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

APPENDIX II ROMANCE OF BETEL-CHEWING 317
Rivers' work. 1
It follows, he argues, from the distribution
of kava and betel that the &aaa-people settled in Southern
Melanesia, Fiji and Polynesia, while the betel-people did not
extend in their south-easterly movement beyond the Solomon
and Santa Cruz islands.
As Tikopia is the most easterly point where betel-chewing
occurs, we will conclude with a few details given by Rivers
in Melanesian Society (vol. i, pp. 333, 322, 316, 314).
Tikopia is a tiny volcanic island situated in lat. 12 17' S.,
and long. 168 58' E. The inhabitants are very fond of
betel, which enters largely into the more important of their
ceremonies. Both the areca-nut (kaura) and the betel leaf
(pita) must be very plentiful. The lime, called kapia, is
kept in simple undecorated gourds, and the elderly chief
of the Taumako, whom Rivers saw on his visit, prepared
his betel mixture in a cylindrical vessel with a spatula,
exactly in the same way as it is done by elderly men in the
Solomon Islands.
It seemed quite clear to Rivers that the kava, which is
used so extensively in ceremonial, was never drunk.
The Tikopians become possessed by the atua or ghosts of
their ancestors, and when in such a state (recognized by a
sort of ague, staring eyes and shouting) are asked questions
by men of equal rank. A man who asks a question chews
betel, and taking some of the chewed mass from his mouth
he holds it out to the possessed man, saying, " Eat," and it
is eaten by the possessed man, who is then ready to answer
his questioner.
Offerings of kava and food are made to the dead, and with
the food some areca-nut, without either betel leaf or lime, is
given. At the death of a chief all the relatives abstain from
betel for about two months. 2
Conclusion
We have now sufficiently covered the whole area in which
betel-chewing can be called an established custom. Its
1 Melanesian Society, vol. ii, pp. 243-257.
2 For further references to betel-chewing in Papua see Cayley- Webster,
Through New Guinea and the Cannibal Countries, London, 1898, p. 27; George
Brown, Melanesians and Polynesians, London, 1910, p. 407 ; Chignell, An Outpost
in Papua, London, 1911, pp. 17, 124, 214, 238; and F. Coombe, Islands of
Enchantment, London, 1911, pp. 137, 183, 184, 190, 203, 210, etc.