They also eat taro (Caladium esculentum), a beautiful bulbous-rooted plant of the Aroidea tribe, with its broad elegant leaves, which, together with wild ginger and turmeric (which is used sometimes for food, sometimes for anointing the person, or dyeing their dresses) and the plant they call Kawa (Piper Methysticum), grow in great profusion on the property of the Nannekin.
As in all the South Sea Islands, the juice of the Kawa is used in Puynipet for distilling an intoxicating beverage, which indeed plays a conspicuous part in all their solemnities. But the mode of preparing it is somewhat better calculated to tempt the palate, since it is not, as elsewhere, first chewed by the women, but rubbed between two large stones, wetted, and then drawn off in cocoa-nut shells. The leading chief is entitled to the first shells of the prepared Kawa, or, if he is not present, the chief priest, who mutters a few prayers over it ere drinking it.
The liquid, as thus procured from this species of pepper, is of a brownish-yellow colour, somewhat like that of coffee into which milk has been poured. The taste is sweet and agreeable, producing a glow in the stomach, and induces a sort of intoxication, widely different however from the form that alcoholic inebriations assume with us. Men in the habit of drinking Kawa neither stagger about, nor speak thick and loud, when under its influence. A sort of shiver affects the whole frame, and their gait becomes listless and slow, but they never lose consciousness. In its last stage, the person affected feels an extraordinary weakness in all his joints; headache and an irresistible inclination to go to sleep supervene, and a state of most complete repose becomes an absolute necessity.
The custom of Kawa drinking is diffused over the whole of the islands of the Pacific. It even appears to have become a necessary of life among the natives of Polynesia, just as betel-chewing and palm-wine are to the Malays and Hindoos, opium-smoking and samchoo to the Chinese, chicha to the Mexican races, and coca to the South American Indians.
In former times, on certain of the islands, the chiefs had regular watchers, whose duty it was to guard their monarchs from being disturbed when thus reposing. A dog which dared to bark, a cock that was venturesome enough to crow, were forthwith put to death. The too liberal or long-continued indulgence in Kawa seems to generate a peculiar
cuticular disease. Inveterate Kawa drinkers seem haggard or melancholy, their eyes are sunk, their teeth of a bright yellow, their skin dry and chopped, and the whole body is covered with boils; but those in whom such sores heal up again, point with pride to the cicatrices that mark where they occurred. The more of these scars a Kawa drinker can show, the higher is his character. Besides producing unconsciousness, Kawa also induces exceedingly erotic dreams.
According to the information which the white settlers gave us respecting the method of cultivation of the soil of Puynipet and its climate, it seems that sugar-cane, coffee, cotton, rice, tobacco, &c., would be certain to succeed. Sugar-cane is found even now in the wild state; and to a certain extent it forms an article of food of the natives, who suck the juice.
The chief of Roankiddi is a handsome young man of lofty stature, strong frame, of dark brown almost bronze skin, and agreeable, winning expression. With the exception of the usual apron of palm-leaves, and a bright red belt, he was naked, and wore a green circlet on his fine, lustrous black hair, and a piece of sugar-cane in his right hand. His arms and legs were very neatly tattooed. He seemed quite to understand the use of a red Turkish fez with blue tassel, which we presented to him, and took from his head its own exceedingly picturesque covering. Having been apprized of the friendly nature of our visit, he begged us to
enter his house, which was not so easy a process as it seems, since the only access was by one of the windows, about three feet from the ground. The Nannekin, however, set us the example, and we followed. He first invited us to sit upon European chairs, and ordered his pretty young wife to fetch us cocoa-nut milk. It was the first time we had ever tasted this drink of the natural man in the goblet of civilization! How differently did this invaluable drink taste, when quaffed from the fresh green shell, than in the artificial vessel of human manufacture! The natives of Puynipet did not, like those of Nicobar, show their dexterity in opening the young cocoa-nut by means of a slash. Here the husk is peeled off, and an opening bored with much trouble till the fluid contents gush out—a process so tedious, and manifesting so little ingenuity, that one would rather expect it to be adopted by a European, who for the first time in his life was opening a cocoa-nut, than from a child of the tropics. After the queen had presented with her dainty little hands the cocoa-nut drink to the foreign guests, she squatted herself smiling and laughing on the earth beside the monarch, occasionally hiding herself with much natural grace behind her youthful husband, when she could not restrain a burst of mirth at the interest with which we seemed to regard many of the objects in her simple household. Nothing surprised her more than that we should attach such value to some baskets, plaited work, boxes, &c., as to be willing to exchange articles of European make for them. Like all the