UNDER THE PALMS.
“A wind blew warm from the east, and it lifted its arms hopelessly;
and when the wind, love-laden with most subtle sweetness, lingered,
loth to fly, the palm stood motionless upon its little green mound,
and the flowers were so fresh and fair, and the leaves of the trees so
deeply hued, and the native fruit so golden and glad upon the boughs,
that the still warm garden air seemed only the silent, voluptuous
sadness of the tree; and had I been a poet my heart would have melted
in song for the proud, pining palm.”——G. W. CURTIS.
Two species of a kind of pepper vine are extensively cultivated,
with the areca palm, in all the countries of the East where chewing
the betel is indulged in. These belong to the same family of plants
as those producing the common black pepper and the long pepper of
commerce. They are known to botanists as _Chavica betle_ and _Chavica
siraboa_. They are similar in their habits, being trailing plants,
with some resemblance to the ivy, but more tender and fragile. The
betel palms may be often seen with the pepper, climbing and twining
around their tall, straight, slender trunks, or they are trained about
poles of bamboo in the manner of hops in the hop gardens of Kent.
Almost every one with a piece of land cultivates the pepper for his
own consumption. In the markets incredible quantities of the leaves
are offered for sale, in piles carried about in baskets. In Northern
India, sheds are constructed for the growth of the pepper. These are
from twenty to fifty yards in length, and eight or twelve broad, of
bamboo, to shelter the plants from the sun. Great attention is paid to
the cultivation, and the plants are carefully attended to, and cleaned
every morning.
Betel leaf cannot be preserved in a sound state beyond eight days
without preparation, but by being prepared over a fire, and rolled into
balls, in which state it is called _chenai_, it will keep a year, only
the quality is much deteriorated. In Penang the old men carry about
with them a sort of metal tube, having a ramrod-looking pestle, with
which they busy themselves in pounding the mixture for chewing. The
young daily make nut-crackers of their jaws, and although the mixture,
perhaps, rather tends to preserve the teeth, still the exercise on
the nut must be a little too violent for them, and the Malays say it
injures the sight. The Chinese are not much addicted to the use of the
betel.
The consumption of betel by the inhabitants of Penang and Province
Wellesley may be stated at 6,211,440 bundles of 100 leaves each, equal
in value to 31,057 Spanish dollars, which would be the produce of 98
orlongs of land, or about 130 acres, planted regularly. But allowing
for the various distances given by different cultivators between the
plants 110 orlongs may be assumed, or about 147 acres.
The Chinese colonists of Singapore used the leaves of the common
pepper, instead of those of the betel pepper in compounding this
masticatory.
The Ava pepper, or _Macropiper methysticum_, is even more celebrated
for its narcotic properties than the two just referred to. This plant
has a thick aromatic wood stalk, and a large root, and cordate or
heart-shaped leaves. It is a native of the Society, Friendly, and
Sandwich Islands, where it is largely consumed. Macerated in water, the
stems and root form an intoxicating beverage, and the leaves are used
with the areca nut and lime, in the same manner as the leaves of the
other peppers.[28]
Mariner gives an account, in his “History of the Tonga Islands,” of the
use of this plant. The root is split up with an axe into small pieces,
and after being scraped clean with mussel shells, is handed out to
those in attendance to be chewed. There is then a buzz in the assembly,
contrasting curiously with the silence which reigned before, several
crying out, “Give me some cava! give me cava,” each of those who intend
to chew it crying out for some to be handed to him. No one offers to
chew the cava but young persons who have good teeth, clean mouths, and
no colds. Women frequently assist. It is astonishing how remarkably dry
they preserve the root during the process of mastication. In about two
minutes, each person having chewed his quantity, takes it out of his
mouth with his hand, and puts it on a piece of plantain or banana leaf,
or he raises the leaf to his mouth, and puts it off from his tongue,
in the form of a ball of tolerable consistence. The different portions
of cava being now chewed, which is known by the silence that ensues, a
large wooden bowl is placed on the ground before the man who is to make
the infusion. Each person passes up his portion of the chewed root,
which is placed in the bowl, wherein they are laid in such a manner
that each portion is distinct and separate from the rest, till the
whole inside of the bowl becomes studded, from the bottom up to the
rim, on every side. The man, before whom the bowl is placed, now tilts
it up a little towards the chief, that he may see the quantity of its
contents, saying, “This is the cava chewed.” If the chief thinks there
is enough, he says, “Cover it over, and let there come a man here.” The
bowl is covered over with a plantain or banana leaf, if there is not
enough, and a man fetches more root to be chewed. If there is enough,
the chief says “mix.” The two men, who sit on each side of him, who is
to prepare the cava, now come forward a little, and making a half turn,
sit opposite to each other, the bowl being between them, one of these
fans off the flies with a large leaf, while the other sits ready to
pour in the water from cocoa-nut shells, one at a time.
Before this is done, however, the man who is about to mix, having first
rinsed his hands with a little of the water, kneads together the chewed
root, gathering it up from all sides of the bowl, and compressing it
together. Upon this an attendant says, “Pour in the water,” and the man
on one side of the bowl continues pouring, fresh shells being handed
to him, until the attendant thinks there is sufficient, and says,
“Stop the water.” The mixture is stirred together at the command of
the attendant, who then says, “Put in the fow,” which is the bark of
a tree stripped into small fibres, and has the appearance of willow
shavings. A large quantity of this substance, enough to cover the whole
surface of the infusion, is now put in by one of those seated beside
the bowl, and it floats upon the surface. The man who manages the bowl
now begins his difficult operation. In the first place, he extends his
left hand to the further side of the bowl, with the fingers pointing
downwards and the palm towards himself; he sinks that hand carefully
down the side of the bowl, carrying with it the edge of the fow; at the
same time his right hand is performing a similar operation at the side
next to him, the fingers pointing downwards and the palm presenting
outwards. He does this slowly from side to side, gradually descending
deeper and deeper, till his fingers meet each other at the bottom, so
that nearly the whole of the fibres of the root are by these means
enclosed in the fow, forming, as it were, a roll of about two feet in
length, lying along the bottom from side to side, the edges of the
fow meeting each other underneath. He now carefully rolls it over, so
that the edges overlapping each other, or rather intermingling, come
uppermost. He next doubles in the two ends and rolls it carefully over
again, endeavouring to reduce it to a narrower and firmer compass. He
now brings it cautiously out of the fluid, taking firm hold by the two
ends, and raising it breast high, with his arms extended; by a series
of movements the mass is more and more twisted and compacted together,
while the infusion drains from it in a regular decreasing quantity,
till, at length, it denies a single drop. He now gives it to the person
on his left side and receives fresh fow from the one on the right. The
operation is again renewed, with a view to collect what might before
have escaped him, and even a third time till no dregs are left which
this process can remove.
During the above operation, various people are employed in making
cava cups from the unexpanded leaves of the banana, folded and tied
in a peculiar manner. The infusion being strained, the performance
generally occupying a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, the man at
the bowl calls out, “The cava is clear.” The infusion is now filled
into the cups by means of a bundle of fow which is dipped into the
bowl, and when replete with the liquid, held over the cup, and being
compressed, the liquid runs out till the cup is filled. With certain
other ceremonies the cups are passed round amongst the company.
From this account it will be seen that the beverage is drank
immediately after it is prepared, without being in any manner
fermented, its intoxicating and narcotic properties must, therefore, be
due to the root. This liquor is indulged in to a large extent in the
islands of Oceanica, where the natives are generally passionately fond
of it.
Another substance entering into the composition of the “buyo” is the
extract of the leaves of the gambir (_Uncaria gambir_). There are
different qualities of extract: the first and best is white, brittle,
and has an earthy appearance when rubbed between the fingers, which
earthy appearance gave it the name of Terra Japonica, being supposed,
at first, also, to come from Japan, and is formed into very small round
cakes. This is the most expensive kind, and most refined, but it is
not unfrequently adulterated with sago; this kind is brought in the
greatest quantity from the island of Sumatra. The second quality is of
a brownish yellow colour, is formed into oblong cakes, and when broken
has a light brown earthy appearance; it is also made into a solid cubic
form; it is sold in the bazaars in small packets, each containing five
or six. The third quality contains more impurities than the preceding,
is formed in small circular cakes, and sold, in packages of five or
six, in the bazaars.
The method employed in making the extract is thus described in the
_Singapore Chronicle_:—The leaves are collected three or four times a
year; they are thrown into a large cauldron, the bottom of which is
formed of iron, the upper part of bark and boiled for five or six
hours, until a strong decoction is inspissated, it is then allowed to
cool, when the extract subsides. The water is drawn off, a soft, soapy
substance remains, which is cut into large masses; these are further
divided by a knife into small cubes, about an inch square, or into
still smaller pieces, which are laid in frames to dry. This catechu
has more of a granular uniform appearance than that of Bengal, it is,
perhaps, also less pure. The younger leaves of the shrub are said to
produce the whitest and best gambir, the older a brown and inferior
sort. The men employed in the gambir plantations generally indulge
freely in the use of opium.
Another extract made in India from the wood of _Acacia Catechu_,[29]
and which bears the name of Cutch or “Kutt,” is used in combination
with the betel nut. The trees are cut down, and the heart-wood chopped
and boiled in water, strained off, and evaporated. This is poured into
clay moulds and dried in the sun. Dr. Hooker gives a sketch from the
life of one of the native “Kutt” makers of India:——
“At half-past eight a.m. it suddenly fell calm, and we proceeded to
Chakuchee, the native carts breaking down in their passage over the
projecting beds of flinty rocks, or as they hurried down the inclined
planes which cut through the precipitous banks of the streams. Near
Chakuchee we passed an alligator, just killed by two men—a foul beast
about nine feet long, and of the Mager kind. More interesting than
its natural history was the painful circumstance of its having just
swallowed a child that was playing in the water, while its mother was
washing her domestic utensils in the river. The brute was hardly dead,
much distended by its prey, and the mother standing beside it. A very
touching group was this! the parent with hands clasped in agony, unable
to withdraw her eyes from the cursed reptile, which still clung to life
with that tenacity for which its tribe is so noted, and beside her the
two men leaning on their bloody bamboo staves with which they had all
but despatched the animal.
“The poor woman who had lost her child earns a scanty maintenance by
making catechu. She inhabits a little cottage, and has no property but
her two oxen to bring wood from the hills, and a very few household
chattels, and how few these are is known only to persons who have
seen the meagre furniture of the Dangha hovels. Her husband cuts the
trees in the forest and drags them to the hut, but he is now sick, and
her only son, her future stay, was he whose end is just related. Her
daily food is rice, with beans from the beautiful flowered dolichos,
trailing round the cottage, and she is in debt to the contractor, who
has advanced her two rupees, to be worked off in three months, by
the preparation of 240 lbs. of catechu. The present was her second
husband, an old man; by him she never had any children, and in this
respect alone did the poor creature think herself very unfortunate,
for her poverty she did not feel. Rent to the Rajah, tax to the
police, and rates to the Brahminee priest, are all paid from an acre
of land, yielding so wretched a crop of barley, that it more resembled
a fallow field than a harvest field. All day long she is boiling down
the catechu-wood cut into chips, and pouring the decoction into large
wooden troughs, where it is inspissated.”
From the areca nut another kind of catechu is prepared, which is
generally preferred as a masticatory. Heyne thus describes the process
of its manufacture, “Areca nuts are taken as they come from the tree,
and boiled for some hours in an iron vessel. They are then taken out
and the remaining water is inspissated by continued boiling. This
process furnishes _kassu_, or most stringent _terra japonica_, which is
black, and mixed with paddy husks and other impurities. After the nuts
are dried, they are put in a fresh quantity of water, boiled again,
and the water, being inspissated like the former, yields the best or
dearest kind of catechu, called _coury_. It is yellowish brown, has an
earthy fracture, and is free from the admixture of foreign bodies.” It
is probable that the flat round cakes, covered with paddy husks, met
with in commerce is the _kassu_ of Heyne.
The husk which surrounds the nut, and which is of a fibrous nature,
resembling the coir of the cocoa nut is thrown away by tons, and
allowed to rot. This substance has lately been experimented upon for
the manufacture of paper, for which purpose it appears to be available,
and, as there is no want of the raw material, perhaps at some future
time it will become utilized as extensively as the “coir” of Ceylon.
The Bombay catechu is obtained from _Acacia catechu_, and the Bengal
catechu from _Uncaria Gambir_. The Bombay produce is of a dark brownish
red colour, and is stated to be the richer of the two in tannin. The
Bombay variety is commonly called “cutch,” while the Bengal produce
is of a lighter brown colour, and is termed “terra.” Catechu of good
quality is also obtained from Pegu.
The catechu exported from Madras to England, Bombay, France, and Ceylon
was—
1853-4— 484 cwt. valued at £199 4s.
1864-5—1,364 ” ” 698 8
1855-6—2,908 ” ” 2,297 2
part of 1856-7— 658 ” ” 270 8
—————— ————————-
Or in 3½ years—5,414 ” ” £4,265 2
But this is only a small proportion of the catechu consumed in England
alone, since in 1849 we imported 169,140 cwts. of that substance for
tanning purposes, and the quantity has since increased.
The totals of cutch and gambier imported in
1856 was 8,536 tons.
1857 ” 11,047 ”
1858 ” 11,205 ”
1859 ” 13,762 ”
Of this quantity we exported in—
1856—1,031 tons.
1857—1,427 ”
1858— 974 ”
1859—1,809 ”
These articles, therefore, make no insignificant item in our East
Indian trade, which, valued at the intermediate rate of 15s. and 30s.
per cwt., would amount to the sum of £153,375 in 1858.