148 EXTRACTION OF THE FRONT TEETH. [chap. v. 
“ thing ” in the Latooka country. No woman among 
the tribe who has any pretensions to be a “ swell ” 
would be without this highly prized ornament, and one 
Oi my thermometers having come to an end I broke 
the tube into three pieces, and they were considered as 
presents of the highest value) to be worn through the 
perforated under lip. Lest the piece should slip through 
the hole in the lip, a kind of rivet is formed by twine 
bound round the inner extremity, and this protruding 
into the space left by the extraction of the four front 
teeth of the lower jaw, entices the tongue to act upon 
the extremity, which gives it a wriggling motion, in¬ 
describably ludicrous during conversation. 
I cannot understand for what reason all the White 
Nile tribes extract the four front teeth of the lower 
jaw. Were the meat of the country tender, the loss 
of teeth might be a trifle; but I have usually found 
that even a good set of grinders are sometimes puzzled 
to go through the operation needful to a Latooka beef¬ 
steak. It is difficult to explain real beauty; a defect in 
one country is a desideratum in another; scars upon the 
face are, in Europe, a blemish; but here and in the Arab 
countries no beauty can be perfect until the cheeks 
or temples have been gashed. The Arabs make three 
gashes upon each cheek, and rub the wounds with 
salt and a kind of porridge (asida) to produce proud 
flesh; thus every female slave, captured by the slave- 
hunters, is marked to prove her identity, and to 
improve her charms. Each tribe has its peculiar 
fashion as to the position and form of the cicatrice. 
The Latookas gash the temples and cheeks of their 
women, but do not raise the scar above the surface, 
as is the custom of the Arabs. 
Polygamy .is, of course, the general custom; the 
number of a man’s wives depending entirely upon his 
wealth, precisely as would the number of his horses in 
England. There is no such thing as love in these 
countries, the feeling is not understood, nor does it 
exist in the shape in which we understand it. Every- 
