Their Country,
Once Populous, Is Now Almost Desolate.
At one of their ruined villages
Livingstone saw five-and-forty human skulls bleaching upon stakes
stuck in the ground.
In the old times the chiefs used to vie with each other
as to whose village should be ornamented with the greatest number
of these ghastly trophies; and a skull was the most acceptable present
from any one who wished to curry favor with a chief. The Batoka have
an odd custom of knocking out the front teeth from the upper jaw.
The lower ones, relieved from the attrition and pressure of the upper,
grow long and protruding, forcing the lower lip out in a hideous manner.
They say that they wish their mouths to be like those of oxen,
and not like those of zebras. No young Batoka female can lay any claim
to being a belle until she has thus acquired an "ox-mouth".
"Look at the great teeth!" is the disparaging criticism made upon those
who neglect to remove their incisors. The women wear a little clothing,
but the men disdain even the paradisiacal fig-leaf, and go about
in a state of absolute nudity. Livingstone told them that he should
come back some day with his family, when none of them must come near
without at least putting on a bunch of grass. They thought it a capital joke.
Their mode of salutation is to fling themselves flat on their backs,
and roll from side to side, slapping the outside of their naked thighs.
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