BEAUTY BY ORDEAL

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 71, 21 September 1933, Page 18

BEAUTY BY ORDEAL

BLACK MAN'S FORTITUDE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, September 14.

Those who tremble at the prospect of visiting a dentist's surgery where their tribulations are eased by anaesthetics and other aids would' bo surprised at. the fortitude of an aboriginal whom an Adelaide University anthropological expedition saw undergo a dental operation at the expedition's base camp at Ernabella, Central Australia. Among the Pitjantaras arfd Yaßunjajaras, the tribes most largely represented near the camp site, it is the practice for one of the front teeth in the upper1 jaw to be removed. Its absence, judged by aboriginal standards, is a riiark of masculine beauty. The operation takes place during early youth, the boy whom the party saw undergo it being about 14 years of age. The surgery was a secluded spot at the back of the camp, and the ce*emony took place in the presence of the initiated men of the tribe. The patient, who had been unaware of what was to take place, ras touched on a shoulder as he sat by a camp fire and conducted to the surgery. There he lay on his back, with his head resting dn turn against the thighs of two men, his tribal grandfathers, who conducted the operation. There was no anaesthetic and none of the pleasant preliminaries with which tactful dentists are wont to distract the patient's thoughts from the forthcoming proceedings. The first operation partially bared the gum rouhdr the tooth with a sharp bone from a bird's wing, which, before the ceremony, was worn in a native's hair dress. Pricking and levering, the "dentist" forced the gum up towards the jaw with his fingers. That process was continued with a sharpened stick, which an assistant had prepared, the *patie,nt being told at intervals in native dialect to '"rinse, please." He did so, in cold water. Another stick was broken off and bitten to a rougix point, and the second operator took up the task after the first had continued for about ten minutes. Finally it was judged that the time was ripe for the actual evulsion. Taking a stick about six inches long and half an inch in diameter, the second grandfather placed the point against the tooth to be removed, and »began striking the.other end with a stone as big as a fist. Half a dozen blows were required to loosen the tooth, one stick being broken in the process. Then the operator removed the tooth by taking it between his fingers to the accompaniment of approving murmurs from the coloured audience.

Throughout the operation thje .patient did not flinch or betray other, evidence of pain, and his respiration throughout was as even as if he had been sleeping. The same Spartan-like fortitude was observed in othor tribal rites, which involve the infliction of even greater pain. In some tribes it is a practico for small boys, in order to prove their scorn of pain, to place live coals ori their' forearms, blow them into an ardent glow, and allow them to burn into the flesh, leaving scars which are retained throughout life as a badge of courage. Failure to endure the ordeal with becoming fortitude would involve ostracism.