narcotic which they chew, as the natives of some other countries do
opium, beetle-root, and tobacco. Some of them drank freely of our
liquors, and in a few instances became very drunk; but the persons to
whom this happened were so far from desiring to repeat the debauch, that
they would never touch any of our liquors afterwards. We were, however,
informed, that they became drunk by drinking a juice that is expressed
from the leaves of a plant which they call _ava ava_. This plant was not
in season when we were there, so that we saw no instances of its
effects; and as they considered drunkenness as a disgrace, they probably
would have concealed from us any instances which might have happened
during our stay. This vice is almost peculiar to the chiefs, and
considerable persons, who vie with each other in drinking the greatest
number of draughts, each draught being about a pint. They keep this
intoxicating juice with great care from their women.[10]

[Footnote 10: Turnbull speaks of intoxication being quite common and
excessive at the feasts of the Otaheitans. And the reader will often
hear of the intemperate use and had effects of the ava or yava. The love
of this liquor, or its effects rather, must indeed be strong, to
reconcile them to the disgusting manner in which it is prepared.
"Several women," says the missionary account, "have each a portion
given them to chew of the stem and root (of the yava shrub) together,
which, when masticated, they spit into a bowl into which some of the
leaves of the plant are finely broken; they add water, or cocoa-nut
liquor: The whole is then well stirred, and begins quickly to ferment;
when it is strained or wrung out in the moo gross, or cocoa-nut fibres,
and drank in cups of folded leaves. It is highly intoxicating, and seems
for a while to deprive them of the use of their limbs: They lie down and
sleep till the effects are passed, and during the time have their limbs
chafed with their women's hands. A gill of the yava is a sufficient dose