Possibly, however, the Gold-Teeth
may have become entirely absorbed in the Chinese and Shan population.
The characteristic of casing the teeth in gold should identify the tribe
did it still exist. But I can learn nothing of the continued existence of
such a custom among any tribe of the Indo-Chinese continent. The insertion
of gold studs or spots, which Buerck confounds with it, is common enough
among Indo-Chinese races, but that is quite a different thing. The actual
practice of the Zardandan is, however, followed by some of the people of
Sumatra, as both Marsden and Raffles testify: "The great men sometimes set
their teeth in gold, by casing with a plate of that metal the under
row ... it is sometimes indented to the shape of the teeth, but more
usually quite plain. They do not remove it either to eat or sleep." The
like custom is mentioned by old travellers at Macassar, and with the
substitution of silver for gold by a modern traveller as existing in
Timor; but in both, probably, it was a practice of Malay tribes, as in
Sumatra. (Marsden's Sumatra, 3rd ed., p. 52; Raffles's Java, I. 105;
Bickmore's Ind. Archipelago.)
[In his second volume of The River of Golden Sand, Captain Gill has two
chapters (viii.
