SOME FOLK-SONGS AND MYTHS FROM SAMOA. 101 



that they may be dried and stored there ; if the drink is to be made at 

 once, the collected heap of Jcava is handed over to the kava-ehewers, who 

 sit in a circle and are mostly young people — virgins preferred — from 

 fourteen to twenty years of age, the belles of the town. These crush it 

 between their teeth, and, after it is masticated, they place the fibre in the 

 Icava bowl, — a large wooden vessel kept for the purpose ; when there is 

 enough of the masticated root there, pure water is poured into the bowl, 

 and the whole is stirred with the hand; if allowed to settle for a little, 

 it speedily ferments ; the liquid in the bowl is then strained with pulu 

 (cocoa-nut) fibre, and borne to the guests in a cup — a cocoa-nut, which, 

 from saturation and frequent use, often looks as if made of tortoise-shell 

 — to the highest in rank first. The cup-bearer must be a skilled master 

 of the ceremonies, for any violation of precedence is a mortal insult. In 

 presenting the cup to any chief, say Sanga, he says with a loud voice " O 

 Sanga, here is Icava for you/' and, while Sanga drinks, the whole company 

 strike their hands on their thighs in applause; and so, with similar 

 observances, the cup passes round to all the circle of chiefs. The highest 

 chief, when he received the first cup, before drinking of it, always poured 

 out a libation to the highest god, Tangaloa-i-le-langi. The drinkers in 

 the New Hebrides were not so well-mannered as that ; for, although at 

 the beginning of the feast, they poured out a bowlful to the gods, yet 

 each man, as he drank, used to spit out the last mouthful, saying "Here, 

 gods ; that's for you ! " 



To us the chewing process does not seem a pleasant way of preparing a 

 beverage for others to drink, but some of the South American Indians 

 prepare maize beer in the same way; and, in Formosa, rice and barley 

 are chewed for the same purpose. 



The Jcava plant is slow of growth ; for this reason and probably from 

 some sense of its sacredness, its use was somewhat restricted in Samoa 

 and Tahiti, but in the Tongan and some other islands, the natives still 

 debauch themselves with the drink. The plant loves a shady place ; in 

 heaven it was lafita'i, ' hidden away/ ' concealed '; in Samoa it is grown 

 under the shade of other trees ; in our solos, it is poetically described as 

 e standing on tiptoe and reaching up to kiss the blossom of the fasafasa' 

 and other pretty trees, by which it is surrounded. Its first place of growth, 

 according to these solos, was Saua, an easterly point in Tau, one of the 

 Manu'a islets. The people of Savail got it from there by purchase, the 

 price being a fat and plump mother hen, as the third of these solos tells 

 us. Then it spread to Upolu, Tutuila, and the other islands of the Samoan 

 group ; and everywhere found congenial soil and became prolific ; it 

 spread even up the sides of the mountains till it almost reached their 



