Culture
The Art of Betel Chewing
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- Hits: 1974
Betel Chewing
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Leisurely habit
For most betel addicts. the little shops at Yangon street corners. where they sell ready-made betel quids. leave them cold. A fastidious connoisseur must compose his quid to suit his own individual taste and chew it in his own sweet time. as he let the world go by.
But. one can hardly do so in these days of rush and hurry. One has to be content to stop at a stall. buy a quid and shove it into his mouth and rush.
If something is not done and done quickly. this gentle art of chewing betel will be irretrievably lost. Betel chewing is meant to be done in a leisurely and relaxed manner. It is definitely not for the restless and the hurried. Take. for instance. a lady of my grandmother's day; she would sit with her legs decorously tucked in on a finely woven mat. edged with an inch-wide red velvet. She had before her all the paraphernalia of betel chewing.
The lady with a betel box
The circular betel-box. at first glance. looked solid. until the lid was removed and the bowl inside uncovered. The top of the bowl was fitted with two shallow trays. one on top of the other; on the upper tray were four little cups and a brass phial. In the cups were the ingredients for making betel quid. namely betel nuts. cloves. cutch. anise seeds. shredded wild liquorice ice or sweet creeper (nwe-cho). In the brass phial was lime. soft and pure.
In the tray right under the first one was a layer of dried tobacco leaves: only when the tray was taken out. the main bowl with green fresh betel leaves was revealed.The lady first shredded the betel nuts with a small nut-cracker; she then took a betel leaf and with her dainty fingers. remove the stem and the edge of the tail-end and smeared it thinly with lime.She then put a little each of shredded betel nuts. anise. cutch and tobacco leaf and folded the edges to make a neat compact quid and secured it by sticking a clove into it.
Not for the one with two left hands
It took practice and training. and above all. art to make the betel quid and much more skill to chew it daintily. so that the lips were reddened like rubies. There are many love songs praising the "lips reddened by betel juice and the sweetness of breath".
In my younger days. in the small town where I grew up; no one. if any. had heard of things like lipsticks. For "dressing up" occasions we girls were given a betel quid each to chew and redden our lips with. Many did it charmingly. But I was not among that ""many". I only succeeded in making an awful mess. With my best white muslin jacket stained with betel juice. and streaks of red juice running on my chin. I did not come anywhere near being the belle of the party.
Lips reddened with betel juice Anyway. it was fortunate for me and also for all concerned that I was not born in the age when ladies were expected to sit on a finely woven mat with red velvet endings. making betel quids. With my two left hands. i would never manage to make a quid. The task of putting those leaf and packing neatly was not for me. To be sure. all these shredded betel and anise seed things would fall out even as I tried to stick a clove to secure the edges.
The chances are that I would upset the betel box and there are few things in the world as chaotic as a betel box upset. By that time, the quid I was chewing would be dripping with red juice and the whole thing would be a masterpiece of slovenliness.Supposing courting swains were present. what chance would I have? Perhaps. I might worm my way into someone's heart by this show of helplessness. A forlorn hope this. This manner of helplessness would hardly conduce to the blossoming of romance. No swain would ever queue up for the favour of getting a betel quid from the likes of me. So why should I bemoan. after all. the decadence of the gentle art of betel chewing.
