2. Sometimes the teeth are merely pointed.
3. Sometimes they are filed down to the gums.
Dyeing may follow filing, or not, as the case may be.
In Sumatra, where a jetty blackness is aimed at, the empyreumatic oil of the cocoa-nut is used. Even, however, if no dyeing follow, the teeth will become black from the simple filing, if the chewing of the betel-nut be habitual.
d. Distension of the ears.—Many of the tribes that file their teeth, also distend their ears. Both are Malay habits. In some parts of Sumatra, when the child is young, the ear is bored, and rings are put in. In other parts, however, the rings are weighted, so as to pull down the lobe; or ornaments, gradually increased in diameter, are inserted; so that the perforation becomes enlarged.
Simple perforation may extend to a mere multiplication of the holes of the ear. In Borneo, the Sakarran tribes wear more earrings than one, and are distinguished accordingly; “when you meet a man with many rings distrust him” being one of their cautions. Mr. Brooke met a Sakarran with twelve rings in his ear.
e. Growth of the nails.—In parts of Borneo, the right thumbnail is encouraged to grow to a great length. So it is in parts of the Philippines.
Running-a-muck.—A Malay is capable of so far working himself into fury, of so far yielding to some spontaneous impulse, or of so far exciting himself by stimulants, as to become totally regardless of what danger he exposes himself to. Hence, he rushes forth as an infuriated animal, and attacks all who fall in his way, until having expended his morbid fury he falls down exhausted. This is called running-a-muck.
Gambling.—This habit, or rather passion, is shared by the Malays, the Indians, the Chinese, and the Indo-Chinese; quail-fighting and cock-fighting being the forms in which it shows itself. A Malay will lose all his property on a favourite bird; and, having lost that, stake his family; and after the loss of wife and children, his own personal liberty: being prepared to serve as a slave in case of losing.
Narcotic stimulants and masticatories.—Chewing the betel-nut is almost universal in some of the Malay countries; the use of opiates and tobacco being also common.