CHAPTER V
THE MOUTH
The lips—The vault and hard palate—The teeth—Excessive wear of grinding surfaces—Tooth-picks—Fourth molars—Dental rudiments—The canines.
The Australian’s mouth is decidedly large, and his lips full. The latter, especially of the children, are as often as not becomingly arched and furnished with a shapely philtrum.
If we were to look into the mouths of a number of aboriginals we would find considerable individual differences in the configuration of the vault. In some instances the roof would appear high and arched, in others low and flat. If, further, we extended our observations in the direction of any differences which might exist in the individual faculty of articulated speech, relative to the variations in height already noted, our efforts would be fruitless. It is very doubtful whether any such connection between the height of the mouth and freedom of tongue or speech does exist in the aboriginal’s case. But it has been rightly pointed out that the hard palates of fossil skulls are flatter than they are in those of modern races.
Perhaps the finest natural gift of the Australian (and the same was true of the Tasmanian) is his strong set of ivory white teeth. In the primitive tribes, living apart from civilization, dental disease or caries is practically unknown. A common feature, however, is that the teeth are ground down on a level, to varying extents, depending upon the age of the individual examined. In many cases, the biting and grinding surfaces of the teeth have been worn to almost the alveolar or gum-level of the jaws, leaving only the roots with short truncated stumps to do the mastication.
This excessive wear of healthy teeth is mainly attributable to the large quantities of sand contained in the everyday diet. The aboriginal cooks nearly all his meals in hot ashes and sand; it is unavoidable, therefore, to include an appreciable quantity of gritty material in the articles which are consumed. The aboriginal, furthermore, during the course of a meal, might repeatedly call upon the strength of his teeth, as an easy way of crunching bones of animals, and shell of molluscs and crabs, and many other things. Casually one might take notice of the fact that the teeth of the fossil of Gibraltar are worn in the same remarkable way.
An aboriginal does not take any particular care of his teeth, with the exception that after every meal, some considerable time is devoted to the removal of any remnants of meat which may have been retained. For this purpose, the dry seed-stalks of grass and small twigs are generally used. The old Kukata men were observed to possess permanent tooth-picks, consisting of short pieces of wood sharpened at one end. For convenience sake, they carried these, planted in their shaggy beards.
Should there be an aching tooth to cure, the native does it by heating the point of a small stick in a fire and inserting it into the cavity which is causing the trouble.