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

APPENDIX II ROMANCE OF BETEL-CHEWING 291
pardon with an offering of boiled rice and a betel stand ; if
the neglect be committed towards the headman, it is greatly
aggravated, and besides the aforesaid offering, the offender
shall do obeisance and be fined ten mas if ; previous to a
marriage, or other ceremony, the customary offering
of betel
be not sent, giving notice thereof to headman and elders,
the party shall be fined the offering of boiled rice and a betel
stand ; shall a headman give a feast to his dependents and
omit this etiquette, he shall be entitled not to the name
of penghulu, but of tuah-tuah only. At circumcisions and
ear-boring, too, he who has not received the customary
offering of betel cannot be considered to have had a proper
invitation."
R. O. Winstedt, who quotes the above in a paper on Malay
life and customs, 1
says that the betel quid was the Malay
valentine, " and the highest favour that could be bestowed
on a subject from a prince's hand, or rather mouth. But
the younger generation no longer admires the red saliva and
the teeth-blackening effect, and so has discarded betel for
4
Cycle '
cigarettes and the Burma cheroot : perhaps a more
liberal diet and the cultivation of a more sensitive palate has
hastened its disuse."
Mr Ridley, in course of correspondence, has given me
many curious bits of information about betel in : Malay when
about to descend a stream containing dangerous rapids, it is
correct to perform a sacrifice to the spirit of the waters. It
is safest to offer a white chicken, but, if one is not handy, a
"
chew of betel is a good substitute. I once went down the
Perak river rapids on a raft of bamboos," says Mr Ridley, in
a letter to me, " and it is both exciting and risky. The old
Malay who conducted our raft, which went first (we had three
rafts), before we started made '
up a chew '
consisting of lime,
gambier ,areca-nut, and betel leaf. He then declaimed a
'
long incantation and hurled the chew into the water as an
offering to the demon of the river." Among curious uses
to which areca-nut is put may be mentioned that in cases of
difficult labour. An old woman fills her mouth with small
pieces of broken nut and spits it up the vagina
of the ex-
pectant mother. The idea seems to be one of suggestion
just as the betel-chew produces an increased flow of saliva, so
will the desired result be brought about.
1
Papers on Malay Subjects, part 2, The Circumstances of Malay Life, Kuala
Lumpur, 1909, pp. 60-6 1.