A VANISHING PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH SEAS 



297 



pants, several hundred savages often tak- 

 ing part in the celebration. Their musi- 

 cal instruments were hollowed logs over 

 which shark or pigskin had been tightly 

 stretched. These were beaten by the mu- 

 sicians with the palms of their hands, 

 filling the air with a pandemonium of 

 sound. Bowls of ava-ava and namu-ehi, 

 the two favorite intoxicants of the sav- 

 ages, were scattered about to refresh 

 the flagging spirits and muscles of the 

 dancers. 



To try to visualize the contortions of 

 the hula for one who has not witnessed 

 it is to attempt the impossible. Trained 

 to its art from early childhood, with per- 

 fect development and control of every leg 

 and abdominal muscle, they dance for 

 hours in a frenzy of passion, uttering 

 hysterical cries and groans, and twisting 

 their supple bodies in lascivious, obscene 

 movements to the wild tom-tom of the 

 pounding drums and the shrill, never- 

 ceasing chant of the musicians. 



Utterly exhausted, men and women 

 will fall, gasping and inert, only to creep 

 hack again, stimulated by ava-ava and 

 their reviving passion, and fling them- 

 selves once more into the throes of the 

 dance. What their powers of endurance 

 were in the old days I cannot say, though 

 I have been told the hula often lasted 

 twelve or fifteen hours. I saw one a few 

 months ago on a beach at Uapu which 

 began at 1 1 o'clock and lasted until dawn, 

 six hours later. 



marquesan maidens are the island 

 "distieeers" 



Two intoxicants more dissimilar than 

 the ones most enjoyed by the Marquesan 

 it would be difficult to imagine. Both are 

 in high favor in other South Sea islands, 

 "but a description here may not be amiss. 



The ava-ava, or ava-ti, so called in 

 some valleys after the root from which 

 it is made, is concocted by a method that 

 would scarcely win approval from a stu- 

 dent of hygiene. A sufficient quantity of 

 the roots is given to several maidens of 

 the village, who sit grouped about a large 

 bowl. Each root is chewed by them until 

 its fibers are broken up, when it is thrown 

 into the bowl. This operation finished, 

 water is poured over the pulpy mass, and 

 fermentation, greatly stimulated by the 



saliva of the girls, begins at once. In a 

 short time the ava-ava is ready for con- 

 sumption. It has a distinctly soapy taste, 

 unpleasant to the Anglo-Saxon palate, 

 and is one beverage my patient and long- 

 suffering stomach refused to entertain 

 even momentarily. 



No such objection can be offered to 

 namu-ehi, or, as it is more commonly 

 known, koko. Bhi is Marquesan for 

 coconut, and it is from the coco palm 

 that this most insidious and delectable of 

 all drinks is made. A tall coco palm that 

 has been windblown so that its plumy top 

 leans far out of the perpendicular is 

 chosen. The buds, from which eventu- 

 ally fifty or sixty nuts would be pro- 

 duced, grow in a compact, oblong cluster 

 near the top of the palm. The native 

 climbs, or rather runs like a monkey on 

 hands and feet, up the slender, swaying 

 trunk, and, using long strips of bark or 

 fiber, binds the cluster of blossoms tightly 

 round and round, until the result resem- 

 bles a huge, fat cigar protruding from the 

 fronds. Underneath the point of this a 

 bowl is suspended and the tip end of the 

 wrapping sliced off. 



For a day or two the native must pos- 

 sess his soul in patience and climb his 

 tree several times to chip off the gummv 

 coagulation which forms on the end of 

 the imprisoned cluster. After the second 

 day it begins to drip freely, but the end 

 must be sliced fresh every twenty- four 

 hours to stimulate the flow. In this man- 

 ner a tree will furnish one or more gal- 

 lons a day for several weeks. 



When fresh from the tree the beverage 

 resembles a delicious lemonade, with a 

 flavor which would make the fortune of 

 a soft-drink manufacturer who could re- 

 produce it. Fermentation takes place 

 speedily, however, and in a few hours 

 your soft drink has "hardened" into a 

 vicious man-killer that only a savage can 

 go against with impunity. I speak from 

 experience. 



THE ADVENT OF THE WHITE MAN'S VICES 

 AND VIRTUES 



In the foregoing pages I have tried to 

 depict the Marquesan as he was before 

 the long arm of civilization laid a finger 

 on his island home. His vices and his 

 virtues were his own. Xo extraneous in- 



