Part 18 - Eastern New Guinea

In Eastern New Guinea, or Papua, betel-chewing occurs among the Massim in the south-east, including all the island groups, such as the Louisiade Archipelago, and among the western Papuo-Melanesians, stretching as far west on the southern coast as the Cape Possession.

Professor Seligmann refers me to his work, The Melanesians of British New Guinea, in which he has inserted a sketch-map delimiting these two large groups (p. 6), and also a photograph of the ceremonial lime-gourd of the Peace, or Priest Chief (the two are synonymous) of a Mekeo tribe, who can stop any quarrels by scattering lime from his gourd (p. 343).

There appears to be some doubt as to whether the leaf of Piper methysticum is used in betel-chewing. Rivers, Melanesian Society, vol. ii, p. 533, states that in the Bismarck Archipelago the leaf used in betel-chewing is probably that of Pijper methysticum, while in a recent copy of Man^[1] E. W. Pearson Chinnery has written an article on the subject. Rivers may possibly be right about the Bismarck Archipelago, but Chinnery can hardly be correct about Papua. As Sir Everard im Thurn clearly proved in a later number of Man,^[2] his own description of the leaf in question shows that it must have been either the well-known Piper betle or possibly the Piper insectifugum, which is similar in habit or growth.

Chinnery speaks of the leaf as “a creeping plant which clings to trees in the gardens and villages,” and has found by personal experience that its flavour is bitter and hot. The true kava- plant is an upright-growing shrub, and is not bitter and hot to the taste. (See further the article by im Thurn, noted above.)

Chinnery’s article, however, affords a very interesting description of betel-chewing in the Mambare and Kumusi divisions of Papua. The ingredients used are three in number—dang or cha (the areca-nut), ong (lime) and pingi (Piper betle?).^[3] Dang or cha is the nut of a species of areca-palm, which is extensively cultivated by the Binandere-speaking tribes of the coast and the lowlands of the interior. It is similar to the cultivated buatau (pidgin Motuan) of other coastal regions. Ong is obtained by burning river shells in kilns. A layer of shells is placed between each layer of midribs of the nipa palm, and the kiln is lighted from the top; it burns downwards and deposits the burnt shells in a heap among the ashes, from which they are afterwards separated and reduced to powder by pounding. Betel-chewing occupies a place of great importance in the ceremonial life of the Binandere. The man who has been decorated for homicide, and has attained the state known as kortopu, is permitted to ornament his lime-gourd with beeswax and red seeds, and rattle his lime stick against the opening of the gourd when withdrawing it from the lime. Temporary abstinence from betel-chewing is a form of self-denial which people are at times obliged to practise. An instance of this is seen in songs of instruction during the ceremonies following burial, when widows fulfilling the obligations of mourning are forbidden, among other taboos, to eat the betel mixture or even desire it.

The phrases of the betel-chewing taboo are:

Dang ta ge go Lorie!
(Areca-nut of speak not widow.)
Pingi ta ge go Lorie!
(Betel-pepper of speak not widow.)

Another instance of the ceremonial importance of areca-nut (in this case the wild variety) was observed by Chinnery on Mount Chapman. There he was informed that tribes usually at war with one another congregate peacefully during initiation ceremonies. The symbol of this temporary truce is a piece of broken areca-nut (ve —the wild variety), which is distributed among those gathered together by the givers of the ceremony. The ceremony finished, all who have participated return to their districts and the truce ends. In this district lime is produced from the many limestone caves which occur in the locality, and carried in leaves, gourds being absent.

The use of the pingi plant as part of the mixture of betel-chewers has an extremely wide distribution in Papua. On the watershed of the Kiko river, M. Staniforth Smith (Annual Report, British New Guinea, 1911, p. 170) found a kava- plant, Macropiper methysticum, in a native garden, but saw no evidence of the manufacture of the beverage.

The betel-chewer, when starting on a journey, invariably carries in his netted bag a supply of areca-nuts and a gourd filled with lime, but he does not appear to stock himself with pepper in the same careful way. His appearance in the village he is visiting is a signal for someone to dash away to the outskirts and reappear in a few moments with a coil or stalks of the pepper plant. He accepts this as a matter of course, and frequently gives areca-nuts in return; others gather around, and in a few moments all of them are chewing and talking with evident enjoyment.

In some of the mountain districts visited by Chinnery betel-chewing is not known. Chief among these are the Biagi districts of Mount Victoria. But the influence has spread far inland in other parts, though in the mountainous regions the areca-nut-palm is seldom cultivated, and the habit is not so much in favour as it is on the coast. Evidence of this is shown by the white teeth of the inhabitants, and the frequent absence of lime-gourds in mountain districts.

Chinnery is of the opinion that betel-chewing is a relatively late influence. Further botanical evidence is required, however, before any definite statement on this point can be made.

Although betel-chewing is apparently not indulged in by the Mafulu mountain people to such an extent as it is in Mekeo and the coast, the custom can be described as fairly common. For a month or so before a big feast, during which period they are under a strict taboo restriction as to food, they indulge in it largely. The betel used by them is not the cultivated form used in Mekeo and on the coast, but a wild species only about half the size of the other; and the lime used is not made by grinding down sea-shells, but is obtained from the mountain-stone, which is ground down to a powder.^[4] The gourds in which the lime is carried are similar to those used in Mekeo, except that usually they are not ornamented, or, if they are, the ornament is done only in simple, straight-lined geometric patterns (see Plate LI, Figs. 6 and 7, p. 166).

The spatulæ are sometimes very simple and rudely decorated. The people spit out the betel after chewing, instead of swallowing it, as is the custom in Mekeo.

Before passing on to the Solomon Islands, I will conclude this section with a description of the custom among a little-known tribe dwelling on the banks of the Fly river.

About sixty miles from the mouth of the Fly, on the eastern side, is a point called Gaima. This forms the first outlet on the river bank of a people called Girara by Mr W. N. Beaver,^[5] who was magistrate in the Western Division of Papua for twenty-seven years.

They inhabit the inland district between the rivers Fly and Bamu. All the Girara people are inveterate betel-chewers, and a bag containing a lime-pot and chewing gear is the invariable companion of every man wherever he goes. The betel is not the variety used in the east end, but a species which the Motuans call viroro. As is well known, betel is eaten with lime and various peppers, the best kinds of which are grown as climbers. The Giraras obtain lime by burning epa shell, which they obtain principally from Pagona, on the Fly. Betel-chewing appears to be attended with rather more ceremony here than Beaver noticed elsewhere. When about to indulge in an orgy of chewing, the Girara man seats himself cross-legged on the ground and spreads his chewing gear around. (See the illustration facing p. 192.) He peels four or five nuts and places them on his thigh. Then, drawing a long thin bone needle or skewer from its case in the bag, he impales the nuts, one at a time, and starts to chew, adding lime and pepper until he has a suitable quid. The quid is kept in the mouth day and night, and even when a man is talking to you, you can see the large red ball projecting from his lips. The lime sticks and betel needles are usually made of cassowary bone, but appear not to have reached the high stage of the Trobriand islander, who considers it a mark of esteem to manufacture pieces of his dead relatives’ bones into lime sticks. As amongst most betel-chewers, the rattle of the lime stick in the gourd is used to express the feeling of the user. He may sit stolidly enough, chewing, but you can tell by the way he rattles his stick whether he is pleased, angry, contemptuous or just merely “don’t care.” The continued chewing among the Giraras renders them somewhat dazed and stupid-looking, and Beaver is of the opinion that the betel used in the district is a very strong variety. Owing, however, to the universal use of areca-nut, there is very little gamada (kava) drunk.^[6]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

February 1922, p. 24 et seq.

[2]:

April 1922, p. 57.

[3]:

Here Chinnery wrote Piper methysticum.

[4]:

R. W. Williamson, The Mafulu Mountain People of British New Guinea, London, 1912, p. 66.

[5]:

W. N. Beaver, Unexplored New Guinea, London, 1920, p. 205 et. seq. It has now been settled that the name of the tribe should be “Gogodara.” See A. P. Lyons, “Notes on the Gogodara Tribe of Western Papua,” Journ. Boy. Anth. Inst., vol. lvi, 1926, p. 329 et seq.

[6]:

Further references to betel-chewing in Papua will be found in I. H. Holmes, In Primitive New Guinea, pp. 53, 54, 56 and 61; and W. V. Saville, In Unknown Guinea, p. 64.