222 MODE OF USING THE BETEL. 



head, on which some one had stuck a red nig'ht-cap 

 which greatly took his fancy. Not heing of so vola- 

 tile a nature as the others he remained patiently with 

 me for half an hour. He shewed me the mode of using* 

 the hetel, which, as practised by these people has this 

 peculiarity, that the leaf of the siri or betel pepper 

 is not employed, as is universally the case among- 

 the Malays. A small portion of the green betel- 

 nut (the fruit of the Areca Catechu) which here 

 curiously enough is named ereka—ia broken off with 

 the teeth and placed in the mouth j then the 

 spatula, formerly described, moistened with saliva, 

 is dipped into a small calabash of hme in fine 

 powder, with which the tongue and lips are smeared 

 over by repeated applications. The bolus is then 

 kept in the mouth, and rolled over and over until it 

 is thought requisite to renew it. The practice of 

 betel chewing- is not confined to the men, for the 

 few women whom we had seen alongside the ship 

 in Coral Haven, had their teeth blackened by it. 



One of the natives seen to-day exhibited a 

 remarkable case of malformation of the teeth. The 

 lower incisors were wanting, and the upper ones 

 had coalesced and grown downwards and outwards, 

 forming an irregular dark protruding mass which I 

 at first took to be a quid of betel. Another man 

 with a diseased leg had lost one hand at the wrist, 

 and the long shrivelled arm presented a curious 

 appearance. 



Several dogs were also seen close to, for 



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