" One
cannot be a day on the islands without hearing wonderful stories
about awa; and its use is defended by some who are strongly opposed
to the use as well as abuse of intoxicants. People who like "The
Earl and the Doctor" delight themselves in the strongly sensuous
element which pervades Polynesian life, delight themselves too, in
contemplating the preparation and results of the awa beverage; but
both are to me extremely disgusting, and I cannot believe that a
drink, which stupifies the senses, and deprives a human being of the
power to exercise reason and will, is anything but hurtful to the
moral nature.
While passing the Navigator group, one of my fellow-passengers, who
had been for some time in Tutuila, described the preparation of awa
poetically, the root "being masticated by the pearly teeth of dusky
flower-clad maidens;" but I was an accidental witness of a nocturnal
"awa drinking" on Hawaii, and saw nothing but very plain prose. I
feel as if I must approach the subject mysteriously. I had no time
to tell you of the circumstance when it occurred, when also I was
completely ignorant that it was an illegal affair; and, now with a
sort of "guilty knowledge" I tremble to relate what I saw, and to
divulge that though I could not touch the beverage, I tasted the
root, which has an acrid pungent taste, something like horse-radish,
with an aromatic flavour in addition, and I can imagine that the
acquired taste for it must, like other acquired tastes, be perfectly
irresistible, even without the additional gratification of the
results which follow its exercise.
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