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

312 THE OCEAN OF STORY
or even desire it. The phrases of the betel-chewing taboo
are :
Dang ta ge go Lorie !
(Areca-nut of speak not widow.)
Pingi ta ge go Lorie !
(Betel-pepper of speak not widow.)
Another instance of the ceremonial importance of arecanut
(in this case the wild variety) was observed by Chinnery
on Mount Chapman. There he was informed that tribes
usually at war with one another congregate peacefully during
initiation ceremonies. The symbol of this temporary truce
is a piece of broken areca-nut (ve the wild variety), which is
distributed among those gathered together by the givers of
the ceremony. The ceremony finished, all who have par-
ticipated return to their districts and the truce ends. In this
district lime is produced from the many limestone caves
which occur in the locality, and carried in leaves, gourds
being absent.
The use of the pingi plant as part of the mixture of betelchewers
has an extremely wide distribution in Papua. On the
watershed of the Kiko river, M. Staniforth Smith (Annual
Report, British New Guinea, 1911, p. 170) found a kava-plsait,
Macropiper methysticum, in a native garden, but saw no
evidence of the manufacture of the beverage.
The betel-chewer, when starting on a journey, invariably
carries in his netted bag a supply of areca-nuts and a gourd
filled with lime, but he does not appear to stock himself with
pepper in the same careful way. His appearance in the
village he is visiting is a signal for someone to dash away to
the outskirts and reappear in a few moments with a coil
or stalks of the pepper plant. He accepts this as a matter of
course, and frequently gives areca-nuts in return ; others
gather around, and in a few moments all of them are chewing
and talking with evident enjoyment.
In some of the mountain districts visited by Chinnery
betel-chewing is not known. Chief among these are the
Biagi districts of Mount Victoria. But the influence has
spread far inland in other parts, though in the mountainous
regions the areca-nut-palm is seldom cultivated, and the
habit is not so much in favour as it is on the coast. Evidence
of this is shown by the white teeth of the inhabitants, and
the frequent absence of lime-gourds in mountain districts.