SIRI AND PINANG.
“He took and tasted, a new life
Flowed through his renovated frame;
His limbs, that late were sore and stiff,
Felt all the freshness of repose;
His dizzy brain was calmed,
The heavy aching of his lids
At once was taken off;
For Laila, from the bowers of Paradise,
Had borne the healing fruit.”——_Thalaba._
The widely distributed race of Malays, occupy not only the Malayan
Peninsula, and, though not exclusively, the islands of the Indian
Archipelago, but has penetrated into Madagascar, and spreads itself
through the islands of the Pacific from New Zealand, the Society, the
Friendly Isles, and the Marquesas, to the distant Sandwich and Easter
Isles. Whatever may have been the starting point, it is essentially a
shore-dwelling race, peopling only islands, or such portions of the
continent as border the ocean, and never penetrating into the interior,
or passing the mountains running parallel to the coast. Their energies
are most conspicuous in maritime occupations, and to this predilection
their extensive diffusion may be attributed. These people, supposed by
some to have an affinity to, or alliance with the Hindoo and Chinese
races, whence they have been called Hindoo-Chinese, present as many
points of difference as of resemblance; and while some of the customs
of the inhabitants of southern or eastern Asia may be found amongst
them, they have also others peculiarly their own. The indulgence
in opium is not unknown to the Malays, but the national indulgence
of the race is the areca or betel nut, a habit characteristic of a
sea-loving people. The use of a pipe, and especially an opium-pipe,
would be a hindrance to the freedom of their motions on board their
vessels, and require a state of inactivity or repose incompatible with
a maritime life, in order to be enjoyed. This may in part account for
the prevalence of chewing tobacco in our navy, and of the “buyo” by the
Malays.
The areca palm is one of the most beautiful of the palms of India.
It has a remarkably straight trunk, rising forty or fifty feet, with
a diameter of from six to eight inches, of nearly an equal thickness
throughout. Six or seven leaves spring from the top, of about six feet
in length, hanging downwards from a long stalk in a graceful curve.
This palm is cultivated all over India, in Cochin-China, Java, and
Sumatra, and other islands of the Archipelago, for the sake of the
nuts. The fruit is of the size and shape of a hen’s egg, and consists
of an outer, firm, fibrous rind or husk, about half an inch thick, and
an inner kernel, somewhat resembling a nutmeg in size, but more conical
in shape. Internally the resemblance to a nutmeg, with its alternate
white and brown markings, is even greater. When ripe, the fruit is of
a reddish yellow colour, hanging in clusters among the bright green
leaves. If allowed to hang until fully ripe, it falls off and sows
itself in the ground, but this is not allowed. The trees are in blossom
in March and April, and the fruits may be gathered in July and August,
when the sliced nut can be prepared from them, but they do not fully
ripen till September and October.
The nuts vary in size, their quality, however, does not at all depend
upon this property, but upon their internal appearance when cut,
intimating the quantity of astringent matter contained in them. If the
white or medullary portion which intersects the red, or the astringent
part be small, has assumed a bluish tinge, and the astringent part is
very red, the nut is considered of good quality, but when the medullary
portion is in large quantity, the nut is considered more mature, and
not possessing so much astringency, is not deemed so valuable.
This palm is cultivated in gardens and plantations. The latter are
usually close to the villages, and are extremely ornamental. Like the
Malays themselves, the areca palm prefers the neighbourhood of the
sea, which is most conducive to the perfection of the fruit, as the
coca shrub of the Peruvian mountaineers delights in the slopes of the
Andes. It is stated that a fertile palm will produce, on an average,
eight hundred and fifty nuts annually, the average production in the
plantation is about fourteen pounds weight for each palm, or ten
thousand pounds per acre. The price they realize to the grower is about
two shillings the hundredweight.
The _addaca_, or betel nut, is a staple product of Travancore. In
1837 the number of trees growing there was stated in the survey to be
10,232,873, which, at the average rate named, would produce 63,000 tons
of nuts. Nearly half a million trees are in cultivation in Prince of
Wales’ Island, which would produce about 3,000 tons more. The Pedir
coast of Sumatra produces annually about 4,700 tons, of which half is
exported. The Chinese import near 3,000 tons annually, exclusive of
their supplies from Cochin-China, the amount of which is not known,
but, without doubt, more than another 3,000 tons. Many ships freighted
solely with these nuts sail yearly from the ports of Sumatra, Malacca,
and Siam.
When there is no immediate demand for the areca nuts they are not
shelled, but preserved in the husk, to save them from the ravages of
insects, which attack them nevertheless, almost as successfully. Of the
nuts produced in Travancore, upwards of 2,000 candies,[26] prepared
nuts, are annually exported to Tinnevelly and other parts of the
country, and about 3,000,000 of ripe nuts are shipped to Bombay and
other places, exclusive of the quantity consumed in the country, and
for the inland trade.
From the report of P. Shungoomry Menowen, we derive the following
account of the preparation of the nuts. There are various kinds in use.
That used by families of rank is collected while the fruit is tender;
the husk, or outer pod, is removed, the kernel, a round fleshy mass, is
boiled in water. In the first boiling of the nut, when properly done,
the water becomes red, thick, and starch like, and this is afterwards
evaporated into a substance like catechu. The boiled nuts being now
removed, sliced, and dried, the catechu-like substance is rubbed
thereto, and dried again in the sun, when they become of a shining
black colour, and are ready for use. Whole nuts, without being sliced,
are also prepared in the same form for use. Ripe nuts, as well as young
nuts in the raw state, are used by all classes of people, and ripe nuts
preserved in water are also used by the higher classes.
Nuts prepared in Travancore for exportation to Trichinopoly, Madura,
and Coimbatore, are prepared in thin slices, coloured with red catechu
or uncoloured. For Tinnevelly and other parts of the country, the nuts
are prepared by merely cutting them into two or three slices and drying
them. For Bombay, and other parts of the Northern Country, the nuts are
exported in the form of whole nuts dried with the pods.
The nut is chewed by both sexes indiscriminately in Malabar as well
as on the Coromandel coast. In Malabar they mix it with betel leaf,
chunam, and tobacco; but in Tinnevelly and other parts, tobacco is
never added. The three ingredients for the betel, as commonly used,
are, the sliced nut, the leaf of the betel pepper, in which the nut is
rolled, and chunam, or powdered lime, which is smeared over the leaf.
The areca nut is commonly known by the Malay name of _Pinang_, but in
the Acheenese language it is called _Penu_, and the palm producing it
_Ba Penu_. The ripe nut is called also _Penu massa_, and the green
_Penu mudr_. The leaf of the betel pepper is called either _Ranu_ or
_Siri_, and the lime _Chunam_ or _Gapu_. Tobacco, when used, is called
_Bakun_.
In China, the principal consumption of the nut as a masticatory is
in the provinces of Quangton, Quang-se, and Che-keang; and it may be
seen exposed for sale on little stalls about the suburbs of Canton
with the other additional articles used in its consumption. It is also
used in dyeing. In the central provinces of Hoo-kwang and Kang-si the
nut is, after being bruised and pounded, mixed with the green food of
horses as a preventive against diarrhœa, to which some kinds of food
subjects them. The Chinese state that it is used as a domestic medicine
in the North of China, some pieces being boiled, and the decoction
administered. From them is also prepared a kind of cutch, or catechu,
which is exported in great quantities, and is now used largely in this
country, together with other kinds, as a tanning and dyeing material.
In Ceylon these instruments are used: the Girri (No. 1.) for cutting
the areca nut, and the Wanggedi (No. 2) and Moolgah (No. 3), a kind of
mortar and pestle for mincing and intimately mixing the ingredients
together.
[Illustration:
No. 1.
GIRRI, FOR CUTTING ARECA.
No. 2. No. 3
WANGGEDI OR MORTAR AND MOOLGAH OR PESTLE
FOR MIXING THE INGREDIENTS.]
In Virginia, tobacco was at one period used as a currency at a fixed
value per pound. In Peru, the labourer is paid in coca, and in the
Philippines, betel rolls have been used in the same manner as a
currency. To the Malay it is as important as meat and drink, and many
would rather forego the latter than their favourite _Pinang_. The
same thing might also be said of the inveterate quidder of tobacco;
we remember one of this description, who for years used one ounce per
day, and declared often that he had rather be deprived of his dinner
than his quid, although he liked both. Without his leaf, the confirmed
“coquero” is the most miserable of beings, and when deprived of his
customary pipe, the opium-smoker becomes sullen, ill, and utterly
incapacitated for his employment. Habits of indulgence of this kind,
when once commenced, are not so easily thrown off. It has been said
that a “coquero” was never reclaimed from the use of his coca.
No estimate can be given of the absolute quantity of areca nuts which
are used as a masticatory. Johnston calculates that they are chewed
by not less than fifty millions of people, which, at the rate of ten
pounds per year, or less than half an ounce per day, would amount to
two hundred and twenty thousand tons, or five hundred millions of
pounds, a quantity greater than that of any other narcotic except
tobacco.
Areca nuts have been strung and made into walking sticks,[27] and, in
this country, turned and formed into ornamental bracelets, as well as
burnt into charcoal for tooth powder. We have engirdled the earth with
pig-tail, let us apply the same kind of calculation to the estimated
annual consumption of areca nuts, and strung together in the form of a
bracelet, we have a string 505,050 miles in length, enough to go round
the world 21 times; or, supposing these nuts to be arranged side by
side, they would cover a road fourteen feet wide for the distance of
not less than 3,000 miles. If arranged in like manner in the form of a
square, they would occupy at least 5,000 acres of land.
The areca palm has given its name to the island of Penang, not from
its growing there in larger numbers, or more luxuriant than elsewhere,
but because it was the tree chiefly cultivated by the Malays who first
occupied the island. It now better deserves the title, being the
emporium for the betel nut raised on the east coast of Sumatra.
In Sumatra many of the common drinking and baking utensils in the
boats, and vessels for holding water, not dissimilar to those made by
the Australian natives from the bark of the gum trees, are made from
the spathe of this palm, it is also nailed upon the bottoms of the
boats, and often small bunches of the abortive fruit may be seen placed
as an ornament at the stem and bows of the native vessels. The male
flowers are deliciously fragrant, and are in request in the island
of Borneo on all festive occasions; they are considered a necessary
ingredient in the medicines and charms employed for healing the sick.
In Malabar an inebriating lozenge is prepared from the sap of this palm.
Manuel Blanco thinks that the areca might be used for making red ink,
and it is not improbable that it is thus employed in India. With other
combinations it makes black ink of moderate quality. The lower part of
the petiole is used for wrapping instead of paper, for which purpose
it is sold in the Philippines. The heart of the leaves is eaten as a
salad, and has not a bad flavour. The convicts confined in the Andaman
Islands masticate the nuts of another species of areca. The Nagas and
Abors of Eastern Bengal, use those of a third species, and the natives
of the mountainous districts of Malabar those of a fourth. There are
about twenty species of the areca genus, of which several are thus used.
When betel nuts are scarce in the Philippines, the natives substitute
the bark of the Guayabo and the Antipolo.
It is confidently affirmed to us, that in Ceylon the natives sometimes
masticate the roots of the cocoa-nut palm, instead of, and as a
substitute for, the areca nut, and that it answers the purpose very
well.
The root of a plant known botanically as _Derris pinnata_, is also
occasionally used amongst certain Asiatics, in the same manner, in
cases of deficiences in the supply of genuine betel.
The consumption of the areca-nut being confined to an area of no
very wide extent, and that principally in the neighbourhood of the
producing countries, or _in_ those countries themselves, the necessity
for providing a substitute does not often arise; hence, those of which
we have any knowledge, as having been at all generally used for that
purpose, are confined to two or three substances. Some years, however,
are not so productive as others, and instances have occurred in which
the average price of areca nuts for mastication has been doubled. If
the Yankees persist in their betel and hemp chewing propensities, which
have lately been developed amongst them, probably the Chinese and Malay
will have to pay a higher price for their nuts, or provide something
which shall thenceforth fulfil its duties, and we may hear of other
substitutes.
Ardent as the admirers of the areca may be in their admiration of the
“buyo,” we have never seen more than one translation of a Malayan
poem in which the masticatory was extolled, and this, unfortunately,
we are unable to present to our readers. The gods have either not made
the votaries of betel so poetical as the servants of the pipe, or
the paeans in praise thereof are locked up from us in the cabalistic
characters of their national language. The unmistakable marks left
by the habit on the lips, teeth, and gums, are certainly extolled by
them as marks of beauty. In the poem already referred to, the lover
addresses his mistress in praise of the redness of her teeth and lips,
and the fragrant odour of her breath, produced by the sweet “buyo”
secreted in the hollow of her cheek. White teeth are therefore held in
abomination, and as this is also the opinion of certain African tribes,
who stain theirs with the juice of flowers, ours _must_ be a barbarous
nation to respect such albino masticators.
* * * * *
N.B.—The average annual export of areca nuts from Ceylon is 50,000
cwts., and the price a fraction below 20s. per cwt.