At the conclusion of the operation a species of poultice (ubat tasak), consisting mainly of cooked ginger (halia bara di-pahis-ki), which is intended to "deaden (the feeling of) the gums" (matikan daging gusi) is duly charmed [579] and applied to the gums of the jaw which happens to be under treatment. The Pawang now lays one hand (the left) on the top of the patient's head and the other upon the teeth of the upper jaw, and presses them together with a show of considerable force, making believe, as it were, that he is pressing the patient's upper teeth firmly into their sockets. Finally, a portion of betel-leaf is charmed (with the charm Hong sarangin, etc.) and given to the patient to chew, after which, it is asserted, all pain immediately ceases. The Pawang then washes his hands, resharpens his tools, and those present sit down to a meal of saffron-stained pulut rice. This concludes the ceremony for the day, the lower jaw being similarly treated upon a subsequent occasion. 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. [580] 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, [581] which is also used for blackening the eyebrows. These customs, however, are already dying out in the more civilised Malay States. Whenever I made inquiries as to the reason of this strange custom, I was invariably told that it not only beautified but preserved the teeth from the action of decay, which the Malays believe to be set up by the presence of a minute maggot or worm (ulat), their most usual way of expressing the fact that they are suffering from toothache being to say that the tooth in question is being "eaten by a maggot" (di-makan ulat). The "Batak" Malays (a Mid-Sumatran tribe, many of whom have settled in Kuala Langat) are said to chip the teeth of their children into the desired shape by the use of a small chisel, the operation causing such exquisite agony that the sufferer will not unfrequently leap to his feet with a shriek. Even when the file is used, the work of an unskilful performer (who does not know how to destroy the "venom" of his instruments) will cause the sufferer's face to be completely swollen up (bakup) for a long period subsequent to the operation. Yet young people of both sexes cheerfully submit to the risk of this discomfort, and the only remark made by the youth whom I saw undergoing it was that it "made his mouth feel uncomfortable" (jelejeh rasa mulut-nya).