The saliva will not be tinctured, if the _chunam_, (_i.e._ the lime,) be omitted; hence, it is evident that the alkali produces the color from the juices contained in the _pawn_. The color thus obtained does not stain linen. Some use the _k’hut_, which is the same as our _Terra Japonica_, and is procured by bleeding various kinds of trees, principally the mimosa, abounding in most of the _jungles_ (or wildernesses): a small quantity, about the size of a pea, broken into several pieces, is mixed with the other ingredients, before the leaves are lapped over, and transfixed with the spike of beetle, or, perhaps, with a clove. The _k’hut_ is not, in my opinion, any thing in favor of the _pawn_, and certainly adds to that noxious quality above mentioned. Some persons attribute the blackness of the teeth, in both males and females, throughout India, to the use of _pawn_; under the opinion, that the discoloration is effected by the lime blended therein. Such is, however, wide of the fact: _pawn_ is found to be highly favorable to the gums, when the lime is omitted; and so sensible are those who chew it of the bad effects produced by the alkali upon the enamel of the teeth, that, in order to preserve them from corrosion, they rub them frequently with the preparation called _missy_; thereby coating them with that black substance which does not readily give way, even to the most powerful dentifrice. I strongly suspect, however, that, in thus shielding the teeth from the alkali, some injury is done to the enamel by the supposed preservative; though by no means to that extent the former would speedily effect, but for the use of _missy_. The natives only chew the _pawn_, rejecting the masticated ingredients when their flavor has been extracted; some reject even the saliva tinctured by the _pawn_, spitting it out into the _peek-daun_. A few, not content with the compound already described, absolutely mix tobacco, previously reduced to a coarse powder, by rubbing the dried leaves with the thumb in the hollow of the other hand! One would think that ‘potent weed’ must supersede all its companions, and cause them to be as little tasted, as though they had not been crowded into the jumble of flavors.