INDONESIAN ANNOTATIONS ON THE VOCABULARY. 139 
itself it would scarcely be chosen, but in combination with the areca 
nut it is surely effective as an excipient and, so far as judgment may 
be based upon mere buccal testimony unsupported by chemical analy- 
sis, probably it has much value as an adjuvant. I have tested each 
of the three chief ingredients of the sirih quid, the lime and the areca 
and the betel singly, and also each combination of two elements. By 
itself or in combination with the lime the betel leaf amounts to noth- 
ing. By itself or in combination with the lime the areca nut lacks 
defined flavor; one is engaged in masticating a dry mass of woody 
fiber to no particular profit or pleasure. ‘The addition of the sirih 
to the areca develops a flavor which neither had singly and the com- 
pletion of the mess by adding the lime serves only to accent this 
conjoint flavor without appearing to add any new modifier of its own. 
I shall not attempt to set in verbal order the taste of sirih-chewing; 
to me it is objectionable; yet experience proves that its use will allay 
the sense of hunger when meals are too widely spaced. 
Continuing this note, Dr. Rivers cites the existence of sirih in 
various parts of Polynesia. I have grave doubts of this. In the 
Marquesas Bishop Dordillon defines kavakava-atua merely as poivrier 
sauvage, which is neutral as to the point involved. In Nukuoro this 
composite form is used of Piper methysticum. In Tahiti avaava-atua 
is not recorded in Bishop Tepano Jaussen’s dictionary, but he exhibits 
as the only identified variety avaavairai (Piper latifolium). In Samoa 
we have ‘ava‘ava-atua and ‘ava‘ava-aitu as synonyma for various species 
of pepper (Piper latifolium, P. puberulum, P. insectifugum). No dic- 
tionary of Polynesian speech includes the betel pepper. 
Incidentally and in a by-path we should note the use of sago in 
Tikopia (p. 132). This is the characteristic food of Melanesia, just 
as the yam in certain regions and the taro in others are Polynesian 
staples. Its use in Tikopia is quite as much a trace of Melanesian 
culture advance on the forgotten Polynesian community as is the sirih- 
chewing. It is interesting to recall that in Fiji the use of sago was 
so completely out of mind that when Dr. Seeman discovered the tree 
and commented upon its food value the Fijians were wholly unaware 
of the method of washing out the fecula from its pith. 
The list of material objects which Dr. Rivers presents as characteriz- 
ing the culture of the kava people shows distinctly that grave diffi- 
culty will confront us in the effort to adjust the great Polynesian race 
to a position of membership among the kava people, by him defined 
as the hypothetical body of immigrants who introduced the use of 
this substance. The material objects which he is led to associate 
with the body of cultural possession or attainment denominated by 
its most distinctive object, the kava infusion (p. 135), may conven- 
iently be restated: kava, shell-money, the pig, the fowl, the bow and 
arrow, the wooden gong, the conch shell, the fillet, the cycas. Poly- 
