Betel Cutters: From the Samuel Eilenberg Collection

The stimulant known as betel, prepared from evergreen leaves and parings of the betel-nut, is enormously popular throughout much of Asia and the Pacific. It plays a major role in entertaining, in courtship and marriage, and in the traditional etiquette of the royal courts, where betel sets still form part of the state regalia. Betel cutters, the hinged implements used in the preparation of the substance, were and are items of social prestige, reflecting the wealth and taste of their owner a...