CHAP III.] THE USE OF BETEL. 113 



life habits universally prevailing which have not their 

 origin, however ultimately they may be abused by 

 excess, in some sense of utility. The Turk, when he 

 adds to the oppressive warmth of the sun by enveloping 

 his forehead in a gaudy turban, or the Arab, when 

 he increases the sultry heat by swathing his waist in a 

 showy girdle, may appear to act on no other calculation 

 than a willingness to sacrifice comfort to a love of display ; 

 but the custom in each instance is the result of pre- 

 caution in the former, because the head requires es- 

 pecial protection from sun-strokes ; and in the latter, 

 from the fact well known to the Greeks (evfyovoi 'A^aio)) 

 that, in a warm climate, danger is to be apprehended 

 from a sudden chill to that particular region of the 

 stomach. In like manner, in the chewing of the areca- 

 nut with its accompaniments of lime and betel, the native 

 of Ceylon is unconsciously applying a specific to correct 

 the defective qualities of his daily food. Never eating 

 flesh meat by any chance, seldom or never using milk, 

 butter, poultry, or eggs, and tasting fish but occasionally 

 (most rarely in the interior of the island,) the non- 

 azotised elements abound in every article he consumes 

 with the exception of the bread-fruit, the jak, and some 

 varieties of beans. In his indolent and feeble stomach 

 these are liable to degenerate into flatulent and acrid 

 products ; but, apparently by instinct, the whole po- 

 pulation have adopted a simple prophylactic. Every 

 Singhalese carries in his waistcloth an ornamented box 

 of silver or brass, according to his means, enclosing a 

 smaller one to hold a portion of chunam (lime obtained 

 by the calcination of shells) whilst the larger contains 

 the nuts of the areca and a few freshly-gathered leaves of 

 the betel-vine. As inclination or habit impels, he scrapes 

 down the nut, which abounds in catechu, and, rolling 

 it up with a little of the lime in a leaf, the whole 

 is chewed, and finally swallowed, after provoking an 

 extreme salivation. To effect the desired object, no me- 

 dical prescription could be more judiciously compounded 



VOL. I. I 



