The Old Head Man Of The 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 was 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 children;
and children 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 which they had gone, which they named Bambala,
was probably Dambarari, which was situated close to Zumbo.
This 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 this, 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. This 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.
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