Similarities and coincidences in labour and implements of labour

The only original stimulant used in the eastern islands is the kava or ava, the fermented juice from the chewed roots of Piper methysticum. The first Europeans considered that the use of it had increased rapidly. Even at that time it was productive of great mischief, causing dimness of sight and weakness of memory. Yet there are islands where temperance prevails, and even in Melanesia it is partaken of in very varying amounts. Some drink it like coffee, others carouse from gigantic bowls inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

The mode of preparing kava is as follows: a shallow bowl of hard wood resting on three short feet is placed on the ground, girls and women lie in a circle round it, break off small pieces of the dried kava root, put them in their mouths, and, when thoroughly chewed, spit them into the bowl; water is added, the drink is stirred, and the beverage is ready. In Fiji it is said that this method of preparation comes from Polynesia, and that formerly the pieces were cut.

Coco-nut shells, or, as in Tonga, four-cornered cups made of plantain leaf, serve as drinking-vessels, and are drained with much enjoyment. The drink is a dark grey dirty-looking brew of a by no means pleasant bitter taste. In the kava carouses of the Arii in the Society Islands, all the excesses of intoxication were to be observed up to the point of homicide and murder. The mode of calling together those who were to chew and those who were to enjoy the drink; the songs which accompany the pressing out of the chewed root; the prayers when the water was poured on; and, finally, the song which celebrates the chief's first draught, all point to an idea of sanctity as connected with this indulgence. Thus in Vaté kava is drunk only in the worship of the spirits who dispense health; in Tanna it is drunk as in Polynesia, women being excluded, and a special place allotted to it.

Kava drinking becomes less as we go westward, and therefore is perhaps of Polynesian origin. At any rate this kind of pepper was probably introduced into some Melanesian Islands from the east. The people of New Guinea also drink kava or kau, but the practice is not universal, and takes place only on festive occasions.

The drink is not unknown in Micronesia; it is, however, obtained, not by chewing, but by crushing the roots. The mass, after damping, is packed in strips of hibiscus and wrung out. In Ponapé ava, which once was sacred, is now drunk like water. In Melanesia also the preparation by crushing is found. Among many Polynesian races kava afforded the basis for poisonous drinks; a popular poison among the Hawaiians was made by mixing with it the leaves of Tephrosia piscatoria, Daphne indica, and the common gourd Lagenaria.

That the consumption of spirituous drinks was originally almost or quite unknown, is distinctly asserted in regard to New Zealand, New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, Waigiu, and Humboldt Bay. In a few places, as Guadalcanar and New Georgia, a kind of palm wine is made, the juice being drawn off by incisions in the unopened flower. We find the same in Micronesia, where the people of Ponapé even distilled a kind of brandy from palm wine. The plague of brandy imported from Europe has, under the influence of the missions, happily been less diffused in the smaller islands than in Australia and New Zealand.

Coco-nut juice serves as the ordinary drink, the nut is held high, and the juice allowed to flow into the mouth, and the same mode of drinking is customary from other vessels; to touch the nut with the mouth is considered unmannerly. As kava came in from the eastward, so did tobacco and betel from the west. We can indicate New Guinea and its neighbourhood as the central point of both. Both travel in close conjunction, tobacco having spread with extraordinary rapidity; for instance, in a few years it has overrun the Admiralty Islands and New Ireland. Towards the end of the eighties the limit of tobacco passed exactly through Normanby, now it is cultivated on all the larger groups of the Pacific Islands, and in many places it already grows wild.

Polynesian pots and implements (the two calabashes for betel-lime, from the Admiralty Islands)
also a shell horn - length of shell approx 350mm. (Christy Collection.)
[Click on picture for higher resolution]

In east and south-east New Guinea it is smoked with a piece of bamboo, through the small opening of which the smoke is drawn from the bowl and swallowed; this intoxicating practice is known as bau-bau. In the Woodlark, Trobriand, and Laughlan groups, the natives profess to have smoked through a reed before the arrival of the Europeans. This was filled with the smoke from the leaves of a certain bush, and then passed round the circle till it was emptied. This reed has been mistakenly regarded as a weapon. The Papuas are great smokers, and A. B. Meyer mentions as a peculiarity of theirs that, after puffing out the smoke through nose or mouth, they form their mouths to a point, and draw in the air with a noise, so that he could always hear when a Papua was smoking in his neighbourhood. Clay pipes have long been manufactured at various spots among the islands, and the Maoris understood how to carve them of stone in the same artistic fashion as is shown in their most original utensils.

Betel extends as far as Tikopia, further east it has been diffused in quite recent times by means of labourers who have emigrated or been exported as far as Fiji, but is not yet found in the New Hebrides or the Banks and Torres Islands. Where it cannot be got, as, for instance, in Isabel, they use an aromatic bark. The western Melanesians all chew betel. Wherever it occurs the teeth are black, and the traces of red saliva speak of the existence of natives even in the desolate Finisterre mountains. Betel nuts are given as presents to guests; areca nut, pepper leaves, and lime are used just as among the Malays, and betel pepper is carried in long ornamented gourds with a small opening through which to introduce the long narrow spoon. Betel boxes and spoons are among the most sedulously wrought utensils in New Guinea and its neighbourhood. It is curious that the words for these requisites in the Admiralty Islands are very unlike the Malay names, while those of the Yap Islanders who belong to the west Micronesians, among whom betel chewing is rare, remind us of those used in the Admiralty Islands.