this court. Ornamental 
plants such as erotons, dracenas, varieties of coleus and other 
flowering or foliage plants were grown about their dwellings in 
tasteful array. Numerous breadfruit trees with their marvelous 
leaves, splendid palms, and a number of shaddock trees with their 
yellow fruits stood near the houses. The shaddock resembles 
grape-fruit, though less pulpy, and are as large as a small pump- 
