The ocean of story, being C.H. Tawney's translation of Somadeva's ...

APPENDIX II ROMANCE OF BETEL-CHEWING 259
" '
This betel we call the Indian leaf '
; it is as broad as
the leaf of the plantain herb, and like it in shape. It grows
on an ivy-like tree, and also climbs over other trees which
are enveloped in it. These yield no fruit, but only a very
aromatic leaf, which throughout India is habitually chewed
by both men and women, night and day, in public places
and roads by day, and in bed by night, so that their chewing
thereof has no pause. This leaf is mixed with a small fruit
(seed) called areca, and before eating it they cover it with
moistened lime (made from mussel- and cockle-shells), and
having wrapped up these two things with the betel leaf, they
chew it, swallowing the juice only. It makes the mouth red
and the teeth black. They consider it good for drying and
preserving the belly
and the brain. It subdues flatulence
and takes away thirst, so that they take no drink with it.
From hence onward, on the way to India, there is a great
store thereof, and it is one of the chief sources of revenue to
the Indian kings. By the Moors, Arabs and Persians this
betel is called tambttl."
John Huyghen van Linschoten (1583-1589)
Passing over the brief references *
given by Caesar Frederick
(1563-1581)
and Pedro Teixeira 2
(1586-1615) we come to the
most important of all the early accounts namely, that by
Linschoten. It contains several interesting interpolations
printed in italics, the work of the learned Bernard ten Broecke
(whose name was latinised as Paludanus), a contemporary
of Linschoten.
So interesting and informative is the account that I give it
below in full, according to the translation in the edition printed
for the Hakluyt Society, edited by Burnell and Tiele 3 :
" The leaves called Bettele or Bettre, which is very common
in India, and daily eaten by the Indians, doe grow in all places
of India, where the Portingals have discovered, not within
the countrie but only on the sea coast, unlesse it bee some
It will not growe in cold places, as China,
small quantitie.
nor in over hot places, as Mosambique and Sofala, and because
1
Hakluyt's Voyages, MacLehose's edition, Glasgow, 1904, vol. v, p. 391.
2 Sinclair's translation, Hakluyt Society, 1902, pp. 199-200.
3 The Voyage of John Huyghen van Linschoten to the East Indies. From the
Old English translation of 1598, London, 1885, vol. ii, p. 62 et seq.