TOBACCO
The tobacco plant was indigenous in Fiji, but until the beginning of the
nineteenth century the leaf was only used for killing lice, from which
it took its original native name of _mate-ni-kutu_ (lice-slayer).
Smoking was introduced by a Manila ship, and it spread rapidly through
the group, being adopted by both sexes.
The plant is grown in dry, sandy soil, preferably on the sites of old
houses which have been well manured by the village pigs. The leaves are
hung suspended in bundles from the rafters of a house to wither, and are
then twisted tightly together to sweat. This produces a leaf of great
pungency and strength. It is smoked almost exclusively in the form of a
_suluka_, or cigarette, rolled in dry banana leaf. The ribs of the
tobacco leaf are stripped off, the leaf is partially dried over a
firebrand, and shredded before being rolled, and a supply of
ready-rolled _suluka_ is either stuck into a cleft reed to keep it from
unrolling, or carried behind the ear.
Until about 1880 every native over fourteen years of age smoked; many of
the children began at a much earlier age, and, if punished for it,
continued the practice in secret. About twenty years ago the Wesleyan
missionaries tried to discourage the practice, by instituting a blue
ribbon for total abstainers from kava and tobacco. They may have induced
five per cent. of the adults to abandon the habit.
[Pageheader: PIPE SMOKING]
As long as smoking was confined to the _suluka_ it had a picturesque
side, but latterly the inconvenience of a cigarette that goes out every
two or three minutes, even with continuous application, has favoured the
introduction of the English pipe. The young chiefs are seldom seen
without one, and as they omit to remove it when speaking to you, it has
not tended to preserve the courtliness of Fijian manners. The women have
now begun to use it, and may be seen working in their plantations,
smoking a short, black clay pipe, with the bowl turned downwards to keep
out the rain. It would no doubt be universal were it not that the
imported tobacco, though it is admitted to have a pleasant smell, is
objected to as being less narcotic than the native-cured leaf.
The women smoke a great deal during pregnancy, but abstain for the first
ten days after confinement. One woman told me that she had noticed, when
suckling, that when she was smoking heavily she had less milk, and that
her baby cried a great deal, whereupon she discontinued smoking until
the child was able to crawl. Few Fijian mothers show so much
consideration. With the view of testing the important point as to
whether excessive smoking affected the mothers, an experiment was made
on May 29, 1883. A healthy Fijian woman, with a child at the breast, was
taken to Suva hospital and given half-an-ounce of native leaf to smoke.
She consumed is all in two hours, and then declined to smoke any more.
One and a half fluid ounces of her milk were drawn off and submitted to
examination by the late Dr. Zimmer. Unfortunately there were not
sufficient appliances for securing a positive analysis, but the addition
of platinum bichloride to the distillate gave a yellow precipitate, such
as is produced by the combination of nicotine with that salt.