Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1917 — Odd Custom of the Bagobos. [ARTICLE]

Odd Custom of the Bagobos.

Among the curious customs of flic Philippine islands one of the most peculiar Is that of “beautifying” ths teeth by filing and blackening them, which prevails among the Bagobos ol Mindanao, says Popular Mechanics. Both boys and girls of this tribe undergo the -filing process before marriage, and this usually occurs while they are still very young. The youth who Is to be thus decorated sits on the ground beside the native dentist, gripping between his teeth a stick of wood to keep his mouth open. The dentist then files each tooth down to a stump or else be cuts or breaks each to a point, as preferred by the beauty-seek-ing patient. All that Is left of the teeth Is blackened by a powder secured from a certain native tree.