72 AROUND THE WOULD VIA INDIA. 



the island and the care of the sick poor natives. They 

 have already succeeded in securing for Pago Pago, a 

 village of 1,500 inhabitants, a pure water supply and 

 many other sanitary improvements. The greatest fault 

 with the Samoans is their inborn laziness. They will 

 not work. The government has now under way many 

 improvements, and, although the Avages for this part 

 of the world are large, $1 a day, it had to import labor- 

 ers from other islands to do the work. Civilization has 

 rather increased than diminished this inherent repug- 

 nance to labor. 



KAVA DRINKING. 



Kava is the national drink of the Samoans. They 

 have not, like our Indians, an ungovernable desire for 

 alcoholic stimulants. Kava is the fleshy root of Piper 

 methysticiim, a succulent plant about four feet in 

 height, with large, long petioled leaves. In propagat- 

 ing the plant all that is necessary is to break off one 

 of the leaves at its point of insertion, including the 

 bulbous base of the petiole, and stick it into the moist, 

 rich, black soil. Kava drinking is a ceremony. Dr. 

 Odell was kind enough to give me an opportunity to ob- 

 serve this ceremony in all its details and to sample the 

 product. Whenever possible the drink is prepared by 

 a young woman, who always regards the task as oblig- 

 atory, as well as a privilege, if not of distinction. The 

 first young lady that passed Dr. Odell's bachelor quar- 

 ters was called in, and she went through the entire per- 

 formance with a grace and elegance that showed she 

 was no novice in that part of her domestic functions. 

 Formerly the root, fresh or dried, was chewed by young 

 women. Xow the dried root is crushed on a stone, and 

 the coarse powder is placed into a shallow bowl of hard 

 wood, supported on very short legs, the pride of every 

 Samoan family; it is to them what the samovar is to 

 the Eussians. After pouring cold water on the pulver- 

 ized root it is stirred vigorously with both hands for 



