Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 14, 2025
When but partially recovered from its effects he called for his betelnut, to revive him by its exciting effects. This was carefully chewed by his attendant to a proper consistency, moulded in a ball about the size of a walnut, and then slipped into the mouth of the heir apparent.
Gathering it by the ton, they pile it up on the shore, mingled with wood and dried seaweed, and burn it to powder, thereby producing the lime with which the betelnut is mixed for chewing, as well as employing it in the mortar used for building purposes. Conspicuous among other varieties one sees the blue medusa, twelve inches and more in diameter.
Sometimes the mass is permitted to rest for a while between the gums and the cheek, and though it is known to occasionally produce cancer of the mouth, the natives give it not a second thought. The betelnut is a tonic, though very little if any of the nut is swallowed, nor is the saliva which it produces. In some cases cardamom and pepper seeds are added to the quid to give it pungency.
An Ancient Port, now mostly deserted. Dangerous Harbor. Environs of the City a Tropical Garden. Paradise of Ferns and Orchids. Neptune's Gardens. Tides of the Ocean. Severe Penalties. Floating Islands of Seaweed. Fable, like History, repeats itself. Chewing the Betelnut. An Asiatic Habit. All Nations seek Some Stimulant. Soil near Galle. Cinnamon Stones. Diamonds. Workers in Tortoise-Shell.
Cleanliness with them is also one of the lost arts, notwithstanding the pretended multiplicity of their baths, while their ceaseless habit of chewing the repulsive betelnut and expectorating the red saliva in all directions is extremely disgusting, equaled only by the filthy habits of tobacco-chewers.
In China, opium takes the place of tobacco to a certain extent, while in the region of which we are writing, the betelnut yields a mild stimulant and sedative combined. The Ceylon and Malacca men eagerly substitute tobacco when it is to be had, and sometimes mix it with the betelnut. No gift to the savages of the Magellan Strait is so acceptable or so eagerly sought for as tobacco.
The natives here, and at Singapore, Penang, Colombo, and along the Asiatic coast generally, when not sleeping or eating, are incessantly chewing the betelnut, which, as before intimated, gives to their teeth and lips a disagreeably suggestive color, as if they were covered with blood.
The ancient Mexicans before Pizarro's time used the leaves of the aloe for a similar purpose. The talipot palm is the queen of its tribe. The betelnut is the product of the areca palm, and resembles a nutmeg in shape and size. A couple of hundred generally form the annual yield of a single tree.
With garlands, sandal, and betelnut, ghee, honey, and curds consecrate the drum at evening-tide. Hearing the lord's word, in loving manner she made accordingly various offerings with fragrant perfumes: all cried 'Hari, Hari! thus they consecrate the drum; Parameshwar Das floats in enjoyment." Of the remainder of the adhibas I give merely a paraphrase ommiting the numerous repetitions.
Knox had no knowledge of the Vincennes having been seen; for the officer of the watch had not reported to him the fact. Chewing the betelnut and pepper-leaf also produces this effect, and is carried to a great extent among these islanders.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking