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[Page 467]

363
Some account of Savu

it was among these people long before our the Europeans came here but was less us'd in this than in most Islands in the neighbourhood  in some of which the people usd to mark circles round their necks  breasts &c.

[Margin note]   teeth black
Both Sexes are continualy employd in chewing Betle & Arec. the consequence of which is that their teeth as long as they have any are dyed of that filthy black colour which constantly attends the rotteness of a tooth  for it appears to me that from their first use of this custom which they begin very young their teeth are affected & continue by gradual degrees to waste away till they are quite worn to the stumps which seems to happen before old age  I have seen men in appearance between 20 & 30 whose fore teeth were almost intirely gone  no two being of the same lengh or the same thickness but every one eat into unevenesses as iron is by rust  this loss of the teeth is attributed by all whose writings upon the subject I have read to the tough & stringy coat of the Areca nut but in my opinion is much easier accounted for by the well known

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