The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1869-01-20

Charley never even took on bis hat, bat
sung out ia CHEEKY, loud tone Of voice,
-Si yandra saka :" to which the king, turn
ing up his Isaden. fish-Iike eyes, responded,
as il with strong effort. Z 81 yandra- =
We both seated ourselves, fE,m a sign BY
the king, one on each side q lin.
After we had seated ourselves, the king
called for the invariable selaza, or cigar
rito," and then ordered the connection Of
a bowl Of aaeona, or ava This, to me,
was not at all agreeabls-my experience Of
the previous night having fully satisfied
-my aspirations of experimenting on the
operations Of this celebrated root Init
mating this to Charley. he spoke to the
same effectto the king, who was grsciously
pleased to excuse me. Eemarking that it
was, indeed, rather improper that the STAN
game seeka," which means goodlooking
yonth-spare my blushes-should drink
angOna So the king and Charley alone
drank the stuff. The process was the
same as that have described as occurring
on the former occasion-the young girls
as chewers, and an old man who did the
straining. en- old man who acted as
cup-bearer. The first cup-a polished CO
c0anut shell, which would hold, should
say. about quart, was brought to the king,
who would not accept it, but with a ges-
ture. indicated bis pleasure that it should
be passed to Charley. The customs a5,ong
the FJiians are very peculiar, and in fact
solemn, when high chief drinks ava.
The first cupis always offered to the chief,
and should he drink it, the remainder Of
the contents of the bowl are at once pour
ed out upon the ground. no one else being
allowed to taste it. But in this instance,
the king having given Charley the first
bowl, which be drank with great deal Of
gusto, proceeded to take his own dose.
This be did by turning up his immense,
long black beard-wbich was so long that
it hung below his breast-and bowling his
head to the bowl, drank therefrom to the
dregs through his beard. While be was
in the act of drinking, the retainers, who
sat about, to the humber of thirty or forty,
perhaps, kept up continual clapping of
hands, not the ordinary fat clapping that
one hears in theatre. but sharp, short
sound, more resembling the report of q
pistol. 1t was done in two ways-one,
by bringing the fingers of the right hand
smartly down upon the bent palms of the
lef. and the other, by striking the bent
palm Of the hand upon the thigh. When
the chief raised his head from the bowl,
a great shout was raised by his retainers,
and very long recitation, in most voluble
language was gone through with, ending in
the words, g Ndra, Wohgs uttered in most
stentoriau tones by the whole crowd. The
meaning Of those words, as explained to
me by Charley, was. aThe King-he is
our Master"
After the angona laval was drunk. food
was Immediately brought in and placed be-
fore us on freshly plucked breadfruit leaves.
which were the only sort of plates that
Fiji could boast of at the time. First
came scaf .tdtakdd-the water in which
fish had been boiled; then the fish itself,
neatly tapped in clean leaf, with its ac-
companying baked taro, breadfruit Doth
ripe and unripe) and sweet-potatoes; then
the dessert Of various sweets, compounded
from the different fruits which came to the
hands of FIiian cuisine. No knives or
forks were to be seen on the matted board,
but we had each sharpeDed piece of bam-
boo that answered excelleDtly well in the
place Of knife. and of course, we could
not fail to remember the old saying, (by
whom, 1 wonderg that Fingers were made
before knives and forks
After breakfasting thus with the soyer-
eign of Rewa, Charley proposed to take
me to see the princes, the kings brothers.
Nearest the kings house was that of Ma
gariangio--a singular name, and it has |
singular meaning. 1t means a sharks
tooth We found him il his huge straw |
built habitation. lolling listlessly on the
mats, surrounded by about two dozen
women and girls, while as many men and |
boys were sitting in the other extremity
of the house. As We entered, be gave US |
the usual sanitation of q 81 yandra.r and |
gave US, moreover. cordial grasp of the
hand, which was more than his royal broth |
er. King Of Rexa had done he was tall |
and slim, apparently about twenty-five years
Of age, fair for Fijiian. and decidedly |
handsome in features. with beard that |
Turk might envy. The first words be said |
to us-interpreted to meby Charley-were,
q Have you had your morning 7" meaning
the ava; next. ~Have you had your break
FAST Both Of these queries we're of
course answered in the affirmative. He /
then suggested that we should take some /
more, and rather earnestly pressed it. As
we declined. he said, E sunni sa ndua "a