Chapter Twenty-three - Page 2

extraordinary
scene. The immense lounge of mats lying between the parallel
rows of the trunks of cocoanut trees, and extending the entire
length of the house, at least two hundred feet, was covered by
the reclining forms of a host of chiefs and warriors who were
eating at a great rate, or soothing the cares of Polynesian life
in the sedative fumes of tobacco. The smoke was inhaled from
large pipes, the bowls of which, made out of small cocoanut
shells, were curiously carved in strange heathenish devices.
These were passed from mouth to mouth by the recumbent smokers,
each of whom, taking two or three prodigious whiffs, handed the
pipe to his neighbour; sometimes for that purpose stretching
indolently across the body of some dozing individual whose
exertions at the dinner-table had already induced sleep.

The tobacco used among the Typees was of a very mild and pleasing
flavour, and as I always saw it in leaves, and the natives
appeared pretty well supplied with it, I was led to believe that
it must have been the growth of the valley. Indeed Kory-Kory
gave me to understand that this was the case; but I never saw a
single plant growing on the island. At Nukuheva, and, I believe,
in all the other valleys, the weed is very scarce, being only
obtained in small quantities from foreigners, and smoking is
consequently with the inhabitants of these places a very great
luxury. How it was that the Typees were so well furnished with
it I cannot divine. I should think them too indolent to devote
any attention to its culture; and, indeed, as far as my
observation extended, not a single atom of the soil was under any
other cultivation than that of shower and sunshine. The
tobacco-plant, however, like the sugar-cane, may grow wild in
some remote part of the vale.

There were many in the Ti for whom the tobacco did not furnish a
sufficient stimulus, and who accordingly had recourse to 'arva',
as a more powerful agent in producing the desired effect.

'Arva' is a root very generally dispersed over the South Seas,
and from it is extracted a juice, the effects of which upon the
system are at first stimulating in a moderate degree; but it soon
relaxes the muscles, and exerting a narcotic influence produces a
luxurious sleep. In the valley this beverage was universally
prepared in the following way:--Some half-dozen young boys seated
themselves in a circle around an empty wooden vessel, each one of
them being supplied with a certain quantity of the roots of the
'arva', broken into small bits and laid by his side. A cocoanut
goblet of water was passed around the juvenile company, who
rinsing their mouths with its contents, proceeded to the business
before them. This merely consisted in thoroughly