Some account of Savu
Index
Search
Contact us
corrosive quality of the lime, which is a necessary ingredient in every mouthfull and that too in no very insignificant quantity. This opinion seems to me to be almost put out of dispute by the manner in which their teeth are destroyd: they are not loosned or drawn out as they should be by the too frequent labour of chewing tough substances but melt away and decay as metals in strong acids, the stumps always remaining firmly adhering to the jaws just level with the gums. Possibly the ill effects which sugar is beleivd by us Europeans to have upon the teeth may proceed from the same cause as it is well known that refin’d or loaf sugar contains in it a large quantity of lime.
To add flavour I suppose to the Betel and Arec some use with it a small quantity of tobacco, adding the nauseous smell of that herb to the not less disagreable look of the other as if they were resolvd to make their mouths disgustfull to the sence of smelling as well as that of sight. They also smoak, rolling up a small quantity of tobacco in one end of a tube made of a palm leaf about as thick as a quil and 6 inches long; of
 |
Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol. 2) 364, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-329.html