GROWTH AND DECLINE OE CULTURE. 179 



by a tiglier kind.^ Pottery was made there, and even far into 

 Polynesia, as in tlie Fiji Islands, All these tilings were pro- 

 bably introduced from Asia, to whicli country so very large 

 a part of tbe present Malay culture is due, but tbere are 

 local arts found cropping up in different groups of islands, 

 wbicb may be considered as native inventions peculiar to Poly- 

 nesia. Thus, in some of the islands, it was customary to keep 

 bread-fruit by fermenting it into a sour paste, in which state it 

 could be stored away for use out of season, an art of consider- 

 able value. This paste was called malii in Tahiti, where Cap- 

 tain Cook first saw it prepared, but it would seem to have been 

 invented at a period since the part of the race which went to 

 the Sandwich Islands were separated from the Tahitians, for 

 the Sandwich Islanders knew nothing of it tiU the English 

 brought it to them from Tahiti.'^ The use of the intoxicating 

 liquor known as ava, hava, or yangona, appears to be peculiar 

 to Polynesia, and therefore probably to have been invented 

 there. It is true that the usual, though not universal practice 

 of preparing it by chewing, gives it some resemblance to li- 

 quors so prepared on the American continent, but these latter 

 are of an entirely different character, being fermented liquors 

 of the nature of beer, made from vegetables rich in starch, 

 while the ava is not fermented at all, the juice of the plant it 

 is made from being intoxicating in its fresh state.^ 



' Marsden, p. 183. 



" Cook's First Voy. H., vol. ii. p. 198 j Third Voy., vol. iii. p. 141. 



' The etymology of kava or ava is of interest. Its original meaning may have 

 been that of bitterness or pungency; Jcawa, N. Z. = pungent, -bitter, strong (as 

 spirits, etc.) ; 'ava, Tah. = a bitter, disagreeable taste ; hava, Ear. Maug. Nuk., 

 'a'ava, Sam., atoa awa, Haw. = sour, bitter, pungent. Thence the name may 

 have been given, not only to the plant of which the intoxicating drink is made, 

 the Macropiper methysticum, kava, Tong. Ear. Nuk. ; 'ava, Sam. Tah. Haw. ; 

 but also in N. Z. to the Macropiper excelsum, or Jcaiva Icatva, and in Tahiti to 

 tobacco, 'ava 'ava. Lastly, the drink is named in Tahiti and in other islands 

 from the plant it is expressed from. But Mariner's Tongan vocabulary seems to 

 go the other way ; cava = the pepper plant ; also the root of this plant, of which 

 is made a peculiar kind of beverage, etc. ; oaiona = bitter, brackish, also intoxi- 

 cated with cava, or anything else. This looks as though the name of the plant 

 gave a name to the quality of bitterness, as we say " peppery" in the sense of hot. 

 (Seethe Vocabularies of Mariner, Hale, Buschmann, and the Church Miss. Soc, 

 N. Z.) Southey (Hist, of Brazil, vol. i. p. 245) compares the word Icava with 



N 



