 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 cocoa-nut 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 masticating the arva,
and throwing it mouthful after mouthful into the receptacle provided. When a
sufficient quantity had been thus obtained, water was poured upon the mass, and
being stirred about with the forefinger of the right hand, the preparation was
soon in readiness for use. The arva has medicinal qualities.
    Upon the Sandwich Islands it has been employed with no small success in the
treatment of scrofulous affections, and in combating the ravages of a disease
for whose frightful inroads the ill-starred inhabitants of that group are
indebted to their foreign benefactors. But the tenants of the Typee valley, as
yet exempt from these inflictions, generally employ the arva as a minister to
social enjoyment, and a calabash of the liquid circulates among them as the
bottle with us.
    Mehevi, who was greatly delighted with the change in my costume, gave me a
cordial welcome. He had reserved for me a most delectable mess of kokoo, well
knowing my partiality for that dish; and had likewise selected three or four
young cocoa-nuts, several roasted bread-fruit, and a magnificent bunch of
bananas, for my especial comfort and gratification. These various matters were
at once placed before me; but Kory-Kory deemed the banquet entirely insufficient
for my wants until he had supplied me with one of the leafy packages of pork,
which, notwithstanding the somewhat hasty manner in
