YANKONA (_Kava_)
Yankona (_Yaqona_) the _Kava_ or _Ava_ of the Polynesians, is an
infusion of the root of the pepper plant (_Piper methysticum_), which is
indigenous in Fiji. Throughout Polynesia it occupies the place which
coffee takes among the Arabs, that is to say, it is used on occasions of
ceremony and in the entertainment of strangers, and its preparation,
even in private houses, is always accompanied by a ceremonial more or
less elaborate. Its geographical distribution in the Pacific may be
roughly described by saying that the races that chew betel do not drink
_yankona_. The plant is unknown in the Solomon Islands and the other
Melanesian groups, with the exception of the Banks and New Hebrides
Islands. We know that the Banks Islanders acquired the habit of drinking
it only recently, and it is possible that the New Hebrides natives
learned the habit from labourers returning from the plantations in Fiji.
Kava-drinking, indeed, seems to be so purely a Polynesian custom, that
the Fijians might be supposed to have learned it from the Polynesians
were it not for the fact that the yankona songs of the hill tribes are
so archaic that the people have quite forgotten their original meaning.
In the New Hebrides and Banks Islands the quasi-religious character of
the custom has not yet given place to everyday use, and _yankona_ is not
drunk by women.
Even in Fiji itself there was considerable diversity of custom. Thomas
Williams says it was not in common use in Vanualevu and part of Vitilevu
in his time. The hill tribes of Vitilevu seem always to have used it,
though its use was confined to the old men, who often drank it to
excess. They prepared it without the elaborate ceremonial with which
the coast tribes have made us familiar, but on great occasions they made
use of a peculiar weird chant, accompanied by gestures whose meaning has
been long forgotten. In Williams's time the natives used to assert that
the true Fijian mode of preparing the root was by grating, and that the
practice of chewing it, which is now universal throughout Fiji, was
introduced from Tonga. About thirty years ago King George of Tonga
absolutely prohibited the chewing of kava as a filthy habit, and the
practice of grating the root or pounding it between two stones has now
become so universal that the Tongans regard the Fijian habit of chewing
it, which they themselves introduced, with the utmost disgust. The
customs of the two countries have thus been reversed.
[Pageheader: A COLD-BLOODED EXECUTION]
In former times the use of _yankona_ in Fiji was purely ceremonial. A
dried root was the indispensable accompaniment of every presentation of
food. The spokesman of the donors held it in his hand while making his
speech, and the representative of the recipients tore off a rootlet or
two while acknowledging the gift. The chiefs _yankona_ circle supplied
the want of newspapers; the news and gossip of the day were related and
discussed; the chief's advisers seized upon the convivial moment as the
most favourable opportunity for making known their views; matters of
high policy were often decided; the chief's will, gathered from a few
careless words spoken at the _yankona_ ring, was carried from mouth to
mouth throughout his dominions. No public business was transacted
without _yankona_-drinking. The late Mr. William Coxon, who acted as
English secretary to Tui Thakau, told me that he witnessed an execution
at the chiefs _yankona_ ring, which it would be difficult to surpass in
cold-blooded horror. The ring was formed as usual, except that the open
space between the chief and the bowl was occupied by the condemned man,
Tui Thakau's cousin, who had been guilty of sedition after repeated
warnings. Four hulking fellows, seated on either side of him, held the
ends of the cord that passed about his neck. The chewing and mixing
proceeded with their usual decorous deliberation, and none knew better
than the condemned man that the hand-clapping of the person officiating
at the bowl, notifying that the drink was brewed, would be the signal
for his death. He could hear the liquor slopping back into the bowl as
the strainer was wrung out. Knowing exactly how often the operation must
be repeated, he could count the moments of life left to him, yet he sat
like the others in deferential silence with his eyes upon the floor and
his breathing as regular as theirs. At last the brew was made: the
brewer gathered the strainer into a tidy parcel, swept it once round the
lip of the bowl, and struck it smartly with the other hand. It was the
signal. The executioners threw their whole weight upon the rope, and the
body fell writhing upon the floor with the head almost wrung from the
shoulders, and the tongue hideously extruded from the open mouth. They
stayed so until the tortured limbs ceased to writhe, and then, at a
signal from the chief, the body was dragged by the shoulders to the
doorway, and flung, rope and all, out of the house. It fell with a heavy
thud upon the hard ground below, for the house was built upon a
foundation fourteen feet high. Not until all was finished did any one
break the silence, and the talk turned upon the ordinary topics of the
day, and the men laughed at the jester's jokes as usual.
Allowing for certain local variations, the ceremony of
_yankona_-drinking as practised throughout Fiji at the present time is a
fair guide to the ancient practice. The chief is seated with his back to
the raised bed-place at the further end of the house, the bowl is
hanging from the eaves with its strainer; a few young men, preferably
those who are known to have good teeth, are called in by one of the
attendants. A man unhooks the bowl from its hanging-place, and,
squatting on his heels, claps his hands several times in apology to the
company for having reached above their heads. The man who is to make the
brew faces the chief with the bowl before him, carefully turning it so
as to allow the cord by which it hung to be stretched out in the
direction of the presiding chief. The others, still conversing, move
their places so as to form two lines, the sides of an oblong
corresponding with the shape of the house, the president closing one end
and the bowl the other. When all is ready a herald, sitting near the
chief, says, "_Na yankona saka_" (the _yankona_, sir), and the chief, or
his own herald in his place, says carelessly, "_Mama!_" (chew!). The
outer rind is scraped off with a knife, the root is cut into small
pieces, and while water is poured over the hands of the brewer to
cleanse them, the young men munch the root into a pulp, which they
deposit in the bowl until it is studded all over with little doughy
lumps of the size of hens' eggs. When all is chewed the brewer takes the
bowl by the edge and tilts it towards the chief, and the herald calls
his attention to it by saying, "_Sa mama saka na yankona_" (the
_yankona_, sir, is chewed); the president glances at it and says, in a
low tone, "_Lomba_" (wring it), an order which the herald repeats in a
louder tone. Water is poured into the bowl from a jar or bamboo, the
brewer meanwhile stirring it into a muddy fluid. It is at this point
that the _yankona_ song is chanted. Each verse is sung in a quavering
duet, which is broken in upon by a chorus chanted in unison, each verse
ending with a sort of sigh or grunt and accompanied by gestures of the
arms and body, which are executed in absolute time. The effect of the
double line of bodies swaying gracefully in the uncertain light of the
lamp has an extremely picturesque effect. The words of the chant have
been so far conventionalized that they have ceased to convey any
meaning.
[Illustration: Brewing Yangkona.]
[Pageheader: THE _YANKONA_ CEREMONY]
Throughout the chant the brewer is busy at his task. He first places the
strainer, a bunch of the fibres of hybiscus bark, over the surface of
the infusion, on which it floats like a buoyant net. Then he presses the
outer edge of it down along the sloping bottom of the bowl, and coaxes
it upwards towards him with his fingers so as to enclose all the solid
matter of the infusion in a sort of bag or parcel. Slightly twisting the
ends of the parcel he folds them together, and doubling it again so as
to reduce its size to a comfortable hold for the hands, he lifts it
gently from the liquor and begins to wring it, allowing the liquor to
drain from it back into the bowl. Taking a new handhold he twists it
tighter and tighter until the last drop is wrung from it and the
fibres crack with the tension. On a little mat spread at his left hand
he now shakes out the woody portions of the root, holding the strainer
up with the left hand and combing it with the fingers of the right. The
operation of straining is repeated three or four times, until the liquor
is sufficiently clear, and sometimes two strainers are employed, the one
to relieve the other. An old strainer is preferred to a new one, from
which the acrid quality of the fibre has not been washed by frequent
use. If strained too often the liquor becomes weak and tasteless, and
some judgment has to be exercised by the brewer to regulate his
movements so as to bring his operation to a conclusion without
interrupting the singers in the middle of a verse. The signal, warning
them not to begin another verse, consists in making a feint in the air
as if to wipe the lip of the bowl, and in then holding the strainer in
the left hand while striking it sharply three or four times with the
hollow palm of the right. The cup-bearer now crouches before the bowl,
holding his cup over it with both hands, while the brewer fills it by
using the strainer as a sponge. The cup-bearer now approaches the chief
in a stooping posture, holding the full cup with both hands at arm's
length before him, and empties a portion of its contents into the
chief's own private cup, which has been carefully wiped for the
occasion. While the president is drinking all clap their hands in a
quick and merry measure, finishing abruptly with two sharp claps as the
president spins his cup upon the ground, the herald crying, "_Mbiu_"
(thrown away) at the same moment. At this the clapping becomes
independent. It is prolonged according to the rank of the chief, and it
is naturally more hearty on the part of his own dependants. Some
sycophant usually continues to clap for some moments after the others
have ceased in the hope of attracting the chief's attention. The next to
drink after the president is his private herald or attendant; after him
the chief next in rank and his attendant, and so on until the liquor is
exhausted. Unlike the practice of Tonga, the cup-bearer has the delicate
duty of serving the company in the order of rank without assistance from
the herald, who, to qualify himself for his hereditary office, has made
a lifelong study of the table of precedence. When two persons of nearly
equal rank are present a very pretty contest of modesty ensues, the
first served declining the proffered cup in favour of the other, who in
his turn vehemently repudiates the honour thrust upon him. It is an
empty form prescribed by convention, for the fact of drinking before
another would confer a step in the social ladder no more than preceding
another to the dinner-table in more civilized communities. If the
cup-bearer were to make a mistake--a very rare occurrence--he would be
set right by one of the heralds before he could commit his solecism. The
task was less difficult, because when custom was the law it was
impossible for reigning chiefs to eat or drink together, and even now,
when they are brought together by the Government, the feast is always
apportioned, and taken away by their attendants to be eaten in the
privacy of their temporary lodging. But, since no native council would
be fruitful of debate unless it were opened with a solemn
_yankona_-drinking, the problem of precedence has been boldly solved by
the English commissioners by prearranging a fictitious table of
precedence, alphabetical or otherwise, so fictitious that it cannot be
construed into a ground of offence, even by the most jealous and
susceptible.
It is only in modern times that women have become _yankona_ drinkers.
All the old natives agree that it used to be considered a shocking thing
for women to drink _yankona_. Some of them assert that the emancipation
of women from the old restriction was introduced from Tonga, while
others think that Nkoliwasawasa, the sister of Thakombau, was the first
to drink it in Mbau, and that she was allowed to do so to comfort her
for the loss of her husband. Others were not allowed to imitate her, for
that would have been disrespectful, but as soon as the status of women
was raised through the influence of the missionaries they began to drink
_yankona_ as the men had done before.
[Pageheader: FORMERLY FORBIDDEN TO WOMEN]
Other changes have crept in. In the old days, it was not drunk in every
house nor on every night, but only in chiefs' houses by the chief and
his retainers, and on the occasion of special feasts and ceremonies.
Now, however, it is drunk in the houses of the common people whenever
they can obtain a supply of the root. Far more _yankona_ is now planted
than before, and one chief at least is in the habit of growing it for
trade. European traders import it in large quantities from Samoa and
other Polynesian islands and retail it to natives at the usual rate of
from 1/6 to 2/- a lb.
Boys begin to drink it as soon as they leave school, say at the age of
eighteen; girls do not begin till later, though they are often required
to chew the root for others to drink. Women seem to drink it as a
beverage, as a stimulant, as a laxative, and also as a diuretic. They
drink it during pregnancy in the hope that it will give an easy labour
and produce a fine child; and also during the suckling period under the
excuse that it increases the flow of milk when all other expedients
fail. There is among some natives a fixed belief that frequent draughts
of _yankona_ are a specific in the early stages of diarrhoea.
There can be no doubt that moderate drinkers find it quite innocuous,
but it is otherwise with confirmed _yankona_ topers, who are easily
recognized. Their bodies become emaciated, and their skin, especially
the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet and the forearms and
shins, become dry and covered with scales. They lose their appetite,
their sleep is disordered, their eyes bloodshot, they complain of pains
in the pit of the stomach and sink into unwholesome lethargy. Any more
prolonged debauch than usual leaves its marks upon the drinker for two
or three days.
Natives describe the symptoms of habitual _yankona_-drinking as
follows:--
_Kaui_ (peeling of the skin), at first about the hypogastrium only, but
eventually over all those parts of the body where it usually occurs;
offensive perspiration; smarting of the conjunctivae; darkening in hue of
the nose and cheeks; _lakatha_, _i.e._ cracking of the palms and soles,
weariness and lethargy, pins and needles in the hands and feet. If an
habitual toper goes without _yankona_ for one day he feels restlessness
and sleeplessness, a parched feeling in the mouth and viscidity in the
saliva. If the abstinence is continued for two or three days he has
borborygmi, occasionally tenesmus.
The following are the effects of a single debauch on a person
unaccustomed to drink _yankona_: restlessness, headache and
sleeplessness, singing in the ears, salivation, hyperuresis, languor,
temporary loss of control of the legs, tremor of the hand when grasping,
and disinclination for food.
From my own experience I am bound to say that one may drink a very great
deal of _yankona_ without experiencing any of these symptoms. The
visitor to the Pacific who fondly hopes that a single draught of the
national beverage will send him careering over the country with a clear
head but rebellious legs will be woefully disappointed. On one occasion
I joined a party of investigation to test _in propria persona_ the
effects of a carouse. We drank a bucketful of strong _yankona_ between
the three of us in three-quarters of an hour, until, to put it plainly,
we could hold no more. The effect was negative. We felt no stimulation,
no soothing, no depression. Our lower limbs continued to behave as lower
limbs should. The drink neither kept us awake nor sent us to sleep, and
it left no headache behind it. So far from the hands trembling in the
act of grasping, one of our number played a better game of billiards
that afternoon than usual. We felt a little sick, perhaps, but not more
than if we had been compelled to swallow the same extravagant quantity
of any other liquid.
[Pageheader: A SUBSTITUTE FOR ALCOHOL]
We noticed the familiar numbing sensation of the fauces and the soft
palate which swallowing strong _yankona_ always induces. For a time the
quantity of saliva was increased, and it became more viscid than usual.
Europeans who are accustomed to drink _yankona_ in moderate quantities
find, not only that it quenches thirst better than any other beverage on
a hot day, but that it acts as a mild stimulant to social conversation,
and to the fullest enjoyment of tobacco. Its capacity for loosening the
tongue is fully recognized by all those who have to conduct native
meetings. Native chiefs of high rank, confronted with each other, are
usually tongue-tied with awkward constraint, but as soon as the
_yankona_ cup has gone round, their reserve is dispelled like the mists
of a summer morning, and they become prone to betray confidences that
would otherwise have remained locked in their bosoms. Europeans have
discovered an even more useful quality in _yankona_. The great
temptation that besets lonely Englishmen in tropical countries is
intemperance, which grows upon some of them until they lose all power of
resistance to the vice. Some confirmed drunkards have cured themselves
by substituting _yankona_ for spirits. They drink, it is true,
incredible quantities of the root, but it satisfies the craving for a
stimulant, without producing intoxication. In this respect it is a pity
that _yankona_ cannot be acclimatized in Europe.
It is a common fallacy among writers of the South Seas that "the natives
of the Pacific Islands use a fermented beverage called kava." So far
from its being fermented, kava is always drunk as soon as it is made,
and any dregs left in the bowl over night are unfit to drink the next
morning, because by that time fermentation has generally begun. Those
who desire to know more of the chemical analysis of _yankona_ can
consult the monograph on the subject given by Dr. Lewin with the German
love of ponderous detail before the German Medical Society in 1885. The
chief physiological influence of the drug in the human body is exercised
on the motor nerves, but the sensory fibres are also affected, and the
influence is cumulative. The alcoholic extract, when evaporated to the
consistency of soap, is as active as cocaine, weight for weight, in
inducing local anaesthesia.
There is, no doubt, in these days, a greater consumption of _yankona_
than in heathen times, for at present the consumption is limited only by
the supply. Except in favoured localities, such as the island of Koro,
the root requires from two to five years to come to maturity, and
demands a good deal of attention during its growth. The importation of
the dried root from other islands in the Pacific has certainly made the
natives independent of the green crop; but since a single root of the
ordinary size generally suffices only for a single occasion, and its
equivalent in dried root cannot be purchased at the local stores for
much less than 2/- a pound (a pound being the minimum required for an
evening _yankona_ party)--the constant use of the root is beyond the
power of any but the richer natives. Natives probably drink _yankona_
once a day throughout the year, far less, in fact, than persons of the
same rank in Tonga, where the pounding stones are never silent.
Commoners, unless they are in attendance on chiefs, go many days without
tasting it.
In one respect there are signs of a change for the better. The custom of
chewing the green root not only tended to foster a taste for drinking in
the young person selected to prepare the bowl, but was probably the
means of communicating the bacilli of disease through the saliva. There
are Europeans who defend the dirty habit on the ground that pounding
reduces the woody fibre to dust which cannot be removed by the strainer,
and who allege that the root is merely masticated, and leaves the mouth
uncontaminated as it went in. But this comfortable belief received a
rude shock when the experiment was made of weighing an ounce of the root
before and after chewing, and it was found that the ounce had increased
by something more than 10 per cent. Happily, the Tongan chief is the
_arbiter elegantiarum_ to the Fijian Courts, and it is fast becoming the
fashion to regard the habit of chewing _yankona_ in its proper light and
to substitute the pounding stones of Tonga.
[Pageheader: DISCOURAGED BY MISSIONARIES]
The Wesleyan missionaries have attacked _yankona_ drinking with a fiery
zeal which is scarcely commensurate with the importance of the subject,
for if it is a vice at all, it cannot reasonably be condemned for
bringing in its train any of those social evils that are due to alcohol.
A large number of the native teachers wear a blue ribbon on their
shirt-fronts in token that they have abjured tobacco and _yankona_, and
suspend conspicuously in their houses a card bearing the legend, "_Sa
tabu na yaqona kei na tavako_" (drinking and smoking are forbidden). In
the interests of the mission the wisdom of this crusade may well be
questioned, for the path of virtue for the native has been made dull
enough already by the prohibition of all his ancient heathen
distractions, and to curtail any more of his pleasures would be to
invite an inevitable reaction which up to now has taken the course of
going over to the Roman Catholics, whose policy it is to make the lives
of the Fijians as joyous as they dare. Nevertheless, in so far as they
have checked the habit of _yankona_-drinking among youths and
childbearing women, the efforts of the Wesleyan missionaries are likely
to be of some immediate if not ulterior advantage.