*Permission to re-print this journal has been given by Gordon A. Conner, permissions manager of the Catholic University of America Press.

"Kava and Kava Drinking"; Deihl, Joseph; Anthropological Quarterly:V-5, no1-4(1932) p.61-68

KAVA and KAVA-DRINKING

Rev. Joseph R. Deihl, S.M.

A pie, Samoa

    AVA, Awa, or Kava,—Yanggona in Fiji,—is a plant indigenous to many of the islands of the Pacific Ocean and is used in the preparation of a drink known by the same names.  It is a shrub with cordate, acuminate and many-nerved leaves.  Its numerous stalks spring direct and separately from the root stock, attaining a height of six feet and-often measuring two inches in diameter. The stalks are noduled much like bamboo. The root stock is the part used in the preparation of the drink, and is large, woody, and, when dried, of a light spongy appearance. The root takes from four to six years to attain such size and strength as render it suitable for kava-making, but becomes better and stronger with age.
    The place of kava in botany was early fixed by Forster who called it a pepper, Piper methysticum an intoxicating pepper. The chemical analysis made by Cuzent revealed in the root a volatile oil of a lemon-yellow color, a large amount of starch, a balsamic resin [Lewinin perhaps], and an inactive crystalline substance, variously designated kavahenor, kavahin, yangonin, which are names simply fabricated from the native names of the plant. As early as 1857, kava was suggested as a substitute for the two very unpleasant resins, copaiba and cubebs. It was official in the Indian and Colonial Addendum for the Australian Colonies. It is included in the British Pharmacopoeia, 1914, and also in Squire's companion, 19th edition, I9I6. As to its medical properties, it is a spinal rather than Cerebral depressant; it steadies the pulse, does not raise the temperature, and acts as a diuretic and stomachic tonic. Its chief medical use is in the cure of chronic cystitis and gleet and, amongst those South Sea Islanders affected with syphilis, its stimulating and diaphoretic action was highly appreciated.
    Forster's classification may be in part answerable for the widespread belief that the kava drink is an alcoholic intoxicant. Churchill summarily dismisses such a notion as coming from "earnest but stupid men who had consecrated uniformly dull lives to the amelioration of the happy pagans of the island world ", and who were "temperamentally unable to distinguish between liquor and intoxicating liquor."   Cuzent, a naval pharmacist, writing especially for Tahiti, states that "intoxication," differing in kind from alcoholic intoxication, often resulted from the drinking of kava, an intoxication characterized by a profound torpor during which at the least noise the subject became irritated or even enraged. He gives us the method employed in the preparation: the green root was chewed, mixed with water and drunk at once, without leaving time for fermentation. A test made by Dr. Macgregor of Fiji, as related by Miss Cumming, showed that six ounces of kava, when chewed, increased in weight to seventeen. Thus, by the action of the diastase of the saliva the starchy contents of the kava would be reduced to maltose and the further process of maceration would facilitate the fermentation. 
    Herman Melville refers to the narcotic influence of kava upon the natives of Typee Valley and their use of the drink principally as a stimulant. 
    Mariner relates that the Tongans took food with kava to prevent the nauseating feeling that would result otherwise, but stated that some addicts dispensed with this precaution. In Samoa the heavy kava-drinkers were accustomed to use again the same kava after leaving it to ferment for a day or two, and even today the polo, a small and very pungent pepper, is mixed with the drink to give it a strong burning taste.
    Ellis gives us his experience in the house of Miomioi a chief of Hawaii, who drank awe at his evening meal; "a man stood by his side with a calabash of fresh water, and the moment he [Miomioi] had swallowed the intoxicating dose, he seized the calabash, and drank a hearty draught of water, to remove the unpleasant taste and the burning effect of the ava."

    Pharmacologists recognize that kava is a spinal depressant, and there is abundant authority to show that an excessive use of it, especially when the undried root has, through the process of chewing, been mixed with saliva in the preparation, leads most certainly to a loss of control over the muscles of the legs. One thus affected walks with a staggering gait, while the mind is clear. From his observation of these effects Forster may have been led to his classification, " Intoxicating Pepper " which many subsequent writers readily adopted.
    It is to the point here to note that there are various species of kava, differing in strength. The Samoans distinguish at least three such, and soil and climate, even in certain districts of Samoa, affect the relative strength. It is generally held that the kava plant in Hawaii is of a very strong type, while the Samoan kava is considered one of the mildest.
    As regards the kava-drinking custom itself, Bishop Doucere tells us that in the New Hebrides kava-drinking is merely a means of enjoyment.  Melville has nothing particular to tell us regarding kava ceremonies in the Marquesas, and Mr. Brigham is our authority for Hawaii that " awa drinking was neither so universal on the Islands as on the southern groups, nor attended with so many ceremonies." 6

    Such, clearly, is not the case, however, among the Fijians and among the pure Polynesians of the central Pacific Islands. Churchill calls kava the "menstruum of manners, social solvent which occupies the most important place in the life of the Polynesian communities of the Pacific."
    "There is no public religious rite whatsoever," writes Mariner for Tonga, "and scarcely any in private, at which ceremony of drinking cave does not form a usual and often a most important part."
    The Rev. Wm. Deane testifies for Fiji: "The root [kava] takes rank with the sacred Soma of India and the Haoma of Persia;  the Yanggona [kava] ceremony is one of the most intense of all Fijian functions."
    The words of Bishop Bataillon for Wallis Island apply with equal forge and truth to the neighboring groups of Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa: "Kava is not only the ordinary drink with the Wallisians but with them it is elevated to the height of an institution." 7

    These citations suggest at once the traditions and ceremonies which would naturally become associated with a plant and the drink made therefrom which the native mind had come to regard almost as the sole necessity in his placating of the gods, in his reconciliation with enemies, in his winning and keeping the favor of kings and great chiefs. Kava served as a talisman to obtain health and to find things lost; it presided
over all alliances, at all visits, at the least undertaking, religious or civil, public or personal.
    We know that the plant is indigenous to the Pacific Islands. Guppy states, on the authority of the Rev. Mr. Lawes, that it grows wild in the forests of the South Coast of New Guinea, though its use is unknown to the natives. The Polynesian migrants, by chance or experiment early discovered the exhilarating character of kava and applied to it the descriptive adjective, a'ava, 'ava, kava, which in practically all Polynesian dialects signifies bitter, sour, acrid, sharp, or pungent. 8
    Time almost completely wiped out the very memory of those first migrations; the natives of the various groups came to consider themselves as sprung from the soil; and the native habit of thought gradually led them to find an explanation for all things they saw and heard and thought.
    Among the divergent traditions in regard to the origin of kava there runs the common thread which associates kava with the gods and the demigod heroes who walked the world in the long ago. In one Samoan legend, Tagaloalagi, the god of the skies and the supreme god. of the Samoans, held a secret colloquy with one of his sons, Taeatagaloa. Lefanoga, another son, while attempting to eavesdrop, was caught and was sent to fetch kava from the god's plantation. As Lefanoga was returning with his burden, it grew heavier and heavier, and he eventually slipped under the weight and fell through the heavens, still clinging to his kava root. He fell upon the island of Manuta, one of the Samoan islands, where he planted the kava for the royal house of Manu'a.
    Through the islands of the Pacific where kava was used, in particular through the central Pacific Islands, we find the drinking of kava and the accompanying ceremonies closely associated with the chiefs and royal personages. It was strictly forbidden to the commoners and to women, and in the ceremonies, a vigorous etiquette in the preparation and distribution was strictly adhered to, which designated, as no other ceremony could designate, the relative position and importance of the chiefs.
    Thus, in the royal kava ceremony for the king of Manu'a, from ten to twenty separate bowls are prepared in the accepted manner, and a cup-bearer sits at each bowl. The kava cup is made from the shell of the coconut and is highly polished. A special cup is brought from the King's house, and the Virgin or Taupou as this distinguished person is known in Samoa, receives into this cup a little kava from each separate bowl and thus presents it to the King. Afterwards, the other chiefs, according to the order of rank, are each presented with a drink, filled at once and indiscriminately from the various bowls. Here is clearly typified the overlordship of the King. Customs somewhat similar prevailed through the islands of Upolu and Savaii for the kings in these islands.
    Chieftainship in Samoa is very complicated, but the kava distributor, no matter what the occasion may be, must know the ranking and the kava-names of these chiefs, for besides the ordinary title, each chief has a title, which is used when kava is given to him. A mistake in such a matter would be a gross insult and in: the olden days, could have led quickly to bloodshed. Again, many chiefs have ceremonies particular to the title which they possess, the origin of which, in most cases, together with the explanation, have been lost in remote tradition. A chief's right of life and death over his subjects was shown by the destruction of anything or the killing of any animal or person that interfered in progress of the ceremony.

    Mariner gives a full description of the Tongan kava-ceremony in which the king received his cup after his two councillors (matapules, eyes of the chief) had partaken; each chief in turn was then presented with 'tine cup according to his ranking. We are indebted to Ratu Ravulo, a prominent Fijian, for the very interesting account of the kava ceremony in connection with the installation of the high-chief, Vunivalu, of Mbau in the clan of Tuikainba, at Fiji. One notes the same concern lest the slightest detail of the ceremony go wrong, for such would augur serious evil. The ornaments worn by those who prepared the kava typified the solidity and stability of the government. The root must not be split lest there should arise divisions in the land. When the kava straining was finished, a priest stood beside the bowl with a cup in his two hands. The one who had strained off the kava particles took a second cup to use as a ladle, holding it likewise in his two hands, and ladled three times, pouring a small amount each time into the cup held by the priest. After each pouring the priest offered a dedicatory prayer, calling upon all the devils or original gods of the various lands. On the third occasion, the cup which had been used as ladle was turned right over, so as to be emptied completely, and was then allowed to fall between the arms of the priest, which typified that the whole government of the land was handed over When the cup fell, they all made a supreme salutation, thus: " True it is that he Stands above there ". Still holding his cup with both hands, the priest approached the chief for whom the ceremony was made, and carefully poured the contents into the cup held by this chief in both hands also. After this the priest dropped his cup between the two arms of the chief, but caught it from below; lest it should fall down, which typified that the government had now been handed over and that no decision proceeding from the chief should fall to the ground or be neglected. When the chief in question had emptied his cup, the whole assembly joined in a hand clapping, which signified that the decision in all councils concerning great matters of war and state came from him. From that day the chief was recognized as leader and was called by the name of the Vunivalu.9

    The explanation of the gifts made by the Samoan Parliament of chiefs to the Governor General of New Zealand in 1926 gives us an insight into the complexus of Samoan society and in particular reveals to us the true place of kava as a social institution. The Governor General was presented with a fine mat, a mat very special to Samoa and called " ie toga ". The " ie toga " was the ancient symbol of the power and authority of the Samoan Government; it was the emblem of former kingships and the arbiter of peace and war. Secondly were presented the orator's staff and fly-whisk. The voice of the orator ruled in the great assemblies of the chiefs, and the staff and fly-whisk which every orator carried were the insignia of office. Thirdly were presented a kava bowl, cup and kava strainer, as representing an indispensable custom at all great ceremonial occasions. Authority was typified by the " ie toga "; deliberation and decision by the staff and fly-whisk; and the kava bowl, cup, and strainer typified the union of the two. Over the kava bowl the orator recognized the chief; the voice that deliberated and decided, honored and respected the voice of authority, and in a society thus strongly knit and cohesive, anarchy and chaos were avoided.
    From what has been said, it is evident that the drinking of kava was not, at least in the central island groups of the Pacific, indulged in primarily for its intoxicating effects. It must not be in inferred, however, that the drink was used solely on public occasions. As an appetizer, it was held in high esteem, and each chief usually regaled himself with kava before his meals. Some of them were even known as habitual drinkers.
    With the advent of civilization, the natives have come to know of many of the concoctions of the white man, and these drinks have wrought havoc in many of the islands where kava was considered merely for its stimulating effects. But in the Central Groups of the Pacific, kava drinking holds its own. Many of the superstitions, if not all, have passed away, but the honored place of kava as the drink of the chiefs and the special ceremonies attending are retained to this day, so that it still may be called the " menstruum of manners, social solvent."
    White men in these islands have readily taken to kava-drinking, for its thirst-quenching properties are unequaled. Though repugnant to many when taken for the first few times, having a taste variously described as " resembling rhubarb and magnesia, flavoured with gal-volatile " according to Miss Cumming, or as resembling " soapy-water " to others, yet, the distinctly pleasant and refreshing feeling left in the mouth through the " numbing of the papillae at the tip of the tongue and a lesser degree of insensibility in the mucosa of the mouth cavity as far back as the fauces'', have raised the drink of kava to a public institution even among the European residents. Kava is on sale in most of the stores, and the refreshing cup is to be had wherever men congregate.

    AII kava-drinkers will agree with the Samoan bard, as the kava, ready-for serving, sparkles in the bowl, "The liquor glitters like a mirror,
It has the substance of turmeric in scented oil,
It has the fragrance of Aglaia blooms,
It diffuses an odor like gourds of oil scented with sandalwood two year old."


*Permission to re-print this journal is given by Gordon A. Conner, permissions manager of the Catholic University of America Press

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