An old bag

I spent part of the day photographing  an old, beautifully woven, bag for a friend. He had collected it it the South Pacific Solomon Islands when he was doctoring there in the late 1960s..
The bag has been intricately woven from fine strands of pandanus leaves and is decorated with seed pods and polished slices of marine cone shells.
The bag would have been worn around the neck, or over the shoulder, and would have contained betel nuts.
Betel nuts are the seeds of the areca palm (Areca catechu), which grows in much of the tropical Pacific (Melanesia and Micronesia), Southeast and South Asia, and parts of east Africa. 
Betel nuts are chewed wrapped in a betel leaf along with calcium hydroxide (slaked lime), spices and tobacco. They act as a as a mild stimulant causing a warming sensation in the body and slightly heightened alertness.
Unfortunately the habit also blackens the teeth and causes cancers of the mouth, tongue and oesophagus.