the greater part of Africa, as well as in Aus tralia, New Guinea and elsewhere, it is a common practice to remove one or more front teeth in the upper or lower or both jaws. Sometimes the ceremonial knocking out of the teeth ac companies initiation and is a test of ability to bear excruciating pain unflinching ; sometimes it is simply a matter of custom; sometimes it serves as a tribal mark, while yet another reason given is the fear of lock-jaw. The removal of the teeth is in this case a precaution which would enable the patient to be fed if the disease were contracted. • Another common practice in Africa, found also in Southern India, is the filing or chipping of teeth to serve either as a tribal mark or as an initiation step, or for both purposes. The Akamba and certain Congo peoples file their incisors to sharp points, and for some unknown reason this was considered by early travellers as a sign of cannibalism—a most erroneous view. The Eskimo file the teeth to make them shorter and less like those of dogs and in south and central Africa the incisors are filed to all sorts of shapes and patterns as described by Dr. G. Turner in the Transvaal Medical Journal for 1911 The Dyaks of Borneo and other people in the East, occasionally drilled holes in the teeth, into which plugs of gold were driven to serve as ornament. This method of adornment was also used in ancient Mexico, precious stones being inlaid in the teeth.
Among the Bateso of East Africa a hole is sometimes bored through the tongue and a brass ring bearing one or two beads is inserted. The cutting out of the tongue was once a legal penalty in Europe, and has only recently been forbidden in some parts of Africa.
The Aleutian Islanders bored a hole through each cheek through which seal's whiskers were stuck. Feathers are put through holes
in the cheek in parts of S. America.
The Padang of the South Shan States deform the necks of their womenfolk by making them wear—from early childhood onwards —high metal collars whose length is gradually increased ; this eventually produces such elongation and dislocation of the neck that if the collars were removed the wearers would not be able to hold up their heads.
Putting out eyes as a punishment for various crimes has existed at different times all over the world—Europe included. Priests and worshippers of certain eastern cults still gash and cut themselves with knives as did the priests of Baal in olden times. In parts of Africa it was once a practice to cut off the breasts of an unfaithful wife.
In former times both in England, and Europe gen erally, amputation of one or more limbs was a common punish ment for crime (see Pike's History of Crime in England, 1893), and this method has only been suppressed in parts of Africa, as in the Congo and Uganda, by the European governments.
For purposes other than punishment and medical necessity, amputation consists chiefly of cutting off the finger joints, especially the little finger. In South Africa this is either done as mourning, or as a magical preventative measure in the case of a child born to a mother whose last baby was still-born. In Southern India grandmothers used (in some castes) to have to cut off one joint for each grandson born to them. In the Tonga Islands the practice is also considered as of magical importance against disease. There is too the bandaging of girl children's feet to prevent their development. This Chinese practice is now prohibited.