532 KNOCKING OUT FRONT TEETH. Chap. XXVI. 



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 peopled, 

 though now desolate and still. The old head-man of tins 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 Avas 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 returned, 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 tins ; nor have either the one or 

 the other any account 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. Tins 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 children 

 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. Whether 

 this is the true reason or not, it is difficult to say ; but it is notice- 

 able that the veneration for oxen which prevails in many tribes 



