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

APPENDIX II ROMANCE OF BETEL-CHEWING 313
Chinnery is of the opinion that betel-chewing is a relativelylate
influence. Further botanical evidence is required, however,
before any definite statement on this point can be made.
Although betel-chewing is apparently not indulged in by
the Mafulu mountain people to such an extent as it is in
Mekeo and the coast, the custom can be described as fairly
common. For a month or so before a big feast, during which
period they are under a strict taboo restriction as to food,
they indulge in it largely. The betel used by them is not the
cultivated form used in Mekeo and on the coast, but a wild
species only about half the size of the other ; and the lime
used is not made by grinding down sea-shells, but is obtained
from the mountain-stone, which is ground down to a powder. 1
The gourds in which the lime is carried are similar to those
used in Mekeo, except that usually they are not ornamented,
or, if they are, the ornament is done only in simple, straightlined
geometric patterns (see Plate LI, Figs. 6 and 7, p. 166).
The spatulse are sometimes very simple and rudely decorated.
The people spit out the betel after chewing, instead
of swallowing it, as is the custom in Mekeo.
Before passing on to the Solomon Islands, I will conclude
this section with a description of the custom among a littleknown
tribe dwelling on the banks of the Fly river.
About sixty miles from the mouth of the Fly, on the
eastern side, is a point called Gaima. This forms the first
outlet on the river bank of a people called Girara by Mr W. N.
Beaver, 2 who was magistrate in the Western Division of Papua
for twenty-seven years.
They inhabit the inland district between the rivers Fly
and Bamu. All the Girara people are inveterate betel-
chewers, and a bag containing a lime-pot and chewing gear
is the invariable companion of every man wherever he goes.
The betel is not the variety used in the east end, but a
species which the Motuans call viroro. As is well known,
betel is eaten with lime and various peppers, the best kinds
of which are grown as climbers. The Giraras obtain lime by
burning epa shell, which they obtain principally from Pagona,
1 R. W. Williamson, The Mafulu Mountain People of British New Guinea,
London, 1912, p. 66.
2 W. N. Beaver, Unexplored New Guinea, London, 1920, p. 205 et. seq.
has now been settled that the name of the tribe should be " Gogodara."
See A. P. Lyons, " Notes on the Gogodara Tribe of Western Papua," Journ.
Roy. Anth. Inst, vol. lvi, 1926, p. 329 et seq.
It