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

APPENDIX II ROMANCE OF BETEL-CHEWING 305
of an areca-nut and a little wet lime-dough, wrapped in one or
two siri leaves. This coolie, who wears no mourning, carries
a basket of these articles for distribution. In Southern
China the chewing of betel and siri as a stimulant seems to
have been very common in bygone centuries, but it has now
almost entirely died out, being supplanted, it would appear,
by tobacco- and opium-smoking. Nevertheless, probably as
a survival of those good old times, it is still customary for
any man living at variance with another, in case he desires to
apologise and accommodate matters, to send some of these
articles to the latter' s house, like a flag of truce and it ; would
be considered highly improper on the part of the party to
whom the hand of reconciliation is tendered in this way to
refuse to accept the same. This fully explains why betel and
siri are also distributed at funerals. Indeed, the clearer of
the road confesses himself in the wrong with regard to the
person whom he disarranges, and accordingly he immediately
makes his apologies. In many instances, clearing the road is
simply entrusted to the coolie alone ; at most of the plainer
funerals it is entirely omitted. At burials of the highest
order it is customary to station men along the road to distribute
siri leaves and areca-nuts amongst the notable persons
walking in the procession.
Though most of them do not partake of these drugs, it
would be inconsistent with good manners to refuse to accept
them. So most men just hold them between their fingers,
or give them away to the coolies or anybody who likes
them.
In the Chinese Materia Medica, pp. 46-47, G. A. Stuart
refers to the usually accepted theory that the Chinese name
for areca-nut, pin-lang, is a transcription of the Malay pinang,
but states that one authority, Li Shih Chen, says
it means
" an honoured guest," and that the characters in question are
used because of the practice of setting the betel-box before
guests.
The betel-vine is said to grow in South China as far
north as Szechuan. The leaves are used in Yunnan as a
condiment.
Areca-nuts form one of the chief exports from Hainan,
where there are large groves of the areca-palm, especially at
Aichow and Lingshui. The trees are planted some fifteen feet
apart, and bear fruit from the age of ten to ninety years.
Their most prolific period is between their fifteenth and
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