“It ascends me into the brain, dries me there all the foolish, and dull, and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes, which, delivered over to the voice (the tongue), which is the birth, becomes excellent wit.”——Sir John Falstaff.
“In Burmah,” says Howard Malcolm, “almost every one, male and female, chews the singular mixture called coon, and the lacquered or gilded box containing the ingredients is borne about on all occasions. The quid consists of a slice of areca nut, a small piece of cutch, and some tobacco rolled up in a leaf of betel pepper, on which has been smeared a little tempered quicklime. It creates profuse saliva, and so fills up the mouth that they seem to be chewing food. It colours the mouth deep red, and the teeth, if not previously blackened, assume the same colour. From the combination of the three ingredients this colour seems to proceed, since the leaf and nut, without the lime, fail to produce it. This hue, communicated to the mouth and lips, is esteemed ornamental, and an agreeable odour is imparted to the breath. The juice is usually, though not always, swallowed. A curious circumstance connected with the expectoration of the red juice is278 related at Manilla, where it is narrated with strong protestations and firm belief in its veracity.
Some years ago a ship from Spain arrived in the port of Manilla. Among the passengers was a young doctor from Madrid, who had gone to the Philippines with the design of settling in the colony and pushing his fortune by means of his profession. On the morning after he had landed, our doctor sallied forth for a walk on the pasco. He had not proceeded far when his attention was attracted to a young girl, a native, who was walking a few paces ahead of him. He observed that every now and then the girl stooped her head towards the pavement which was straightway spotted with blood. Alarmed on the girl’s account, our doctor walked rapidly after her, observing that she still continued to expectorate blood at intervals as she went. Before he could come up with her the girl had reached her home, a humble cottage in the suburbs, into which she entered. The doctor followed close upon her heels, and summoning her father and mother, directed them to send immediately for the priest as their daughter had not many hours to live. The distracted parents, having learned the profession of their visitor, immediately acceded to his request. The child was put to bed in extreme affright, having been told what was about to befal her. The nearest padre was brought, and everything was arranged to smooth the journey of her soul through the passes of purgatory. The doctor plied his skill to the utmost, but in vain. In less than twenty-four hours the girl was dead.
As up to that time the young Indian had always enjoyed excellent health, the doctor’s prognostication was regarded as an evidence of great and mysterious skill. The fame of it soon spread279 through Manilla, and in a few hours the newly-arrived physician was beleagured with patients, and in a fair way of accumulating a fortune. In the midst of all this, some one had the curiosity to ask the doctor how he could possibly have predicted the death of the girl, seeing that she had been in perfect health a few hours before. “Predict it,” replied the doctor, “why, sir, I saw her spit blood enough to have killed her half a dozen times.”
“Blood! how did you know it was blood?”
“How! from the colour, how else?”
“But every one spits red in Manilla.”
The doctor, who had already observed this fact, and was labouring under some uneasiness in regard to it, refused to make any further confession at the time, but he had said enough to elucidate the mystery. The thing soon spread throughout the city, and it became clear to every one that what the new medico had taken for blood, was nothing else than the red juice of the buyo, and that the poor girl had died from the fear of death caused by his prediction. His patients now fled from him as speedily as they had congregated; and to avoid the ridicule that awaited him, as well as the indignation of the friends of the deceased girl, our doctor was fain to escape from Manilla, and return to Spain in the same ship that had brought him out.
The ladies who work in the government cigar factory at Manilla, all, more or less, chew the betel nut, and any one daring enough to disregard the warning not to touch anything, when passing as a visitor through the rooms, must stand the assault from the mouths of a hundred or two of these dames, in the shape of a deluge of the decoction of this nut. The captain of an American vessel at Manilla, although warned of the280 consequences, with American impudence, infringed the rule, and paid the penalty. He was compelled to beat a retreat, and being dressed in the white garb of the East, resembled a spotted leopard, in the room of a free and enlightened citizen of the great Republic.
The mastication of the betel is considered very wholesome by those who are in the habit of using it, and it may be so, but the black appearance it gives to the teeth, although it is said to be an excellent preserver of them, together with the brick red lips and mouth, cause anything but an agreeable appearance. Its use certainly does not impart additional beauty to the native females, who habituate themselves to an extent equal to that of the opposite sex.
The custom, Marsden states, is universal among the Sumatrans, who carry the ingredients constantly about them, and serve them to their guests on all occasions; the prince in a gold stand, and the poor man in a brass box or mat bag. The betel-stands of the better ranks of people are usually of silver, embossed with rude figures. The Sultan of Moco-Moco was presented with one by the India Company with their arms upon it, and he possesses another besides, of gold filagree. The form of the stand is the frustum of an hexagonal pyramid, reversed, about six or eight inches in diameter. It contains many smaller vessels, fitted to the angles, for holding the nut, leaf, and chunam, with places for the instruments employed in cutting the first, and spatulas for spreading the last.
Captain Wilkes also describes that of the Sultan of Sooloo.281 &............