836 KNOCKING OUT FRONT TEETH. 



marauding-parties, in returning with cattle, sat down here 

 and were regaled with boyaloa, music, and the lullilooing 

 of the women from the adjacent towns. 



All the surrounding country was formerly densely peo- 

 pled, though now desolate and still. The old head-man 

 of the place told us that his father once went to Bambala, 

 where white traders lived, when our informant was a child, 

 and returned when he had become a boy of about ten years 

 He went again, and returned when it was time to knock 

 out his son's teeth. As that takes place at the age of 

 puberty, he must have spent at least five years in each 

 'ourney. He added that many who went there never re- 

 turned, because they liked that country better than this. 

 They had even forsaken their wives and children; and 

 children had been so enticed and flattered by the finery 

 bestowed upon them there that they had disowned their 

 parents and adopted others. The place to which they had 

 gone, which they named Bambala, was probably Damba- 

 rari, which was situated close to Zumbo. This Was the 

 first intimation we had of intercourse with the whites. 

 The Barotse, and all the other tribes in the central valley, 

 have no such tradition as this; nor have either the one or 

 the other any account of a trader's visit to them in ancient 

 times. 



All theBatoka tribes follow the curious custom of knock- 

 ing out the upper front teeth at the age of puberty. This 

 is done by both sexes ; and though the under teeth, being 

 relieved from the attrition of the upper, grow long and 

 somewhat bent out and thereby cause the under lip to pro- 

 trude in a most unsightly way, no young woman thinks 

 herself accomplished until she has got rid of the upper in- 

 cisors. This custom gives all the Batoka an uncouth, old- 

 man-like appearance. Their laugh is hideous; yet they 

 are so attached to it that even Sebituane was unable to 

 eradicate the practice. He issued orders that none of the 

 children living under him should be subjected to the custom 

 by their parents, -and disobedience to his mandates was 



