836 
KNOCKING OCT TKONT TEETH. 
marauding-parties, in returning with cattle, sat down here 
and woro regaled with boyaloa, music, and tho lullilooing 
of tho women from tho adjacent towns. 
All the surronnding country was formerly donsoly poo* 
pled, though now desolate and still. The old head-man 
of tho placo told us that his father once wont to Bambala, 
where white traders lived, when our informant was a child, 
and returned when he had become a boy of about ton years 
He went again, and returned when it was time to knock 
out his son’s teeth. As that takes place at the ago of 
puberty, ho must havo spent at least five years in each 
5 oumey. He added that many who wont 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 adoptod othors. The place to which they had 
gone, which they named Bambala, was probably Damba- 
rari, which was situated closo 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, 
havo 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 tbeBatoka tribes followthe curious custom of knock- 
ing out tho upper front teeth at the ago of puborty. ^bi* 
is done by both sexes ; and though tho under teeth, being 
relieved from the attrition of the upper, grow long » nd 
somewhat bent out and thoreby cause tho under lip to P* 0 " 
trade in a most unsightly way, no young woman think* 
herself accomplished until she has got rid of tho upper i“* 
cisors. This custom givos all the Batoka an uncouth, old* 
man-like appearance. Their laugh is hideous; y ot t ^ >0 ^ 
are so attached to it that even Sebituane was unable 
eradicate tho practice. Ho issued orders that none of 
children living under him sho; ld be subjected to the custom 
by their parents, and disobedience to his mandates 
