172 THE BETEL NUT 



the top, he fastens one end of it to the tree, and 

 throws the other to his wife, who goes to a distance 

 and draws it tight. Then the man breaks off a 

 heavy bunch of ripe nuts, and hitching it on the 

 rope lets it go. It shoots down with such velocity 

 that it would knock his wife down did she not know 

 how to dodge it skilfully and break its force in a 

 bend of the rope. 



When all the bunches are on the ground, the man 

 begins to sway his body violently till the tender 

 and supple palm is swinging like a pendulum and 

 almost striking the trees on either side. Watching 

 his opportunity, the man grasps one of these and 

 transfers himself to it with the nimbleness of a 

 monkey. In this way he makes an aerial journey 

 round the garden and avoids the fatigue of climb- 

 ing up and down every separate tree. 



The gathered betel nuts soon find their way to 

 the warehouses of fat Bunias at the coast ports, 

 where they are peeled and prepared and sorted and 

 piled in great heaps according to quality, and finally 

 shipped in pattimars and cotias and coasting steamers, 

 and so disseminated over the length and breadth of 

 the land to be the comforters of poor and rich. 



It only remains to say that the betel nut is not 

 used in the East for tooth-powder, though the 

 natives belieye that the practice of chewing it saves 

 them from toothache. When they use any denti- 

 frice it is generally charcoal, and their toothbrush 

 is either the forefinger or a fibrous stick chewed at 



