NATIONAL BEVERAGES. 329 



Some people have drank a decoction of its leaves with- 

 out perceiving it to be different from Chinese tea. 



There is another negative fact of singular ethnolo- 

 gical importance connected with this subject. Neither 

 the Fijians nor the Polynesians in general were ac- 

 quainted with the art of extracting toddy from the un- 

 expanded flowers of the cocoa-nut palm. It is only 

 in quite recent times that Europeans have instructed 

 them in it. This, in a great measure, seems to strengthen 

 the position of those who maintain that the Polyne- 

 sians did not come from the Malayan or any other dis- 

 trict of Asia ; that they would never have migrated con- 

 trary to the direction of the prevailing trade-winds ; and 

 that the identity of certain Malayan and Polynesian 

 words, thought to be an overpowering argument in 

 favour of that exodus, cuts both ways, and may be made 

 to prove either that these words came from purely Ma- 

 layan to Polynesian districts, or from a genuine Polyne- 

 sian to a Malayan ; and exactly the same dilemma is 

 encountered in dealing with the geographical distribu- 

 tion of Polynesian plants and animals. Passionately 

 fond as are the Polynesians of intoxicating drinks, they 

 would never have discontinued making toddy, if they 

 had ever known the way to make it, especially as a tree 

 yielding it, the cocoa-nut palm, is common throughout 

 Polynesia. In order to reconcile this fact with the hy- 

 pothesis that the Polynesians are of Malayan origin, it 

 might be assumed that they left the cradle of their 

 race before the extraction of toddy from the cocoa-nut 

 tree, or even the cocoa-nut tree itself, was known there. 

 Tradition, historical evidence, and observed facts, all 



