70 
THE BETEL-NUT. 
“ The use of this nut gives to its consumers a most 
disgusting appearance about the mouth. They carry the 
‘quid* between the lower front-teeth and the lip; and, as 
it is often as large as the half of one’s thumb, and dyes 
the lips and inner membrane a bright red, they look as 
if they had just received a crushing blow in the mouth. 
It is passing strange that while the juice thus stains the 
mouth red it should convert the teeth into ebony. I 
asked one of our boatmen why he chewed it, and he said 
it was to make their teeth black. Dogs had white teeth, 
he said, and they wished to be different from dogs. He 
gave as another reason that they were ordered to do so 
by their Koran ; but this I do not believe, as they get 
their Koran from the Arabs.** 
We had made the acquaintance of a Mr. L. M. Squires, 
an American resident of eleven years, and who sub- 
sequently joined the Hancock in the capacity of assistant 
naturalist. We were smoking our cheroots in the porch 
of the Amsterdam Hotel. 
“ While we were thus smoking in the cool evening 
breeze, we were joined by several gentlemen^ acquaint- 
ances of Mr. Squires’s, and who were presented to us. 
The usual comments on the state of the weather were 
got off with happy success, and then every one began to 
wait for his neighbour to say something else. Finally, 
one of the new arrivals, an Englishman, asked me, ab- 
ruptly, if I had ever seen a native under the influence 
of the ‘ muck.* 
“ ‘ The what V I asked. 
“ ^The muck ! the running much' 
