The custom, Marsden states, is universal among the Sumatrans, who carry the ingredients constantly about them, and serve them to their guests on all occasions; the prince in a gold stand, and the poor man in a brass box or mat bag. The betel-stands of the better ranks of people are usually of silver, embossed with rude figures. The Sultan of Moco-Moco was presented with one by the India Company with their arms upon it, and he possesses another besides, of gold filagree. The form of the stand is the frustum of an hexagonal pyramid, reversed, about six or eight inches in diameter. It contains many smaller vessels, fitted to the angles, for holding the nut, leaf, and chunam, with places for the instruments employed in cutting the first, and spatulas for spreading the last. Captain Wilkes also describes that of the Sultan of Sooloo. “On the left hand of the Sultan sat his two sons, on the right his councillors, while immediately behind him sate the carrier of his betelnut casket. The casket was made of filagree silver, about the size of a small tea-caddy, of oblong shape, and rounded at the top. It had three divisions, one for the nut, another for the leaf, and a third for the lime. Next to this official was the pipe-bearer, who did not appear to be held in equal estimation.” A circumstance is also narrated in connection with the son of this same Sultan, which exhibits the use of betel in another phase. This son, shortly after taking a few whiffs from the opium-pipe was overcome, and became stupid and listless. When partially recovered, he called for his betel nut to revive him by its exciting effects, and counteract the influence of the opium. The pinang or buyo was carefully chewed by his attendant to a proper consistency, moulded into a ball, and then slipped into his mouth. Hence we may learn two things. First, that chewing the betel counteracts the ill effects of an over-dose of opium. Secondly, that it is extremely convenient to have an attendant with a good set of teeth, since he could not only masticate betel nut for you, and relieve you from a large amount of labour; but in the event of your joint not being so tender as it should be, the amount of milling to be expended at dinner could be divided between you, the attendant masticating the tough dishes, and yourself the tender, and thus, by division of labour, a good dinner could be procured with little expenditure of your own muscular strength. In Sumatra, when the first salutation is over, which consists in bending the body, and the inferior putting his joined hands between those of the superior, and then lifting them to his forehead, the betel is presented as a token of hospitality and an act of politeness. To omit it on the one hand, or to reject it on the other would be an affront, as it would be, likewise, in a man of subordinate rank to address a great man without the precaution of chewing it before he spoke.