THE practice of smoking tobacco is not more common, at least in the
southern provinces of China, than that of chewing the areca nut, mixed
with chunam, or lime made of shells, and wrapped up in a leaf of the
betel pepper. Indeed this compound masticatory is in universal use
throughout all India, the Oriental Islands, Cochin-china, and Tonquin.
In addition to the little purse which every Chinese wears suspended from
his belt as an appendage to his tobacco pipe and to hold the ingredients
for smoking, whether tobacco, or opium, or both, he generally carries
another to contain areca nuts broken into small fragments: the other
materials, the betel leaf, and chunam are to be met with in every little
eating shop, and on almost every stall in the bazar, or market, and are
among the most common articles carried about the streets for sale. The
areca tree is one of the palm tribe, with a tuft of leaves surmounting a
stem as straight and beautifully shaped as the shaft of a Corinthian
pillar. It requires a warm climate, and grows freely in the southern
provinces of China, but is common in every part of India and the
Oriental Islands.
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[Illustration:
CHINA—PLATE 33
]
Plate XXXIII.