140 Art. YIL— A. Matsumma: 



for " limo," " aroca mit " and " bctol-loaves," in Yap with tlio 

 corresponding words in tlie Admiralty Islands, Mosoley says : " The 

 Yap Islanders are amongst the few Western Micronesians who 

 chew betel, and they are believed to have learnt the habit from 

 the Malays, but it is rem-rirkable that their words for areca nut 

 and the lime nsed with it differ entirely from the Malay woids, 

 and appear closely allied with those in use at the xVdmiralty 

 Islands. The possible drifting of a Yap canoe to the Admiralty 

 Islands might account for the similarity of words such as those 

 for lime and betel in the two Islands." ^ 



Further, according to the same writer (p. 418), though the 

 areca nut, lime and beteldeaves are now used together, the people 

 in the northern part of the Admiralty Islands, when Labillardiere 

 visited the region in 1772, used lime and betel-leaves only. The 

 habit of chew^ing the nut was perhaps introduced into the islands 

 after his visit. Supposing the Yap Islanders learnt this habit of 

 chewing the nut with lime and Ijeteldeaves from the natives of 

 the Admiralty Islands, the practice in the former cannot date back 

 much more than a hundred years.. As already quoted, Captain 

 Wilson saw the practice of betel-nut chewing in Palau about 130 

 years ago when he visited there. 



1 H. N. Moseley, « Ou the Inhabitants of the Admiralty Islands, etc.," Jour. Antbr. Inst., 

 VI, 1877, pp. 393, 394. 



