An Australian Intoxicant.
THEIR own stimulant, kava, they continue to use in great quantities, and many of the Europeans have contracted a liking for it. Its flavor resembles soap suds more than anything else one can compare it with. The root used is botanically known as that of the piper methisticum; it is hard and woody, hence the object of the chewing, which liberates the juices of the root more freely than any other process. Europeans grate the root and pound it, but admit that the liquor is not equal to the chewed. In Samoa the preparation of the kava bowl is attended with very great ceremony, only the young unmarried girls being allowed to chew it. The root is cut up into fine pieces, and the girls, who are directed by the prettiest of them, first rinse their mouths, take up a piece, and when sufficiently masticated and formed into a ball, spit it into the bowl. The chief girl then calls for water, and after washing her hands, directs one of her companions to pour on the water while she stirs the root with her hand. When enough water is in, and the balls are properly mixed with the ingredient, she takes up a strainer made of fibers of the hibiscus, and passes it from side to side of the bowl. When the strainer is saturated, she lifts it high above the bowl and squeezes the balls through the strainer in her hand. This is continued until the kava bowl is ready. It is contended by some of the Europeans who use chewed root that the mastication is perfectly dry and is a mere crushing process, but of course an amount of saliva must get incorporated in the process. The medicinal properties of kava are tonic and nervous sedative, and it is to these effects, and not to its flavor, that the taste for the drink arises.—Melbourne Leader.