KAVA (Cava or Ava), an intoxicating, but non-alcoholic beverage, produced principally in the islands of the South Pacific, from the roots or leaves of a variety of the pepper plant (Piper methysticum). The method of preparation is somewhat peculiar. The roots or leaves are first chewed by young girls or boys, care being taken that only those possessing sound teeth and excellent general health shall take part in this operation. The chewed material is then placed in a bowl, and water or coco-nut milk is poured over it, the whole is well stirred, and subsequently the woody matter is removed by an ingenious but simple mechanical manipulation. The resulting liquid, which has a muddy or café-au-lait appearance, or is of a greenish hue if made from leaves, is now ready for consumption. The taste of the liquid is at first sweet, and then pungent and acrid. The usual dose corresponds to about two mouthfuls of the root. Intoxication (but this apparently only applies to those not inured to the use of the liquor) follows in about twenty minutes. The drunkenness produced by kava is of a melancholy, silent and drowsy character. Excessive drinking is said to lead to skin and other diseases, but per contra many medicinal virtues are ascribed to the preparation. There appears to be little doubt that the active principle in this beverage is a poison of an alkaloidal nature. It seems likely that this substance is not present as such (i.e. as a free alkaloid) in the plant, but that it exists in the form of a glucoside, and that by the process of chewing this glucoside is split up by one of the ferments in the saliva into the free alkaloid and sugar.
See Pharm. Journ. iii. 474; iv. 85; ix. 219; vii. 149; Comptes Rendus, l. 436, 598; lii. 206; Journ. de Pharm. (1860) 20; (1862) 218; Seeman, Flora Vitiensis, 260; Beachy, Voyage of the “Blossom,” ii. 120.
KAVADH (Kabades, Kauades), a Persian name which occurs first in the mythical history of the old Iranian kingdom as Kai Kobadh (Kaikobad). It was borne by two kings of the Sassanid dynasty.
(1) Kavadh I., son of Pērōz, crowned by the nobles in 488 in place of his uncle Balash, who was deposed and blinded. At this time the empire was utterly disorganized by the invasion of the Ephthalites or White Huns from the east. After one of their victories against Pērōz, Kavadh had been a hostage among them during two years, pending the payment of a heavy ransom. In 484 Pērōz had been defeated and slain with his whole army. Balash was not able to restore the royal authority. The hopes of the magnates and high priests that Kavadh would suit their purpose were soon disappointed. Kavadh gave his support to the communistic sect founded by Mazdak, son of Bamdad, who demanded that the rich should divide their wives and their wealth with the poor. His intention evidently was, by adopting the doctrine of the Mazdakites, to break the influence of the magnates. But in 496 he was deposed and incarcerated in the “Castle of Oblivion (Lethe)” in Susiana, and his brother Jamasp (Zamaspes) was raised to the throne. Kavadh, however, escaped and found refuge with the Ephthalites, whose king gave him his daughter in marriage and aided him to return to Persia. In 499 he became king again and punished his opponents. He had to pay a tribute to the Ephthalites and applied for subsidies to Rome, which had before supported the Persians. But now the emperor Anastasius refused subsidies, expecting that the two rival powers of the East would exhaust one another in war. At the same time he intervened in the affairs of the Persian part of Armenia. So Kavadh joined the Ephthalites and began war against the Romans. In 502 he took Theodosiopolis in Armenia, in 503 Amida (Diarbekr) on the Tigris. In 505 an invasion of Armenia by the western Huns from the Caucasus led to an armistice, during which the Romans paid subsidies to the Persians for the maintenance of the fortifications on the Caucasus. When Justin I. (518-527) came to the throne the conflict began anew. The Persian vassal, Mondhir of Hira, laid waste Mesopotamia and slaughtered the monks and nuns. In 531 Belisarius was beaten at Callinicum. Shortly afterwards Kavadh died, at the age of eighty-two, in September 531. During his last years his favourite son Chosroes had had great influence over him and had been proclaimed successor. He also induced Kavadh to break with the Mazdakites, whose doctrine had spread widely and caused great social confusion throughout Persia. In 529 they were refuted in a theological discussion held before the throne of the king by the orthodox Magians, and were slaughtered and persecuted everywhere; Mazdak himself was hanged. Kavadh evidently was, as Procopius (Pers. i. 6) calls him, an unusually clear-sighted and energetic ruler. Although he could not free himself from the yoke of the Ephthalites, he succeeded in restoring order in the interior and fought with success against the Romans. He built some towns which were named after him, and began to regulate the taxation.
(2) Kavadh II. Sheroe (Siroes), son of Chosroes II., was raised to the throne in opposition to his father in February 628, after the great victories of the emperor Heraclius. He put his father and eighteen brothers to death, began negotiations with Heraclius, but died after a reign of a few months.
(Ed. M.)
KAVALA, or Cavalla, a walled town and seaport of European Turkey in the vilayet of Salonica, on the Bay of Kavala, an inlet of the Aegean Sea. Pop. (1905), about 5000. Kavala is built on a promontory stretching south into the bay, and opposite the island of Thasos. There is a harbour on each side of the promontory. The resident population is increased in summer by an influx of peasantry, of whom during the season 5000 to 6000 are employed in curing tobacco and preparing it for export. The finest Turkish tobacco is grown in the district, and shipped to all parts of Europe and America, to the annual value of about £1,250,000. Mehemet Ali was born here in 1769, and founded a Turkish school which still exists. His birthplace, an unpretentious little house in one of the tortuous older streets, can be distinguished by the tablet which the municipal authorities have affixed to its front wall. Numerous Roman remains have been found in the neighbourhood, of which the chief is the large aqueduct on two tiers of arches which still serves to supply the town and dilapidated citadel with water from Mount Pangeus.