ey thus eat it are, First,
Because it is wholsom. Secondly, To keep their mouths perfumed: for
being chewed it casts a brave scent. And Thirdly, To make their Teeth
black. For they abhor white Teeth, saying, That is like a Dog.

The better sort of Women, as Gentlewomen or Ladies, have no other
Pastime but to sit and chew Betel, swallowing the spittle, and spitting
out the rest. And when Friends come to see and visit one the other,
they have as good Society thus to sit and chew Betel, as we have to
drink Wine together.

[The Manner of their eating Betel-leaves.] But to describe the
particular manner of their eating these Leaves. They carry about with
them a small Box filled with wet Lime; and as often as they are minded
to eat Betel, they take some of this Lime, as much as they judge
convenient, and spread it thin upon their leaf; then they take some
slices of the Betel-nut, and wrap them up in the leaf, and so eat it,
rubbing their Teeth therewith ever and anon to make them black. Thus
they eat it generally: but sometimes they eat it otherwise, according
as they please; neither spreading the Lime on the leaf, nor rolling
up slices of the Nut into it: But they will take a little of the Lime
out of their Box between their Fingers, and put it in their mouths,
and eat of the Nut and the Leaf by themselves. But whensoever they
eat of the Betel-leaf, the Lime and the Nut always accompany it.

[How they make Lime.] They have a pretty shift of making their
Lime, when they chance to need it as they are travailing. They take
certain Shells, almost resembling Snails Shells, which they pick up
in fresh water Rivers, washed a shore with the water beating upon the
Rocks. These Shells, mixed with Charcoal and, fire they wrap up in
a wisp of Rice-straw, and bind them together in a round bundle of a
convenient bigness, tying all up with green Withs, that they may not
fall in pieces. By a With some four foot long they hold it in their
hands, swinging it round over their heads. Which motion blows the
Coals and makes them burn. And as they are weary with swinging it in
one hand, they shift and take it in the other: and so keep swinging
it for half an hour or thereabouts. By which time it will be burnt
to very good Lime, and most part of the straw consumed: but it is
still kept together by the green Withs. Then they take it and wet it
in water, and put it into their Pots or Boxes for their use. The Lime
made of white stone burnt in a Kil