DRUNKENNESS 99 



of the coconut palm, is yet more prized by the natives. 

 This is the Sugar palm {Arcnga sacchari/era) , and from 

 it is made a very potent and intoxicating liquor. 

 When the palm is in fruit — it bears a heavy bunch 

 of dark green fruit — a cut is made in the stem below 

 the stalk of the fruit, and the juice trickles out and 

 is collected in the shell of a coconut. Apparently the 

 juice ferments very rapidly without the addition of 

 any other substance, for it is drunk almost as soon as 

 it is collected and the native becomes horribly intoxicated. 



During the first few weeks of our stay in the 

 country the people were on their good behaviour, or 

 else they found sufficient amusement in coming to see 

 us and our works, but they soon tired of that and went 

 back to their normal habits. Many of them went to 

 the drinking places by day, and we often saw them 

 lying or sitting at the foot of the tree, while one of their 

 party stood at the top of a bamboo ladder collecting 

 the palm wine. But the worst was a small gang of 

 about a dozen men, the laziest in the village, whose 

 custom it was to start off towards evening in canoes 

 to their favourite drinking tree, where they spent the 

 night drinking and making night hideous with their 

 songs and shouts. In the morning they returned raving 

 to the village and as often as not they started quarrel- 

 ling and fighting and knocking the houses to pieces 

 (a favourite occupation of the angry Papuan) before 

 they settled down to sleep off the effects of their 

 potations. 



As a rule, the men were the worst offenders, and 

 the women drank but seldom, but I well remember 



