INDONESIAN ANNOTATIONS ON THE VOCABULARY. ass 
Proto-Polynesian. It is possible that 24 fum represents the bu stem 
with a nasal accretion, but in the paucity of data this must remain a 
mere suggestion. In 17 bibts and 23 pupts we may find a duplicated 
bu with sibilant accretion. The frequent u-o vowel change establishes 
po in its narrowly restricted occurrence on the north coast of New 
Guinea. It would be mere guesswork to seek to associate with the 
po type such forms as 18 b6k6, 21 potu, and 22 pou, though we note 
that the latter two are clearly of the same source. 
The extent of this bua stem has an interest far transcending its 
lexicographic importance. Conditioned by a certain large but not 
complete botanical factor, we engage here with the division of two 
diverse cultures as established by the customs of betel-chewing and 
kava-drinking. ‘There has arisen in ethnological reports as well as in 
the narratives of the merely curious traveler such a distortion of terms 
in connection with the betel-chewing that it seems advisable to con- 
tinue the movement introduced by recent authorities and avoid as 
much as possible the term ‘“‘betel-chewing.’’ Even in so careful a 
work as Roorda van Eysinga’s ‘‘ Maleisch-Nederduitsch Woorden- 
boek”’ we find this confusion. Under the word sirih defined as betel 
(Piper betle) he adds “‘daoen sirih het wordt met pinang, gambir, kalk 
en tabak gekauwd,”’ and ‘‘makan sirih betel nuttigen, betel kauwen.”’ 
Then under the word pinang he gives the definition ‘‘de areek of betel- 
noot die bij den betel gebruikt wordt.’’ He has given the four or five 
ingredients of the quid. The matter is detailed at greater length by 
Colonel Finley in “‘The Subanu,’’.page 20. The betel constituent 
is the leaf of that pepper plant; it is of course a misnomer to transfer 
that name to the fruit of the Areca catechu palm, as we have just 
seen in the definition of pinang. To avoid this established error it is 
becoming the custom to refer to the unseemly stimulant as sirih- 
chewing. 
This stimulant characterizes all of Indonesia and immediately adja- 
cent Melanesia where the palm and the pepper grow or may be culti- 
vated. It does not appear at all in Polynesia, where the areca palm 
and this particular pepper are lacking. In Melanesia the custom of 
sirih-chewing has not extended to the limits of the habits of the two 
plants, it has not yet reached the New Hebrides, and its introduction 
to the southern Solomons is within the memory of man. The most 
careful, as it is the most complete, presentation of the theme, so far 
as it relates to Melanesia, we owe to the field researches of Dr. Rivers. 
It is advisable to collect his scattered passages in order to present the 
treatment of the theme as a whole in order that we may see clearly 
what brilliant ethnographical use he makes of the subject in far broader 
relations than the mere practice by savages of one of those social vices 
which go so far in all conditions short of the angelic host, concerning 
which we are not briefed, to ameliorate the tedium of life. These 
