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

290 THE OCEAN OF STORY
Semang tribes. The Perak Sakai are exceedingly fond of
tobacco and betel, the leaf of a wild betel, chambai, being
used when the Piper catechu is unobtainable. Ridley x
says
that several wild pepper leaves are used as substitutes for
the betel leaf. He has seen Selangor Sakai near Kuala
Lumpur cut off long strips of bark from Piper argenteum, with
the object of chewing them. A portion only of the bark was
taken in each case, so that the plant might not be killed. 2
The Benua-Jakun also chew betel, but not to excess like
the Malays. 3
Mr Skeat refers me to his remarks on the use of betel leaf
in Malay marriages. 4 The leaf (sirih) is sent to typify the
formal proposal of marriage. One of the youth's representatives,
going with others to meet the girl's parents, takes a
betel-leaf tray furnished with the usual betel-chewing appliances,
and invites the parents to partake of betel, saying,
before witnesses :
" This is a pledge of your daughter's
betrothal." The passing of betel leaf between the families
signifies the formal acceptance. A regular exchange of
presents takes place ; formerly, the woman would occasionally
carve a chain, consisting of three or four links out of a
single areca-nut, in which case the prospective bridegroom was
supposed to redeem it by the payment of as many dollars as
there were links. The areca-nut presented on these occasions
would be wrapped up in a gradation of three beautifully
worked cloths, not unlike " d'oyleys " in general appearance.
Among the articles of ordinary wedding furniture is a betel
tray placed inside the bed-curtain. Presentation " betel-leaf
trees " were formerly carried in procession at weddings, also the
blossom-spikes of the coco-nut and areca-nut palms in vases,
along with the many other things.
The great importance of betel as a pledge of courtesy,
hospitality and good-fellowship
entered so much into the
social life of the Malays, that definite fines were enumerated
in the Malaya code for any such breach of etiquette :
" Shall the courtesy of offering betel be not returned, it
is a great offence to be expiated by the offenders going to ask
1 See his important work, The Flora of the Malay Peninsula, 5 vols.,
London, 1922-1925. The sections on Piper betle and areca catechu will be
found in vol. iii, p. 40, and vol. v, p. 4, respectively.
2 Skeat and Blagden, op. cit. y vol. i, p. 122, 122/*2 .
3 Ibid., pp. 129, 133.
4
Malay Magic, pp. 365-367, 374.