The Days of a Man 1902 



checked joyousness and native courtesy, but the skill 

 displayed in carving the piece de resistance suggests, 

 not too pleasantly, the pictures of "long pig" feasts 

 once drawn by missionaries. The Samoans, however, 

 indignantly disclaim any taint of cannibal ancestry. 



Our Mata'afa, a man of fine presence and noble charac- 



fo//ow terj held "court" in Apia in a "palace" of one large 

 hall with floor of coral sand, walls of coral rock, and 

 a thatching of palm leaves for roof. During our 

 ceremonial visit, the chief squatted at one end of a 

 long strip of matting which covered the middle of the 

 room, the most honored guest at his right, "his talk- 

 ing-man," then a half-caste, Edwin Gurr, on his left. 

 At the opposite end sat the village taupou, the hand- 

 somest native maiden, a scarlet hibiscus over her ear. 



The Her duty it was to prepare the ceremonial kava? 

 a beverage made from the large, turnip-like root of 

 the kava plant Piper methystica a member of the 

 pepper family. This contains a peculiar aromatic 

 juice said to be a harmful irritant which causes in the 

 whole digestive tract from the mouth on a tingling 

 numbness like that of a foot "asleep." 



While Samoans do not take to alcoholic drinks, they 

 are extremely fond of their kava, and kava drinking 

 is the main feature of ceremonial functions. In 

 elder days the taupou chewed the root with her white 



making teeth, dropping the residue into water which, when 



poured off clear, retains the essential principle. But 



unromantic missionaries objected to that picturesque 



method, substituting a nutmeg grater instead! 



The beverage ready, a cupful is first taken to the 



1 Originally 'ava in Samoan, a language which has no k, a slight guttural 

 hitch or click indicated by ' taking its place. 



108 



