INDONESIAN ANNOTATIONS ON THE VOCABULARY. 19. 
themselves in pairs, one man preparing the kava for the other. In the Banks 
and Torres Islands, where the terms for kava have a distinct resemblance to 
the Polynesian word, there is a likeness to the Polynesian method in that the 
root is chewed, but otherwise the mode of preparation is fundamentally 
different. In the Torres Islands each man makes the drink for himself, 
using special small cups in a manner fully regulated by custom. In the 
Banks Islands also small cups only are used, and though the root is chewed 
by one man for several others, the ritual is wholly different from that of 
Polynesia. 
In the southern New Hebrides, where the term used for the drink agrees 
with that of Polynesia, the resemblance to Polynesian procedure is much 
closer. In Tanna each man chews a piece of the root, from which a boy 
prepares the liquid in a wooden trough. Enough is first prepared for three 
men, and then the same root is used for another three. In Eromanga the 
procedure resembles that of Polynesia still more closely. The root is chewed 
by boys, the chewed mass laid in a wooden vessel, water is added, and the 
mixture strained through coconut fiber and served in coconut shells. 
An essential distinction between the different methods is that, in Poly- 
nesia and Fiji, kava is always prepared in quantity and then shared out 
among those present or among the more important persons in the assembly, 
while in Melanesia the whole thing has a far more individual character. 
Each man makes it for himself in the Torres, two men make it for each other 
in Pentecost, or one man prepares the substance in turn for a number of 
men in the Banks. In association with this more individual character we 
find that in place of the large bowl in which the kava of Polynesia and Fiji 
is prepared, the Melanesians of the northern New Hebrides, Banks, and 
Torres Islands make it in the small cups from which they drink. 
It is possible that the more individual methods of Melanesia are merely 
a secondary result of the connection of kava with the Sukwe. In the Banks, 
for instance, kava is generally drunk in or at the gamal; if there had been at 
one time a more rigorous separation between the members of different divi- 
sions of the Sukwe than appears to exist at present, the more social fashion 
of Polynesia would have been impracticable. If, therefore, kava had been 
introduced from Polynesia in comparatively recent times, it is possible to 
see in the ritual of the Swkwe and similar institutions an obstacle to the 
orthodox Polynesian procedure. The separation between different ranks of 
the Sukwe may have made more individual methods necessary, and minor 
variations of procedure in the organizations of different islands may have 
produced the differences now found in the Banks and Torres Islands and 
Pentecost. It is thus possible to suggest a mechanism whereby the Melane- 
sian methods may have evolved away from that of Polynesia, but the differ- 
ences are so great that their explanation is probably to be sought in some 
other way than by direct introduction from that region. 
There is one feature of the use of kava in the Torres and Banks Islands 
and in the northern New Hebrides which is even more important than either 
nomenclature or mode of preparation in pointing to the great antiquity of 
the practice in Melanesia. In these islands, and especially in the Torres 
group, it is evident that the use of kava is most intimately associated with 
the religious practices of the people. The drinking of kava is a prominent 
feature of the ritual of such occasions as birth, initiation, and death, and on 
these occasions kava is offered to the dead with the accompaniment of prayer. 
It is extremely unlikely that a practice introduced in relatively recent times 
from Polynesia would have come to be so closely associated with the religious 
beliefs and practices of the people, and especially with the cult of the dead. 
