Considered as
presents of the highest value, to be worn through the perforated under
lip. Lest the piece should slip through the hole in the lip, a kind of
rivet is formed by twine bound round the inner extremity, and this
protruding into the space left by the extraction of the four front teeth
of the lower jaw, entices the tongue to act upon the extremity, which
gives it a wriggling motion, indescribably ludicrous during
conversation.
I cannot understand for what reason all the White Nile tribes extract
the four front teeth of the lower jaw. Were the meat of the country
tender, the loss of teeth might be a trifle; but I have usually found
that even a good set of grinders are sometimes puzzled to go through the
operation needful to a Latooka beefsteak. It is difficult to explain
real beauty; a defect in one country is a desideratum in another; scars
upon the face are, in Europe, a blemish; but here and in the Arab
countries no beauty can be perfect until the cheeks or temples have been
gashed.
The Arabs make three gashes upon each cheek, and rub the wounds with
salt and a kind of porridge (asida) to produce proud flesh; thus every
female slave, captured by the slave-hunters, is marked to prove her
identity, and to improve her charms.
