KNOCKING OUT FRONT TEETH. 57 1 



sat down here and were regaled with boyaloa, music, and the lul- 

 lilooing of the women from the adjacent towns. 



All the surrounding country was formerly densely peopled, 

 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 journey. 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 Dambarari, 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 ac- 

 count of a trader's visit to them in ancient times. 



All the Batoka tribes follow the curious custom of knocking 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 protrude in a most unsightly way, 

 no young woman thinks herself accomplished until she has got 

 rid of the upper incisors. 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 chil- 

 dren living under him should be subjected to the custom by their 

 parents, and disobedience to his mandates was usually punished 

 with severity ; but, notwithstanding this, the children would appear 

 in the streets without their incisors, and no one would confess to 

 the deed. When questioned respecting the origin of this practice, 

 the Batoka reply that their object is to be like oxen, and those 

 who retain their teeth they consider to resemble zebras. Wheth- 

 er this is the true reason or not, it is difficult to say ; but it is no- 

 ticeable that the veneration for oxen which prevails in many tribes 



