THIS is the picture of a party of natives preparing and drinking kava. Kava is a very suitable companion for tobacco, and is drunk quite as universally as tobacco is smoked by the natives. It is a species of pepper (micropiper methysticum) indigenous to Polynesia. The natives cultivate it for the roots, of which they make the drink, also called kava. As shown in the picture, the root is beaten to a pulp with a stone (formerly it was chewed up by maidens and expectorated into the bowl), thrown into the kava bowl, water added, forming an aqueous solution, which is strained into the cup,—half a coconut shell scraped and polished,—and drank in fabulous quantities, with great ceremony. On all occasions and at all times kava is used. The nights are spent largely at kava parties.
When you call on a native, etiquette demands that you take him a piece of kava, and he expects it. On entering a house you are expected to drink kava and smoke tobacco rolled up in a banana leaf by a maiden. It is regarded as disrespectful to refuse to drink and smoke with your host, and you dishonor your guest if you do not serve kava.
A little kava is a passport that admits one anywhere and secures any amount of favor. On one occasion I wanted to hire the privilege of pasturing my horse on land belonging to a native. Not being able to speak the language, I had a white man to interpret for me, but we could get no satisfaction, tho I offered to pay him all it was worth. My interpreter said to me, “I’ll see that it is all right.” They went away together and he secured what was wanted. I learned afterward that he took the chief (the native was a high chief and prominent member of the leading church) to his house, and treated him and drank kava with him. This was what the chief wanted, and he would not rent the pasturage till he got it. My interpreter knew this. He knew also that I did not know it, and that had he told me, I would not have given kava nor drank it; and, being kindly disposed towards us, he took it upon himself to comply with this universal custom without my knowledge, thus accomplishing the desired end.
The effect of kava is similar to that of opium. A bit of the root chewed up leaves a numbness like cocaine. I have been told that the habit is more difficult to overcome than that of liquor. Nearly all the white men who come here to live take to the habit. They claim certain medicinal properties for it; but I have seen no good results from it. I have in mind a man—and I understand there are others—who must have this kava bowl by his bedside, in order to satisfy his cravings for it when he wakes through the night. The eyes become dull and sunken, and the skin becomes dry and hard, and is shed off in scales. The drink has a paralyzing effect on mind and body.
