Indulgences

1. Wai ni vanua

   Wai ni vanua ("water of the land" — the ceremonial name for kava)

   Usage

   The way kava is referred to in high ceremony (the ceremonial synonym)

   Grammar Note

   In everyday speech it is yaqona, in English kava, and informally the English word grog. Choosing this phrase itself raises the register, so it does not belong in casual talk. The plant is Piper methysticum, brought to Fiji from Vanuatu

2. Isevusevu

   Isevusevu (the presentation of kava root on arrival)

   Usage

   The ceremony in which a visitor presents kava root (waka) or rhizome (lewena) and is introduced. The root is stronger in lactones, more expensive and much more prestigious; in Rewa, where little kava is grown, presenting lewena is unacceptable

   Grammar Note

   ⚠ Arriving without one has its own name: sevusevu dredre (p.227) — that it is named at all tells you how it is noticed. In practice you buy waka at a town market before going out to a village

3. Waka

   Waka (kava root — the prestigious part to present)

   Usage

   The word means "root" generally, but unless otherwise specified waka means the root of kava, used in ceremonial presentations and made into the beverage. It is what you see sold in bundles at the market

   Grammar Note

   ⚠ Not the Māori waka, which means canoe or vehicle. In Fijian it is consistently "root"; an exceptionally large one is a waka-tu (p.318). The possessed form is waka-na

4. Lewena

   Lewena (kava rhizome — milder than the root)

   Usage

   The basal stem or rhizome of the kava plant, which makes a milder drink than the root, waka (p.141). It is cheaper, but ranks lower as a ceremonial gift

   Grammar Note

   ⚠ Whether it may be presented depends on the region: in Rewa presenting lewena is unacceptable. Kava sold as powder is normally cut with at least a third rhizome and skin scrapings, which is why many Fijians buy it unpounded and pound it themselves

5. Lose

   Lose (to mix the kava)

   Usage

   Mixing pounded kava with water to make it drinkable; the transitive form is losea. Na lose yaqona names either the mixing itself or the person who does it

   Grammar Note

   ⚠ Spelled like English "lose" but unrelated. Once a batch is mixed it is meant to be finished, and kava is not supposed to be drunk alone (p.329) — which is why it is hard to leave a session early

6. Darama

   Darama (strained clear — the call that the kava is ready)

   Usage

   The adjective for kava that has had the fibre strained out and run clear. The traditional words pronounced when the kava has been formally prepared and is ready to be served are Darama saka na yaqona vakaturaga — "the yaqona is strained clean, Sir"

   Grammar Note

   ⚠ d is [nd], so it is "nda-ra-ma". It is a general adjective — also used of land or a path cleared of vegetation, or of a closely shaven head — not a kava-only word (p.60)

7. Taki

   Taki (to dip and serve a round)

   Usage

   To dip a container into liquid; the transitive is takiva. Taki! is a rather familiar idiom used especially at grog sessions, meaning "serve a round of yaqona"

   Grammar Note

   ⚠ Not the Tongan taki, "guide". The related itaki is a ladle or dipper (p.250). It is not something a guest says on their own account — it is a familiar call directed at whoever is serving

8. Bilo ni yaqona

   Bilo ni yaqona (the coconut-shell cup for kava)

   Usage

   A smoothed half-shell of a mature coconut, the vessel kava is drunk from. The same cup serves many people; kava itself is held to be antiseptic

   Grammar Note

   ⚠ b is [mb] and q is [ŋg], so the whole is "mbilo ni yangona". Sizes are usually asked for in English, as low tide or high tide. ⚠ The idiom bilo vata is a suggestive line said by a man to a woman — not one to copy (p.22)

9. Cobo

   Cobo (the hollow-handed ritual clap)

   Usage

   A respectful gesture: the palms are cupped and clapped across each other, not parallel, to make a deep resounding sound. The cobo is most often heard today after a person has drunk a bowl of kava, clapped three times — or in Kadavu five

   Grammar Note

   ⚠ c is the th of "this" and b is [mb], so it is [ðombo], not "co-bo". ⚠ In the Colo highlands cobo is a vulgar word, so people there say 'obo instead (p.49). Clapping with flat parallel hands is the European applause and a different gesture altogether

10. Maca

    Maca (empty, drunk dry)

    Usage

    Dry, empty. "Drinking the whole amount of yaqona in the cup" is the very example of this word; gunuva maca is "to drink it dry". A bowl of kava is drained in one go, and this is the word that comes with handing it back

    Grammar Note

    ⚠ c is the th of "this", so it is [maða] — neither "ma-ka" nor "ma-cha". The reduplicated mamaca means the same (p.149). ⚠ The similar macake is a fungal infection of the mouth and a different word

11. Ibili ni mua

    Ibili ni mua (the last round — "one for the road")

    Usage

    The final round served at a kava session ("last round of serving, one for the road")

    Grammar Note

    Mua carries the sense of heading off — the same word is in lovo ni mua, a farewell feast (p.145). Related terms: the round served after a guest departs is na bulu yava, and the last cup before someone quits the session is an ititoko, literally a walking stick (p.328)

12. Burau

    Burau (sucking kava up from a pit in the ground)

    Usage

    Drinking kava by sucking it up from a flat dish, or from a leaf-lined pit in the ground. Priests once did the former and highlanders the latter; the wooden bowl (tanoa) and coconut cups came in from Tonga only in the early 1800s

    Grammar Note

    ⚠ b is [mb], so it is "mbu-rau". Viti Levu highlanders may still do this at rural garden sites. The highlands had no use for the ranked drinking protocol at all

13. Mateni

    Mateni (intoxicated, by alcohol or by kava)

    Usage

    Being intoxicated. The term is indigenous and formerly applied only to kava, since Fijians had no alcohol or other intoxicants. Kava intoxication needs considerable consumption in fairly strong form, and it affects physical coordination but not mental acuity

    Grammar Note

    ⚠ The identically spelled mateni 2. is a loan from English "mutton" — context is everything. A skin condition called kanikani can follow heavy use, but the standalone word kanikani means "to tickle", so do not carry that word off on its own

14. Tavako

    Tavako (tobacco, cigarette)

    Usage

    Tobacco, and also a cigarette. To smoke is kana tavako — literally "to eat tobacco" — or vakatavako (p.261)

    Grammar Note

    A loan from English "tobacco". On signs, no smoking is Kua ni vakatavako and a smoking area Vanua ni vakatavako. A prohibition takes the form Sa tabu na …

15. Suluka

    Suluka (hand-rolled cigarette wrapped in cured leaf)

    Usage

    A hand-rolled smoke wrapped in heat-cured leaf of the pandanus (vadra, balawa) or of the plantain (vudi); by extension the word also covers newspaper used the same way. These are sometimes called suki, and most young Fijian smokers today demand ready-made cigarettes

    Grammar Note

    ⚠ The similar suluma, sulumaka means "to put on clothes" and is a different word (p.240). You still meet suluka in villages, though ready-made cigarettes are displacing them

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