SAMOA: NA VIGATORS ISLANDS 



211 



meal, water to wash the hands and lips is passed around, and a 

 rub on the nearest post is the table napkin. 



Hospitality is a leading virtue, though often in many parts of 

 the group its application involves sacrifices of everything held 

 in highest esteem by the simple islander. Traveling parties can 

 go from end to end of the group without expense for food or 

 lodging, and the official " Large House," maintained by each vil- 

 lage, is seldom vacant. This peculiar institution is provided by 



">'S '!& i v- 



SAMOAN GIIU..S MAKING KAVA 



contributions from every family in the place. One of the results 

 of this type of hospitality is that the Samoan has become a great 

 traveler. Large parties, resembling our " tourists, 1 ' band to- 

 gether and go from town to town and from island to island. 



The native drink, or kava, is prepared from the root of the 

 Piper methysticum and is but mildly intoxicating. In fact, my 

 own experience with this liquor is that it does not sensibly affect 

 the head, but makes the knees tremulous. The head of a family 

 when taking his cup of kava at the beginning of the evening 

 meal pours a little of it on the ground as a sort of drink-offering to 



