Ethnography of Micronesia. 139 



which is used in making the intoxicating hquor kava mentioned 

 in Part I. As the natives can scarcely do without betel-pepper 

 leaves, tliey are careful in the cultivation of the plant, providing 

 trellises of twigs or pieces of bamboo. 



In Yap, the writer saw women chewing coconut husk, m 

 exactly the same manner as when chewing the betel-nut. The 

 husk may or may not have the same efficacy as the betel-nut itself. 

 He brought back specimens of husks prepared for chewing. 



The lime, betel-nut and betel-pepper leaf are generally used 

 together, but sometimes either of the last two may be omitted or 

 substituted by a different material. For example, the natives of 

 Eennel Island,i one of the Solomon Islands, and of Humbold Bay, 

 DQtch New Guinea,^ lack the betel-pepper leaf, for which in the 

 latter a substitute is found in the siri fruit or sometimes in the 

 stem of the Piper slriboa (Chariva sirlboa). The betel-pepper 

 leaf is not used in Rennel Island, probably because the plant is 

 not found in the island. The natives, however, of Kiwai Island 

 lying at the mouth of the Fly River in British New Guinea^ are 

 not addicted to betel-nut chewing, though the nut, lime and betel- 

 pepper can be found there. 



In the neighbourhood of those South Sea Islands now in the 

 hands of Japan, the habit of betel-nut chewing prevails among 

 tribes of the Malay stock as well as natives in certain parts of 

 Melanesia, i.e., the Admiralty Islands, New Guinea and Solomon 

 Islands. Probably the islanders of the West Carohnes acquired the 

 habit from some of those tribes. After comparing the native words 



1 C M. Woodford. " Notes on EennoU Island," Man, VII, 1907, 24. 



•i G. A. .T. Van dor Sande, "Nova Guinea, HI. Ethnography and Anthropology, PP- 



19, 20. 



'> \v. Macgregor, "Annual lîeport of British New Guinea for 189ü,'> Res^m.é : Tour. Anthr. 

 Inst, XXI, 18)2, p. 7C). 



