There still remain to be noticed two plants of much interest, from the roots of which the Tahitians, prior to the arrival of the Europeans, obtained strong intoxicating beverages.[91] These are the ti-plant (Cordyline Australis) and the kawa, or ava (Piper methysticum), of which latter fourteen varieties are known to the natives.
The cultivation of this species of pepper is at present prohibited in Tahiti, and kawa-drinking has accordingly fallen into entire disuse. Only on the peninsula are a few aged
Tahitians to be found, who appear obstinately opposed to the use of our alcoholized liquors, who on special festivities will face every privation for the luxury of boozing over their kawa, for which they sometimes pay five francs for a small piece.
Formerly the process of chewing the kawa was performed by the young girls, and then only by those who had the finest teeth. Before beginning this delicate task, they were required carefully to rinse their mouths and purify their hands, for which purpose they made use of special vessels. When the roots had been slowly and equally chewed, and had been changed into little cones held together by saliva, they were mingled with water in a large wooden vessel (Umeli), standing upon a tripod, and gently squeezed by hand. In many of the islands this process of dilution is performed by mixing cocoa-nut juice instead of the customary water. The kawa is a very fluid substance, not very inviting in appearance at any time, but still less so when one has witnessed the mode of preparing it. Usually it is of the colour of café au lait; but occasionally, when some of the leaves of the plant have been mixed with the root, the beverage assumes a greenish tinge, something like wormwood, although to the palate it has nothing in common with that substance.
Kawa is drunk out of the half of the cocoa-nut shell, which in the hands of a native skilled in carving becomes a really elegant beaker. Only families of high birth, the Arii and
Raatira,[92] who are exempted from toil, are however able to indulge in the luxury of a daily draught of kawa. The symptoms of intoxication are very similar to those of opium. In the kawa-drinker, like the opium-eater or Samshoo smoker, there is a nervous tremulousness perceptible, followed by utter exhaustion, and an overpowering necessity for sleep. After its effects have passed off, there is a sensation of weariness in the limbs, to remove which the regular kawa-drinkers are accustomed to plunge into the cold waters of the nearest mountain stream. A very peculiar cuticular disease, the infallible result of the daily use of this beverage, is called by the natives Arewarewa.
A German chemist, M. Nöllenberger, who was resident at Papeete during our visit to the Archipelego, had succeeded in September, 1858, in crystallizing the essential principle of the kawa root, which he called Kawaïn, the powers and properties of which he was about to investigate more minutely. As we have since then been favoured with a copy of the very valuable work of Mr. G. Cuzent upon Tahiti, already alluded to, we learn therein that that zealous naturalist had already,
in 1857, found in the kawa root an organic base, which he termed Kawahine, and which is fully described in his interesting Monography (p. 99).
Owing to kawa-drinking having been prohibited in Tahiti, chiefly through the influence of the missionaries, the use of brandy and other spirituous liquors is beginning to exercise a not less baneful influence in that island upon the physical and intellectual powers.
In agriculture, as in commerce, the effect of the French Protectorate has been visibly to slacken the rate of progress. The number of ships that visit the island does not exceed 60 to 80 annually, representing an interchange of merchandise to the value of about £64,000 per annum, of which about five-eighths, or £40,000, may be estimated as the amount exported.[93] What is most surprising, is the small number of whalers who visit the island for provisions and repairs. In 1836, the total number was fifty-two; at present not more than five or six in the year enter the harbour of Papeete. In the official reports this falling off is ascribed to the fish having forsaken these regions, while the stagnation of trade is generally ascribed to the reduction of the French garrison (!) in Tahiti, and the rise of late years of the Sandwich Islands and California. But the true cause of the decay is to be