the birds, and the cheerful influence of the
scene."--_Polynesia_, 1846, pp. 249, 250.]

[373] [Marly, or Malai, is an open grass plat set apart for public
ceremonies.]

[fg]

_Ere Fiji's children blew the shell of war_
_And armed Canoes brought Fury from afar_.--[MS. D. erased.]

[fh] _Too long forgotten in the pleasure ground_.--[MS. D. erased.]

[374] [Cava, "kava," or "ava," is an intoxicating drink, prepared from
the roots and stems of a kind of pepper (_Piper methysticum_). Mariner
(_An Account, etc._, 1817, ii. 183-206) gives a highly interesting and
suggestive account of the process of brewing the kava, and of the solemn
"kava-drinking," which was attended with ceremonial rites. Briefly, a
large wooden bowl, about three feet in diameter, and one foot in depth
in the centre (see, for a typical specimen, King Thakombau's kava-bowl,
in the British Museum), is placed in front of the king or chief, who
sits in the midst, surrounded by his guests and courtiers. A portion of
kava root is handed to each person present, who chews it to a pulp, and
then deposits his quid in the kava bowl. Water being gradually added,
the roots are well squeezed and twisted by various "curvilinear turns"
of the hands and arms through the "fow," _i.e._ shavings of fibrous
bark. When the "kava is in the cup," quaighs made of the "unexpanded
leaf of the banana" are handed round to the guests, and the symposium
begins. Mariner (_ibid._, p. 205, note) records a striking feature of
the preliminary rites, a consecration or symbolic "grace before"
drinking. "When a god has no priest, as Tali-y-Toobo [the Supreme Deity
of the Tongans], no person ... presides at the head of his cava circle,
the place being left ... vacant, but which it is supposed the god
invisibly occupies.... And they go through the usual form of words, as
if the first cup was actually filled and presented to the god: thus,
before any cup is filled, the man by the side of the bowl says ... 'The
cava is in the cup:' the mataboole answers ... 'Give it to our god:' but
this is mere form, for there is no cup filled for the god." (See, too,
_The Making of Religion_, by A. Lang, 1900, p. 279.)]

[375] {601}[The gnatoo, which is a piece of tappa cloth, is worn in
different ways. "Twenty yards of fine cloth are required by a Tahitian
woman to make one dress, which is worn from the waist
downwards."--_Polynesia_, 1866, p. 45.]

[376] [_Licoo_ is the name given to the back o