Therefore the supposition that they extract the four lower incisors not to be similar to beasts, has at least some apparent foundation, although the under jaw does not project, and, consequently, the lips are not made smaller by this extraction. Man here is always indeed elevated far above the beast, and needs, therefore, no such mutilation of the teeth. Our Dinkas, who themselves want the four lower incisors, have no other reason to allege for it, than that they do it to avoid the similarity to a beast, especially to the ass (Homàr), as is the general answer in Sennaar, to questions on this subject. The Turks take it for a kind of circumcision, just as we might suppose it meant a baptismal rite, being the sign of an act of incorporation by that means in a vast Ethiopian nation, divided now into several tribes. As this extraction of the teeth first takes place in boyhood, it might be considered to denote the commencement of manhood, and capability of bearing arms; but I have never heard of the ceremonies which would necessarily, if that were the fact, take place on the occasion. There is also another objection to this supposition, viz.,—that a similar operation is performed on the girls. With respect to the eyes, they are full and well formed, like those of all the negroes of the White River, but with a dirty yellow white, which, in the inhabitants of the marshes, is generally suffused with blood in a shocking manner. At last then it was determined to fire off a cannon, to see what impression this thunder would make upon them. They sat upright upon their stools—off went the gun, and the princes nearly kissed the planks on the opposite side, as if they had been felled by a blow. They sat up, however, immediately again, laughing loudly all the time, and wanted us to fire again: their request was complied with, but they crouched down low again to the side, were uncommonly pleased, and requested one more repetition of this report. Not a negro, however, was to be seen on all the shore; and it was feared, with justice, that the Sultan, who could not be far off, might be struck by a panic and return: the firing was therefore discontinued.