BETEL, a substance compounded of different ingredients, which is chewed in the East in the same way as tobacco is used in other parts of the world, but to much greater extent. All individuals, without exception of age or sex, begin at an early age to accustom themselves to betel, and it gradually becomes an article of such necessity, that those acquainted with the usages of the eastern nations affirm they would more readily dispense with their ordinary quantity of food than with it. Europeans also, who have resided long in Ceylon or India, contract the same habit, and enjoy chewing of betel equally with the natives. Betel, or pawn as it is denominated in Bengal, consists of part of the fruit of the areca palm, wrapped in the leaves of a kind of pepper plant called betel, smeared with a little shell lime; and its name betel-nut is thence derived. The areca palm is a tree growing to forty or fifty feet in height, with a straight round stem six or eight inches in diameter, covered with a smooth ash-coloured bark, marked with parallel rings. All the leaves, which are only six or seven in number, spring from the top, and are six feet in length, declining downwards from a stalk of considerable length. The fruit or nut is covered with a green shell or skin, thin, brittle, and of the consistence of paper; it is of an oval shape, about the size of a small egg, and resembles a nutmeg despoiled of its husk. When ripe, it appears in clusters of a reddish colour, forming a beautiful contrast with the vivid green of its leaves, and then falls off to sow itself in the ground. The betel plant is a species of vine, bearing a leaf somewhat resembling ivy. It is called piper betel by botanists, and is of the same genus as the piper nigrum of Linnaeus. Its culture, which is carefully attended to, is managed in the same manner. Poles are planted in the earth, around which the betel twines itself, and as it runs up, the poles acquire greater height also. It is a creeping plant, seeking support from stronger vegetables, but it is said not to be destructive of them, like some other plants of a similar nature. Particular regard is paid to the cultivation of areca and betel throughout the countries of which they are natives. Several years ago it was found, on enumeration, that the number of trees, probably meaning the areca only, in Prince of Wales’s Island, amounted to 342,110. The lime used with the nut is called chunam, and is obtained from the calcination of shells, which produces the finest kind. But the fresh nut must be avoided; it then contains a white viscous matter, insipid to the taste, and occasioning delirium, like ebriety from wine, but losing this property when dried; and it is employed either boiled or raw. The latter undergoes no change , the former is cut in slices, boiled with a small quantity of terra japonica, and then dried. Betel is compounded, therefore, of these three substances, with some additions or variations, according to the customs of the place where consumed; such as cardamums, and coarse pounded tobacco, by persons of more depraved taste. The union of the three ingredients is supposed to correct the effects which each would produce singly; the nut improves the bitterness of the leaf, and the lime prevents any injury to the stomach. When combined, the first consequences are, reddening the saliva, giving a bright hue to the lips, and, in progress of time, rendering the teeth quite black. The saliva, however, will not be tinged if the chunam be omitted; and its pernicious operation on the enamel of the teeth may be averted by rubbing them with a preparation whereby they are coated with a black substance that does not readily yield to any dentifrice, and preserves them from corrosion. Its medicinal effects are the dispelling of nausea, exciting an appetite, and strengthening the stomach. It possesses nutritious and enlivening qualities, which render it particularly acceptable to its consumers. The terra japonica, above alluded to, is not a universal ingredient; it is used only in certain [7:4:602]countries, and is generally supposed to be a preparation from the areca nut itself. It consists of two varieties, the one very astringent, the other less so, and rather sweet, which is preferred by the betel-eaters. To obtain the former, the nuts are taken from the tree, and boiled some hours in an iron vessel; they are then removed, and the water remaining is inspissated by continual boiling. The nuts being dried, undergo a second boiling, and, having been taken out, the water is also inspissated, whereby the best terra japonica is obtained. The nuts are then dried, cut in two equal parts, and sold. Or it is obtained by inspissated decoctions of the wood of the keira tree, or mimosa catechu. A great quantity of this substance is made in the Mysore, and some of inferior quality in Bengal. Probably it is something of this same kind that is prepared in Sumatra, under the name of catacamber, and chewed along with betel to give it an additional flavour.

Betel is not only used as an article of luxury, but as a kind of ceremonial which regulates the intercourse of the more polished classes of the East. When any person of consideration waits on another, after the first salutations, betel is presented as a token of politeness: to omit it, on the one part, would be considered neglect, and its rejection would be judged an affront on the other. No one of inferior rank addresses a dignified individual without the previous precaution of chewing betel; two people seldom meet without exchanging it; and it is always offered on the ceremonious interviews of public missionaries. In some countries it is not uncommon for the guest who receives the betel from his host, to pass it between his thumb and fore-finger, and apply his own chunam, which never gives offence, and is thought to have originated in guarding a stranger against the insidious conveyance of poison, formerly too frequently practised in destroying persons who were obnoxious. Philtres or amatory charms are still conveyed along with the chunam, and are conceived to consist of some powerful stimulants. Mahommedans abstain from this indulgence during the fast of Ramadan, though possibly not in every country, as it would be too great a privation; and the use of it is so interwoven with the existence of the natives of the warmer climates, that females of the higher ranks are said to pass their lives in doing little else than chewing betel. When the Cingalese retire to rest at night, they fill their mouths with it, and retain it there until they awake. According to Knox, who passed many years in captivity on the island of Ceylon, most people going abroad carry a small box of gold or silver, containing the ingredients for compounding betel; and the poor keep a constant supply about them in purses of coloured straw, securely lodged in a fold of their garments. The stand or box containing it is often the subject of elegant workmanship; it consists of silver, gold, or tortoise-shell, and forms a piece of ornamental furniture in the houses of the wealthy. It is sufficiently valuable to constitute a present between sovereigns.

Extensive gardens for cultivating betel are formed in different parts of India. The soil most favourable for the palm is a black mould on a substratum of limestone, or intermixed with calcareous nodules. Here it is planted in rows, and carefully manured and watered during several years. It begins to bear from the eighth or tenth to the fifteenth year, and remains in perfection for thirty years, soon after which it either dies or is cut down. Some, however, continue producing fruit from the fiftieth to the seventieth, or even the hundredth year; but the produce gradually declines both in quantity and quality. It appears that a very fertile tree produces at an average 857 nuts, and an ordinary one 600; but this does not hold everywhere, as there are trees affording no more than 200. The betel-leaf is either cultivated in separate gardens, where a red stony soil on the side of a rising ground is preferred, and plantains or bamboos planted along with the vines, which are arranged in trenches to support them as they grow; or when an areca plantation is formed, and the palms are fifteen years old, cuttings of the vine are planted near the roots, and trained up to the trees. In twelve or eighteen months the leaves of the vine are fit for sale, and in three years they are full-sized; but in another year they die, when all must be removed, and young plants immediately substituted for them. W'e do not know whether their duration is ever longer; but in the southern parts of Canara in India, the gardens require renewal every four years, and in eighteen or twenty the soil is considered to be exhausted. These gardens are always surrounded by a hedge; sometimes the cultivators are annoyed with the depredations of squirrels and elephants. The crop of the areca is produced during three months; and the nuts being pulled, arc cut into seven or eight pieces each, and piled up in a heap; then equal quantities of it and terrajaponica, with a hundred leaves of betel-leaf, are beat together with water, and the juice strained into a pot. This is mixed with a decoction of the bark of the mimosa indica and water, and the nuts from the whole heap are successively boiled in it. They are then exposed to be dried in the sun.

Betel is a very considerable article of traffic in India and China, and, indeed, throughout Asia. In the British settlements of Bombay, Madras, and Bengal, the value of the imports amounted in a single year to L.138,836; and if the quantities consumed throughout the East are taken into view, it will appear surprising how they can be obtained. But, owing to the constant and extensive demand, the plants affording the necessary ingredients are carefully cultivated; and multitudes are employed and subsisted in the production of this eastern luxury, (n. n.)