Note 45 — Chapter VI · Magic Rites as affecting the Life of Man

In the course of three such operations (the Pawang informed me) the teeth can be filed down even with the gums, in which case they are, I believe, in some instances somewhat roughly plated or cased with gold. Sometimes, however, they are merely filed into points, so that they resemble the teeth of a shark.45 Very frequently, too, they blacken them with a mixture of the empyreumatic oil of the cocoa-nut shell (baja or g’rang) and kamunting (Kl. karamunting) wood,46 which is also used for blackening the eyebrows. These customs, however, are already dying out in the more civilised Malay States.