The Solomon Islanders are inordinarily fond of tobacco-smoking, a habit which prevails with both sexes and almost at all ages. Tobacco has in fact established itself as the principal currency between the trader and the native; and without it a white man would be as destitute in these islands as the beggar is in more civilized lands. In a village the visitor will sometimes be followed by a knot of little urchins five or six years of age who have slipped down from their mothers’ backs to pester him for tobacco; and I have seen a child in its mother’s arms allowed to take the pipe from its parent’s lips and puff away with apparent enjoyment. Should there be a scarcity of tobacco in a village when a ship arrives, the trader may drive a cheap bargain, and the curiosity-seeker may readily purchase anything he desires. We were able on such occasions to obtain, for a piece of tobacco of the size of the thumb-nail, articles, such as fish-hooks, which required for their manufacture days of tedious labour. In the waste-ground of villages a few tobacco plants are often grown. This is very frequently the case in the villages of the islands of Bougainville Straits, where native-grown tobacco is often preferred to the trade-tobacco. This home-grown tobacco is there known as “brubush.” The leaves are never cut up for smoking, but are usually rolled roughly into twists; and when the native is going to smoke, he stuffs two or three large pieces into his pipe. Claypipes obtained from the traders are always used. These islanders very rarely make wood pipes for themselves, although they must often see them in the mouths of white men. I never met with a native who, having broken or lost his clay pipe, had the energy to manufacture a pipe of wood. There is, however, such a specimen of native work in the British Museum collection. I could not ascertain any information relative to the introduction of tobacco-smoking. It was, however, probably introduced from the West independently of the influence of the trader. The natives of the Maclay Coast and of the South Coast of New Guinea allege that the habit was unknown two generations ago, and that the seeds of the plant, with the knowledge of tobacco-smoking, have been introduced from the West. In the Louisiade Archipelago and in South-East New Guinea, tobacco was unknown until the last few years.[77]
[77] Miklouho-Maclay in Proc. Lin. Soc., N. S. W., vol. X., p. 352.
Crawfurd makes some interesting remarks on the introduction of tobacco into the Malay Archipelago, whence, as I have shown above, the plant has been evidently introduced into the Western Pacific. The Java annals affirm that tobacco was introduced in 1601; and, as supporting this statement, Crawfurd observes that the plant is not mentioned by European travellers in this region before the beginning of the 17th century. (Malay Grammar and Dictionary, vol. I., p. 191.)
The practice of chewing the betel-nut is prevalent through the group, and is accompanied by the usual accessories, the lime and the betel-pepper (Piper Betel). In St. Christoval and the neighbouring small islands, the lime is carried in bamboo boxes, which are decorated with patterns scratched on their surface. In the islands of Bougainville Straits, gourds are employed for this purpose, the stoppers of which are ingeniously made of narrow bands of the leaf of the sago palm wound round and round in the form of a disc and bound together at the margin by fine strips of the vascular tissue of the “sinimi” fern (Gleichenia sp.). Plain wooden sticks, like a Chinese chop-stick, are used for conveying the lime to the mouth; but frequently the stick is dispensed with, when the fingers are used or the betel-nut is dipped into the lime.
The Piper Betel, which is known in Bougainville Straits as the “kolu,” is grown in the plantations, where it is trailed around the stems of bananas and the trunks of trees. In these straits, as on the Maclay Coast of New Guinea,[78] the female spike, or so-called fruit, is more usually chewed with the betel-nut. Around St. Christoval the leaves are generally preferred.
[78] Miklouho-Maclay: Proc. Lin. Soc., N. S. W., vol. X., p. 350.
The betel palm, the “olega” of the natives, which is apparently identical with, or closely allied to, Areca catechu, the common betel-nut tree, is grown in clumps and groves in the vicinity of villages. The fruits of other species of Areca, which grow wild, are occasionally used as substitutes for the ordinary betel-nut; in Bougainville Straits the fruits of the “niga-solu,” “niga-torulo,” and “poamau” are thus employed, those of the “poamau” being appropriated by the women.
Betel-chewing is practised by both sexes. It has a marked stimulant effect; but the natives allege that no harm results from its constant use. The betel-pepper gives the betel-juice the “bite” of a glass of grog; by the natives it is considered to remove the taint of the breath. The betel-juice is the active agent in the production of the red colour which stains the saliva and the mouth of the betel-chewer. I satisfied myself that the saliva was not necessary for producing this colour, which may be readily obtained by mixing the betel-nut and lime in rain water.
When away on an occasion with a party of natives, I once was tempted by curiosity to chew a betel-nut which I afterwards swallowed in order to experience its full effect. Very shortly afterwards my head began to feel heavy, and I had an inclination to lie down, whilst my sight was sensibly dimmed. These effects passed away in about twenty minutes. In my cabin I tried the effect on my circulation of merely chewing a single nut. Five minutes afterwards I found my pulse had increased in force and in frequency from 62 to 92 beats per minute. There was a sensation of fulness in the head and temples, but no perceptible effect on the vision. The pulse retained this frequency for another five minutes; but it did not resume its previous rate until more than half-an-hour had elapsed since the beginning of the experiment. Subsequently I tried the effect of chewing two betel-nuts. The first increased the pulse by twenty beats per minute, and gave rise to restlessness and a feeling of fulness in the head. The second sustained, but did not increase the frequency of the pulse. On account of nausea I chewed the second nut with difficulty. No effect was produced on locomotion by these two nuts; but my sight was sensibly dimmed. On turning-in for the night soon afterwards, I experienced during the first hour rather vivid dreams characterised by rapid shifting of the scene and change in the “dramatis personæ.” Some of the crew who, at my desire, tried the effect of chewing a single nut, informed me that it affected them much the same as a glass of spirit would. The natives themselves are usually content with chewing one nut at a time, two nuts, as they told me, produced unpleasant symptoms, and a bad head.
The betel-nut, in truth, possesses far greater stimulating properties than I had previously suspected. A single nut had much the same effect on me as a glass of sherry would have had. I believe that the extent of its intoxicating qualities is not generally known.