532 
KNOCKING OUT FKONT TEETH. 
Chap. XXVI. 
with cattle, sat down here and were regaled with boyaloa, music, 
and the luUilooing 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 this 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 v/as 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 ciiildren; and chikken 
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 wliich they had gone, which they named 
Bambala, was probably Dambarari, wliich was situated close to 
Zumbo. Tills 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 tliis; 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, Tliis 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 liim 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 then 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 difiicult to say; but it is notice¬ 
able that the veneration for oxen which prevails in many tribes 
