Both men and women file and blacken the teeth. When a boy or girl has reached the age of puberty, it is time that this beautifying should be done. There is, however, no prohibition to having it performed earlier if desired. The candidate places his head against the operator and grips a stick of wood between his teeth while each tooth is filed so as to leave only the stump, or is cut or broken to a point (Plate XIIa and b). When this has been successfully accomplished, what is left of the teeth is blackened.
The color is obtained in two ways. The more common method is to place a piece of metal on one end of a bamboo[8] tube, the other extremity of which rests on glowing coals. The smoke from the charring bamboo is conducted through the tube to the cold metal on which it leaves a deposit or "sweat." This deposit is rubbed on the teeth, at intervals, for several days until they become a shiny black. A second method is to use a powder known as tapEl which is secured from the lamod tree. The writer did not see this tree but, from the description given of it, believes it to be the tamarindus. This powder is put on leaves and is chewed. During the period of treatment the patient is under certain restrictions. He may neither drink water, cook or eat anything sour, nor may he attend a funeral. Should he do so his teeth will have a poor color or be "sick." When the teeth have been properly beautified the young man or woman is considered ready to enter society.
[8] A variety known as balakáyo is used for this purpose.
Boys run about quite nude until they are three or four years of age. Until about the same age the girls' sole garment is a little pubic shield, cut from a coconut shell and decorated with incised lines filled with lime (Fig. 7). Not infrequently bells are attached to the sides of this "garment." When children do begin to wear clothing their dress differs in no respects from that of their elders.
SKETCH OF FUNDAMENTAL RELIGIOUS BELIEFS.
Although we shall treat religion more fully in a later paragraph, it is desirable that we now gain an idea of those beliefs which enter intimately into every activity of the daily life of this people.