“he took and tasted, a new life
flowed through his renovated frame;
his limbs, that late were sore and stiff,
felt all the freshness of repose;
his dizzy brain was calmed,
the heavy aching of his lids
at once was taken off;
for laila, from the bowers of paradise,
had borne the healing fruit.”——thalaba.
the widely distributed race of malays, occupy not only the malayan peninsula, and, though not exclusively, the islands of the indian archipelago, but has penetrated into madagascar, and spreads itself through the islands of the pacific from new zealand, the society, the friendly isles, and the marquesas, to the distant sandwich and easter isles. whatever may have been the starting point, it is essentially a shore-dwelling race, peopling only islands, or such portions of the continent as border the ocean, and never penetrating into the interior, or passing the mountains running parallel to the coast. their energies are most conspicuous in maritime occupations, and to this predilection their extensive diffusion may be attributed. these people, supposed by some to have an affinity to, or alliance with the hindoo and chinese races, whence they have been called hindoo-chinese, present as many points of difference as of resemblance; and while some of the258 customs of the inhabitants of southern or eastern asia may be found amongst them, they have also others peculiarly their own. the indulgence in opium is not unknown to the malays, but the national indulgence of the race is the areca or betel nut, a habit characteristic of a sea-loving people. the use of a pipe, and especially an opium-pipe, would be a hindrance to the freedom of their motions on board their vessels, and require a state of inactivity or repose incompatible with a maritime life, in order to be enjoyed. this may in part account for the prevalence of chewing tobacco in our navy, and of the “buyo” by the malays.
the areca palm is one of the most beautiful of the palms of india. it has a remarkably straight trunk, rising forty or fifty feet, with a diameter of from six to eight inches, of nearly an equal thickness throughout. six or seven leaves spring from the top, of about six feet in length, hanging downwards from a long stalk in a graceful curve. this palm is cultivated all over india, in cochin-china, java, and sumatra, and other islands of the archipelago, for the sake of the nuts. the fruit is of the size and shape of a hen’s egg, and consists of an outer, firm, fibrous rind or husk, about half an inch thick, and an inner kernel, somewhat resembling a nutmeg in size, but more conical in shape. internally the resemblance to a nutmeg, with its alternate white and brown markings, is even greater. when ripe, the fruit is of a reddish yellow colour, hanging in clusters among the bright green leaves. if allowed to hang until fully ripe, it falls off and sows itself in the ground, but this is not allowed. the trees are in blossom in march and april, and the fruits may be gathered in july and august, when the sliced nut can be prepared from them, but they do not fully ripen till september and october.
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the nuts vary in size, their quality, however, does not at all depend upon this property, but upon their internal appearance when cut, intimating the quantity of astringent matter contained in them. if the white or medullary portion which intersects the red, or the astringent part be small, has assumed a bluish tinge, and the astringent part is very red, the nut is considered of good quality, but when the medullary portion is in large quantity, the nut is considered more mature, and not possessing so much astringency, is not deemed so valuable.
this palm is cultivated in gardens and plantations. the latter are usually close to the villages, and are extremely ornamental. like the malays themselves, the areca palm prefers the neighbourhood of the sea, which is most conducive to the perfection of the fruit, as the coca shrub of the peruvian mountaineers delights in the slopes of the andes. it is stated that a fertile palm will produce, on an average, eight hundred and fifty nuts annually, the average production in the plantation is about fourteen pounds weight for each palm, or ten thousand pounds per acre. the price they realize to the grower is about two shillings the hundredweight.
the addaca, or betel nut, is a staple product of travancore. in 1837 the number of trees growing there was stated in the survey to be 10,232,873, which, at the average rate named, would produce 63,000 tons of nuts. nearly half a million trees are in cultivation in prince of wales’ island, which would produce about 3,000 tons more. the pedir coast of sumatra produces annually about 4,700 tons, of which half is exported. the chinese import near 3,000 tons annually, exclusive of their supplies from cochin-china, the amount of which is not known, but, without doubt, more than another 3,000 tons. many ships freighted solely with these nuts sail260 yearly from the ports of sumatra, malacca, and siam.
when there is no immediate demand for the areca nuts they are not shelled, but preserved in the husk, to save them from the ravages of insects, which attack them nevertheless, almost as successfully. of the nuts produced in travancore, upwards of 2,000 candies,26 prepared nuts, are annually exported to tinnevelly and other parts of the country, and about 3,000,000 of ripe nuts are shipped to bombay and other places, exclusive of the quantity consumed in the country, and for the inland trade.
from the report of p. shungoomry menowen, we derive the following account of the preparation of the nuts. there are various kinds in use. that used by families of rank is collected while the fruit is tender; the husk, or outer pod, is removed, the kernel, a round fleshy mass, is boiled in water. in the first boiling of the nut, when properly done, the water becomes red, thick, and starch like, and this is afterwards evaporated into a substance like catechu. the boiled nuts being now removed, sliced, and dried, the catechu-like substance is rubbed thereto, and dried again in the sun, when they become of a shining black colour, and are ready for use. whole nuts, without being sliced, are also prepared in the same form for use. ripe nuts, as well as young nuts in the raw state, are used by all classes of people, and ripe nuts preserved in water are also used by the higher classes.
nuts prepared in travancore for exportation to trichinopoly, madura, and coimbatore, are prepared in thin slices, coloured with red catechu or uncoloured. for tinnevelly and other parts of261 the country, the nuts are prepared by merely cutting them into two or three slices and drying them. for bombay, and other parts of the northern country, the nuts are exported in the form of whole nuts dried with the pods.
the nut is chewed by both sexes indiscriminately in malabar as well as on the coromandel coast. in malabar they mix it with betel leaf, chunam, and tobacco; but in tinnevelly and other parts, tobacco is never added. the three ingredients for the betel, as commonly used, are, the sliced nut, the leaf of the betel pepper, in which the nut is rolled, and chunam, or powdered lime, which is smeared over the leaf.
the areca nut is commonly known by the malay name of pinang, but in the acheenese language it is called penu, and the palm producing it ba penu. the ripe nut is called also penu massa, and the green penu mudr. the leaf of the betel pepper is called either ranu or siri, and the lime chunam or gapu. tobacco, when used, is called bakun.
in china, the principal consumption of the nut as a masticatory is in the provinces of quangton, quang-se, and che-keang; and it may be seen exposed for sale on little stalls about the suburbs of canton with the other additional articles used in its consumption. it is also used in dyeing. in the central provinces of hoo-kwang and kang-si the nut is, after being bruised and pounded, mixed with the green food of horses as a preventive against diarrh?a, to which some kinds of food subjects them. the chinese state that it is used as a domestic medicine in the north of china, some pieces being boiled, and the decoction administered. from them is also prepared a kind of cutch, or catechu, which is exported in great quantities, and is now used largely in this country, together with other kinds, as a tanning and dyeing material.
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in ceylon these instruments are used: the girri (no. 1.) for cutting the areca nut, and the wanggedi (no. 2) and moolgah (no. 3), a kind of mortar and pestle for mincing and intimately mixing the ingredients together.
no. 1. girri, for cutting areca.
no. 2. wanggedi or mortar and no. 3. moolgah or pestle
for mixing the ingredients.
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in virginia, tobacco was at one period used as a currency at a fixed value per pound. in peru, the labourer is paid in coca, and in the philippines, betel rolls have been used in the same manner as a currency. to the malay it is as important as meat and drink, and many would rather forego the latter than their favourite pinang. the same thing might also be said of the inveterate quidder of tobacco; we remember one of this description, who for years used one ounce per day, and declared often that he had rather be deprived of his dinner than his quid, although he liked both. without his leaf, the confirmed “coquero” is the most miserable of beings, and when deprived of his customary pipe, the opium-smoker becomes sullen, ill, and utterly incapacitated for his employment. habits of indulgence of this kind, when once commenced, are not so easily thrown off. it has been said that a “coquero” was never reclaimed from the use of his coca.
no estimate can be given of the absolute quantity of areca nuts which are used as a masticatory. johnston calculates that they are chewed by not less than fifty millions of people, which, at the rate of ten pounds per year, or less than half an ounce per day, would amount to two hundred and twenty thousand tons, or five hundred millions of pounds, a quantity greater than that of any other narcotic except tobacco.
areca nuts have been strung and made into walking sticks,27 and, in this country, turned and formed into ornamental bracelets, as well as burnt into charcoal for tooth powder. we have engirdled the earth with pig-tail, let us apply the same kind of calculation to the estimated annual consumption264 of areca nuts, and strung together in the form of a bracelet, we have a string 505,050 miles in length, enough to go round the world 21 times; or, supposing these nuts to be arranged side by side, they would cover a road fourteen feet wide for the distance of not less than 3,000 miles. if arranged in like manner in the form of a square, they would occupy at least 5,000 acres of land.
the areca palm has given its name to the island of penang, not from its growing there in larger numbers, or more luxuriant than elsewhere, but because it was the tree chiefly cultivated by the malays who first occupied the island. it now better deserves the title, being the emporium for the betel nut raised on the east coast of sumatra.
in sumatra many of the common drinking and baking utensils in the boats, and vessels for holding water, not dissimilar to those made by the australian natives from the bark of the gum trees, are made from the spathe of this palm, it is also nailed upon the bottoms of the boats, and often small bunches of the abortive fruit may be seen placed as an ornament at the stem and bows of the native vessels. the male flowers are deliciously fragrant, and are in request in the island of borneo on all festive occasions; they are considered a necessary ingredient in the medicines and charms employed for healing the sick. in malabar an inebriating lozenge is prepared from the sap of this palm.
manuel blanco thinks that the areca might be used for making red ink, and it is not improbable that it is thus employed in india. with other combinations it makes black ink of moderate quality. the lower part of the petiole is used for wrapping instead of paper, for which purpose it is sold in the philippines. the heart of the leaves is eaten as a salad, and has not a bad flavour. the convicts confined in the andaman islands masticate265 the nuts of another species of areca. the nagas and abors of eastern bengal, use those of a third species, and the natives of the mountainous districts of malabar those of a fourth. there are about twenty species of the areca genus, of which several are thus used.
when betel nuts are scarce in the philippines, the natives substitute the bark of the guayabo and the antipolo.
it is confidently affirmed to us, that in ceylon the natives sometimes masticate the roots of the cocoa-nut palm, instead of, and as a substitute for, the areca nut, and that it answers the purpose very well.
the root of a plant known botanically as derris pinnata, is also occasionally used amongst certain asiatics, in the same manner, in cases of deficiences in the supply of genuine betel.
the consumption of the areca-nut being confined to an area of no very wide extent, and that principally in the neighbourhood of the producing countries, or in those countries themselves, the necessity for providing a substitute does not often arise; hence, those of which we have any knowledge, as having been at all generally used for that purpose, are confined to two or three substances. some years, however, are not so productive as others, and instances have occurred in which the average price of areca nuts for mastication has been doubled. if the yankees persist in their betel and hemp chewing propensities, which have lately been developed amongst them, probably the chinese and malay will have to pay a higher price for their nuts, or provide something which shall thenceforth fulfil its duties, and we may hear of other substitutes.
ardent as the admirers of the areca may be in their admiration of the “buyo,” we have never266 seen more than one translation of a malayan poem in which the masticatory was extolled, and this, unfortunately, we are unable to present to our readers. the gods have either not made the votaries of betel so poetical as the servants of the pipe, or the paeans in praise thereof are locked up from us in the cabalistic characters of their national language. the unmistakable marks left by the habit on the lips, teeth, and gums, are certainly extolled by them as marks of beauty. in the poem already referred to, the lover addresses his mistress in praise of the redness of her teeth and lips, and the fragrant odour of her breath, produced by the sweet “buyo” secreted in the hollow of her cheek. white teeth are therefore held in abomination, and as this is also the opinion of certain african tribes, who stain theirs with the juice of flowers, ours must be a barbarous nation to respect such albino masticators.
n.b.—the average annual export of areca nuts from ceylon is 50,000 cwts., and the price a fraction below 20s. per cwt.
