Part 4 - Assam, Burma, Annam and Siam

With the exception of certain parts of Assam, mentioned below, betel-chewing is found throughout the four countries which head this section.

To the east the custom stretches through Cambodia and Cochin China to Southern China, while to the south it continues into Malaya and so to the Eastern Archipelago.

References and short descriptions of betel-chewing are naturally found in nearly every travel-book on the particular locality concerned. It will, therefore, be superfluous to attempt to supply a list of works which mention it. I shall merely select what I consider reliable and correct descriptions, whether they be from old or recent works.

In the case of Assam we naturally turn chiefly to the recent works of Mills, Hutton and Smith. Among both the Sema^[1] and Aṅgami^[2] Nagas the only narcotic known is tobacco. With the Ao Nagas, however, the betel and areca-nut are in very common use. In villages where the ingredients are easily obtainable most adults chew pān and betel-nut (koyi).

A quid consists of a little areca-nut, some lime (shinü, süni), a scrap of tobacco and a bit of one of several kinds of bark or wood which have the effect of increasing the flow of saliva, all wrapped up in a “pān” leaf. Pān is grown in many villages, but the areca-nut has to be obtained from the plains, though an inferior wild variety is sometimes used. Lime is either bought in the plains or made from snail-shells or egg-shells.^[3]

We get further details in Smith’s work^[4] on the same tribes, who quotes largely from previous observers. Betel-chewing is practised by a number of the hill tribes.

“Pān leaf, betel-nut and lime,” writes Hunter,^[5]

“are essential to the comfort of all the hill people, who are inveterate chewers of pān. They commence at an early age, and are rarely seen without a pān leaf in their mouths; the females are quite disfigured from the practice.”

The Khasis “are addicted to the use of... betel-nut... which is chewed in large quantities by both sexes.” ^[6]

“They greatly disfigure their countenances,” writes Dalton,^[7]

^“by the constant and untidy chewing of pān leaf.”

“They are inveterate chewers,” comments Gurdon,^[8]

“of supārī and the pān leaf (when they can get the latter), both men, women, and children; distances in the interior being often measured by the number of betel-nuts that are usually chewed on a journey.”

“Betel-nut,” writes Stack,^[9]

“(kōvē; Khasi, kwai) is largely consumed in the usual way, with lime and pān leaf (bīthī); and (as among the Khasis) time and distance are computed by the interval required to chew a nut. (The phrase is ingtàt ē-àm-tā ēr —“the time it takes to chew the nut and pān leaf red”: ingtàt, roll for chewing; ē, one; dm, chew; ēr, red.”)

The practice is current among the Kachins. “The acknowledged form of introduction and friendly interchange of courtesies,” comments Hanson,^[10] “is by exchanging betel-nut boxes.” The Karen^[11] also practise constantly the habit of betel-chewing.” Dr Hutton is responsible for the statement that betel-chewing among the Naga tribes is “confined to Aos, Lhotas and Konyaks in touch with the betel-chewing plainsmen.”

Mills^[12] says that

“betel-nut is chewed with pān and lime in the villages near the plains. Lime used to be made locally from the ground-up shells of fresh-water snails, but is now bought in the plains.”

The Rev. S. A. D. Boggs, a former missionary among the Garos, reported to the writer that betel-chewing has been on the increase among the Garos. It is common among the Assamese, and it is the opinion of Mr Boggs that the Garos have learned the habit from the Assamese. Among the Ao Nagas the habit is deeply entrenched. However, some questions arise in this connection. The palm-tree which bears the areca- or betel-nut does not thrive well in the hills, and so the Nagas frequently substitute the bark of a certain root for the nut. This may mean that they brought the habit with them into the hills and have been keeping it up in spite of the scarcity of one of the principal ingredients, or else they may have learned the habit from others since taking up their present abode.^[13]

T. C. Hodson^[14] quotes Dr Brown^[15] as saying that the Manipuris, both male and female, are inveterate chewers of pān supārī. The whole of this is brought from the neighbouring district of Cachar, and forms a considerable trade. The betel-nut-tree will not grow in Manipur territory.

The Shans of Northern Burma are also very addicted to the habit, and their teeth become black and shiny. So far from considering this a blemish, they look upon it as a mark of beauty, saying: “All beasts have white teeth.”

Mr Leslie Mills^[16] gives an interesting account of the method of making lime for chewing. A place is chosen in the jungle where firewood is easily found, and where limestone blocks are near at hand. A round hole or pit, six feet in diameter and five feet in depth, is dug. Then a similar excavation is made near it, the intervening ground being pierced near the bottom of the pits to unite them. The first hole is filled with limestones, which are placed with care, leaving plenty of fissures through the mass, so that fire and smoke may pass between the stones. In the second pit a fire is made, then plenty of wood is piled on the flames; the top is covered, so that the smoke and fire can find an exit only through the limestones of the first hole. Lime thus made is sometimes sold without further preparations, but often turmeric is beaten into it, making it red. When areca-nut is chewed, lime is always added, and sometimes cutch, tobacco and spices folded in a betel leaf.

Writing under the pseudonym of Shway Yoe,^[17] Sir George Scott gives us a very clear description of betel-chewing in Burma. It is sometimes carried on simultaneously with smoking, but most people prefer to economise enjoyment, and chew only in the interval between smokes. Chewing is hardly an exact expression, and the use of it frequently leads the experimenting Briton into the unpleasant predicament of having all the interstices between his teeth choked up with little fragments of the nut, which, with their indescribable aromatic flavour, stimulate the flow of saliva for four hours afterwards. The Burman splits his nut in half, smears a little slaked lime, usually white, but sometimes tinted pink or salmon-coloured, on the betel-vine leaf, puts in a little morsel of cutch and tobacco, and then rolls it up and stows away the quid in the side of his mouth, occasionally squeezing it a little between his teeth. It is as well to be very cautious with the lime and cutch (the juice of the Acacia catechu) the first time you make a trial. The latter especially is very astringent. Chewing kohng-thee is an unlovely practice. The Burman has none of the delicacy with regard to a spittoon which characterizes the American, and these articles require to be of a very considerable size. The monks are perhaps the most persistent chewers of the good betel. Smoking is prohibited, but nothing is said against betel, and it is considered a great stimulator of the meditative faculties. The lime used very speedily corrodes and destroys the teeth,^[18] and then the old pohn-gyee (Burmese Buddhist monk of highest order) has to make the scholars crush up the nuts, so that they may not hurt his toothless gums. It is a common belief that no one can speak Burmese well till he chews betel.

In concluding this brief section on Burma I would quote, as an example of the present-day spread of betel-chewing, a passage from a work by W. G. White on the nomadic Mawken people of the Mergui Archipelago.^[19]

“Amongst the Dung Mawken, who are taking to the Burmese habit of betel-chewing, the custom is coming into vogue of the ‘joiners’ [ i.e. the go-between, who arrange marriages, etc.] offering to chew areca-nuts with the father of the girl and any other members of the family who are to take part in the ceremony. If the offer is accepted, agreement is signified, and if it is declined, the ‘joiners’ cannot fulfil their task.”

Passing over Annam, where we are told^[20] “all the Annamese, rich and poor, chew the betel-nut” (read “areca-nut and pān”), we turn to Siam and Laos.

The areca-palm is grown in every part of Siam, but in few districts is the production sufficient to meet the enormous demand which the chewing proclivities of the Siamese create. In some parts of Southern Siam, however, the supply exceeds the demand, and a certain quantity of areca-nut is exported thence to other parts of the kingdom and to Siṅgapore and Penang. In the suburbs of Bangkok the areca-palm is grown in gardens, where the trees are planted in orderly rows, interplanted with such other fruit-trees as are found to thrive in the thin shade which they cast. In the provinces the trees are grown in rough plantations, round about the houses of the peasantry, and on any patch of available waste land. With its smooth, straight stem, graceful topknot of leaves and hanging bunches of fruit, sometimes full fifty feet from the ground, the areca is one of the most graceful of all the palm family. Once planted in a moist situation, it requires absolutely no care, and though it is possible that, by selection and manuring, the fruit might be improved, the Siamese cultivator has never thought it worth while to take any trouble about it. The areca-nut is used fresh, dried or pickled. When fresh, the edible, or rather chewable, kernel is yellow and soft; when dry, it is brown and extremely hard, and has to be cut up or pounded before it can be used, and when pickled, it is soft and brown and rotten-looking. The trees yield fruit at the end of their third year, and bear usually once—but in some places twice—a year, from a hundred to five hundred nuts. There appears to be a ready and constant demand for areca-nut both in India and China, and it is probable that plantations of these palms in Southern Siam would be found highly profitable. Hitherto, however, European planters have not taken any interest in this product of agriculture.^[21]

The betel-vine is grown in gardens, more especially in the neighbourhood of Bangkok, where the consumption of it is so great that one large market is devoted entirely to its sale. The vine requires much care, yields leaves fit for use when about a year old, and continues to do so for five years, at the end of which time the foliage becomes small and of too strong a flavour to be of value.

In his book on a journey through Upper Siam and Laos, Carl Bock^[22] gives an illustration of the golden betel set of the King of Siam. It consists of a number of beautifully carved boxes with pyramidal tops, fitting into the upper portion of an elaborately made round box which contains the betel leaves.

As in India, the areca-nut plays a conspicuous part in the wedding ceremony. In fact, it actually gives the name to the ceremony itself. It is served on a metal or plaited tray, and must be accompanied by three other articles: a cake, called Kanom-cheen; a kind of mincemeat, highly seasoned, wrapped in plantain leaves, and cooked by steaming; and, thirdly, the sīrīh leaf and red lime. These are all termed Kan mak—literally, “a basin of betel-nut”—and this is the common Siamese name for a wedding.

“Like the Siamese,” says Bock,^[23]

“the Laosians are perpetually chewing. Whether they are busy or idle, they chew: whether they sit or walk, they chew. Teeth or no teeth, every Laosian, from almost infancy to old age, chews betel. The toothless old folks assist nature by placing the betel-nut with the accompanying ingredients into a small mortar—a sort of hybrid between a child’s popgun and a syringe—which they always carry with them; a few strokes of the rod suffice to crush the nuts and reduce them to a pulpy mass warranted not to hurt the softest gums.”

Without quoting from further works on Siam^[24] we will travel south to the Malay Peninsula, where betel-chewing is universal.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

J. H. button, Sema Nagas, 1921, p. 99.

[2]:

J. H. Hutton, Aṅgami Nagas, 1921, p. 101.

[3]:

J. P. Mills, The Ao Nagas, 1926, p. 152.

[4]:

W. C. Smith, Ao Naga Tribe of Assam, 1925, pp. 137-138.

[5]:

Statistical Account of Assam, vol. ii, p. 220.

[6]:

Census of India, 1901, vol. i, p. 198.

[7]:

Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 57.

[8]:

The Khasis, p. 6.

[9]:

The Mikirs, p. 14.

[10]:

The Kachins, Rangoon, 1913, p. 57.

[11]:

H. I. Marshall, The Karen People of Burma, 1922.

[12]:

The Lhota Nagas, p. 82.

[13]:

See, further, Smith, op. cit., pp. 155, 158 and 161.

[14]:

T. C. Hodson, The Meitheis, 1908, p. 48.

[15]:

R. Brown, Annual Report on the Munnipore Political Agency, 1874, p. 33.

[16]:

Shans at Home, 1910, p. 173.

[17]:

The Burman, his Life and Notions, p. 71. For a short description of Burmese betel-boxes see p. 273.

[18]:

See the human teeth in the Ethnographical Gallery (Nicobar Islands, Case 149) of the British Museum, showing the results of betel-chewing.

[19]:

The Sea Gypsies of Malaya, p. 203.

[20]:

G. M. Vassal, On and off Duty in Annam, p. 107.

[21]:

A. W. Graham, Siam, a Handbook, 1912, pp. 318-319.

[22]:

Temples and Elephants, London, 1884, pp. 24, 186.

[23]:

Op. cit., pp. 254, 255.

[24]:

See F. A. Neale, Narrative of a Residence at the Capital of the Kingdom of Siam, pp. 153-155; J. G. D. Campbell, Siam in the Twentieth Century, pp. 146-147; A. C. Carter, The Kingdom of Siam, New York and London, 1904, pp. l66-l67; and W. A. Graham, Siam, two vols., London, 1924, vol. ii, pp. 27, 28, 32. Useful information will also be found in an anonymous article in Notes and Queries on China and Japan, September 1868, pp. 136-139.