however, it has no more connection than
strawberries have with cream. The one is the leaf of a kind of pepper
vine, and the other is the seed, or nut, of a palm. But nature and man
have combined to marry them to one another, and it is difficult to think
of them separately.

In life the betel vine climbs up the stem of the areca palm, and in
death the areca nut is rolled in a shroud of the betel leaf and the two
are munched together. Other things are often added to the morsel, such
as a clove, a cardamom, or a pinch of tobacco, and a small quantity of
fresh lime is indispensable.

What is the precise nature of the consolation derived from the chewing
of this mixture it is not easy to say. Outwardly it produces effects
which are visible enough, to wit, a most copious flow of saliva, which
is dyed deep red by the juice of the nut, so that a betel nut chewer
seems to go about spitting blood all the day. As every Hindu is a betel
nut chewer, those 943,903 superficial miles of country which make up our
Indian Empire must be bespattered to a degree which it dizzies the mind
to contemplate. This is one of the difficulties of Indian
administration. In large towns and centres of business it is found
necessary to fortify the public buildings in various ways. The Custom
House in Bombay has the wall painted with dark red ochre to a height of
three or four feet from the ground.

But these are the outward results. What is the inwardness of the thing?
In a word, why do the people chew betel nut? Surely not that they may
spit on our public buildings. That is a chance result, not sought for
and not shunned. There is, of course, some deeper reason. Early
travellers in India were much exercised about this and used to question
the people, from whom they got some curious explanations. One reports,
"They say they do it to comfort the heart, nor could live without it."
Another says, "It bites in the mouth, accords rheume, cooles the head,
strengthens the teeth and is all their phisicke." A Latin writer gets
quite eloquent. "_Ex ea mansione_"--by that chewing--he says, "mire
recreantur, et ad labores tolerandos et ad languores discutiendos."

But the remarkable thing is that the betel nut has these effects only on
the Hindu constitution. To a European the strong, astringent taste and
penetrating odour of the betel nut are alike insufferable, and there is
no instance on record, as far as I know, of an Englishman becoming a
betel nut chewer.