Ethnography of Micronesia. 97 



having little to do with betel-nut chewing, and is also perhaps an 

 indication of a girl attaining her puberty. 



Captain Wilson, who is above quoted, writes that the natives 

 of Palau, both male and female, dye their teeth black when they 

 grow up. On his return voyage, he brought with him the second 

 son of Aybathul, " king " of Palau, who blackened his teeth on 

 board the sliip. Of this we read the following description. " At 

 Saint Helena, Lee Boo (son of Aybathul) appeared much delighted 

 at finding some groundsel, and chewing it, rubbed his teeth with 

 it. Captain Wilson telling him it was not good to eat, he gave 

 him to understand that they had it at Pelew, and used it, with 

 four other herbs, bruised together, and mixed with a httle chinam 

 (lime) into a paste, which was applied to the teeth every morning, 

 in order to dye them black ; .... At night, he said the paste was 

 taken away, and they were permitted to eat a little. The same 

 process was repeated the day following, and five days were 

 necessary to complete the operation." ^ 



According to C. G. Seligmann, the natives of Tubetube, an 

 island south-east of British New Guinea, practise teeth-blackening 

 as a personal adornment and also as a means to attract the atten- 

 tion of the other sex. The process is described as follows : " The 

 tari (a black bituminous semi-fossilised wood) is prepared for use 

 as follows : a number of the leaves of the hadlra tree are chopped 

 fine and roasted, after which they are mixed with a few fragments 

 of tarl and a little water and the whole reduced to a paste. To 

 blacken the teeth some of the mass is spread on a piece of dried 

 leaf, which has been cut to fit the outer surface of the front teeth. 

 The paste is placed in position betw^een the lips and teeth at 

 night and is not removed till next morning, when its wearer 



1 G. Keate, " The Pelew Islands," pp. 319, 320. 



