Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/135

] distant from each other, they filled up the vessel with water. The liquor was then shaken, and served out in cups to all the guests. Some drank out of cocoa-nut shells, others made themselves cups on the occasion from the leaves of the plantain tree.

The large roots, with which the kava was made, had, in the direction of their length, very slender woody fibres, which subsided to the bottom of the liquor. These fibres, the person who served it out, collected in one of his hands, and used as a sponge, to fill the cups.

We were invited to take a share of this beverage; but our seeing it prepared was sufficient to make us decline the civil offer. The chaplain of our ship, however, had the courage to swallow a bumper of it. For my part, as I was desirous also of tasting the flavour of the root, I preferred chewing a bit of it myself, and found it acrid and stimulant. Each of the company afterwards ate some yams, fresh roasted under the embers, and plaintains; no doubt to take off the heat, which the stomach must feel from this intoxicating liquor.

These people set much store by the pepper tree, from which they procure it. Its stalk, frequently bigger than the thumb, is tolerably straight, and requires no support. They cut off