“Must I drink it all?” he asked Alice nervously.
“If you don’t, I am afraid Avao will look for another ‘felinge,’” she replied teasingly.
“Count for me, Syd,” Phil said, “and when you see the folks at home, say I died game.”
He calmly swallowed the contents without drawing breath, and handed the cup back to the girl.
“Thanks awfully, no more just now,” he said laughing, happy the ordeal was over.
“What’s it like?” Sydney asked.
“More like drinking slate pencils than anything else I can imagine.”
Sydney drank his, shuddering slightly at the bitter taste. All the others, including Alice, drank as if they thoroughly enjoyed it.
“You get accustomed to it,” Alice explained. “The Kapuans drink it as we do coffee or tea.”
After kava was over the lads found that native ponies had been provided by Avao, and within a half hour the cavalcade started. A dozen or more of Kapuan men brought up the rear on foot, carrying many kinds of fruit and edibles wrapped in banana leaves.