328 A MISSION TO VITI. 



Besides their favourite yaqona, the Fijians drink the 

 natural liquor of young cocoa-nuts ; but they had ab- 

 solutely no other beverage save water. They were igno- 

 rant of extracting an intoxicating drink from the sac- 

 charine roots of their Masawe (Dracaena terminally 

 Linn.), so much employed for that purpose by the Ha- 

 waiians and other Polynesians. They were even stran- 

 gers to infusions and decoctions made of aromatic leaves, 

 and the so-called Fijian tea, vernacularly termed Ma- 

 tadra, was never used by the natives. The European 

 settlers, w r ho first employed it as a substitute for Chi- 

 nese tea, by drying and then boiling the leaves, brought 

 the custom from the eastern groups of Polynesia. The 

 Matadra (Missiessya corymbidosa, Wedcl.) is a straggling 

 shrub, belonging to the nettle-tribe, having slender 

 branches, and generally growing as underwood. It at- 

 tains from six to eight feet in height, has leaves some- 

 what resembling those of the elm, but white underneath, 

 and minute flowers and fruits arranged in corymbs. 



incoherent dreams. Kava is as powerful in its therapeutic action as lig- 

 num vitse or guaiacum, sarsaparilla, etc., and the islanders use it as a 

 specific against the diseases brought over to them by foreign vessels. On 

 the other hand, this drug, used to excess as an intoxicating agent, over 

 excites the skin by its sudorific effects, and eventually even occasions 

 elephantiasis. . . . The chemical constituents, according to Gobley, are as 

 follows: carbon, 62'03 ; hydrogen^ 6'10 ; nitrogen, 1*12; oxygen, 3O75. 

 It contains 26 per cent, of cellulose, 49 per cent, of starch, one of methys- 

 ticine, a crystallizable principle, two of an acrid resin called Kawine, and 

 about 7 per cent, of gum, iron, and magnesia, and a few substances of 

 minor importance." In a paper, which M. Cuzent laid before the Academy 

 of Sciences at Paris, in 1861, the chemical composition of the Kavahine 

 (thus it is spelt in- the report at hand), the active crystallizable principle 

 of the Kava, identical, it would seem, with what Gobley terms " Me- 

 thysticine," is thus given : no nitrogen, 66 per cent, of carbon, 6 of hydro- 

 gen, and 28 of oxygen. 



