100 JOHN FKASEK. 



explain her use of it, I extract the following from the Rev. Dr. Gill's 

 " Myths and Songs from the South Pacific/' p. 161 :— " The grand secret 

 of Mini's power over her intended victims is the Jcava root. The three 

 sorts of Jcava known in the upper world were originally branches of this 

 enormous root ever-growing in Avaiki. Miru's four lovely daughters are 

 directed to prepare bowls of this strong Jcava for her unwilling visitors. 

 Utterly stupefied with the draught, the unresisting victims are borne off 

 to the oven and cooked, Miru, with her son and peerless daughters, 

 subsist on these human spirits. The refuse is thrown to her servants, 

 Akaanga and others. Such is the inevitable fate of those who die a 

 natural death, that is, of women, cowards, and children. They are an- 

 nihilated ; but some of the wise men say that they live again, after Miru 

 and her followers are done with them." 



As to the ' habitat ' of the plant, our solos declare that its original 

 home, when it was brought down from heaven, was the group of Manu f a 

 in Samoa, and that it was carried thence to the other islands of Samoa, 

 to Tonga and Fiji in the one direction, and to Tahiti in the other. By 

 them its horizon is thus limited to Fiji on the west, and Borabora of 

 Tahiti on the east. But we know that it spread not only to Tahiti but 

 to the Hervey Group, to all the Society Islands, to the Marquesas, and 

 even to the Hawaian islands in the far north-east. Also, when the first 

 missionaries went to the New Hebrides, they found the plant cultivated 

 and used in all the islands of that group ; but it is not known in New- 

 Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, or in New Guinea. In New Zealand the 

 drink is not used, but the plant, in one or other of its varieties, is em- 

 ployed in various religious ceremonies, such as the removing of tabu and 

 the performance of a rite equivalent to baptism. In some of the smaller 

 islands of Polynesia, the drink is prepared solely as a libation to the gods ; 

 and even in Samoa it was mainly the chiefs and elderly men that used 

 it ; and in Tahiti the scurf spots on the body caused by its habitual use 

 were considered marks of high rank. In Samoa, the youths, when they 

 were fully tatooed and thus entered on the privileges of men, were allowed 

 for the first time to drink the Jcava at entertainments. 



To prepare the drink for use, the furniture required is a supply of the 

 root, a bowl, a strainer, a cup, and a good array of strong teeth in human 

 jaws. The solos describe the mode of preparation ; — the plant is pulled 

 up, root, stem and branches ; the twigs, branches and the greater part of 

 the stem are broken off ; for it is only the lower stem and rhizomes that 

 are used ; the portion selected is beaten on the ground to clear it of earth; 

 it is also scraped and cut into pieces ; the skin is then torn off with the 

 teeth ; if not to be used immediately, the pieces are thrown into the house, 



