"expresses his willingness to give it as a sacrifice, and he lays it on the dried buffalo skull, when another chops it off near the hand with a blow of the hatchet." According to Mariner the natives of Tonga cut off a portion of the little finger as a sacrifice to the gods for the recovery of a superior sick relative.

The Australians have a custom of cutting off the last joint of the little finger of females as a token of submission to powerful beings alive and dead.

A Hottentot widow who marries a second time must have the distal joint of her little finger cut off; another joint is removed each time she remarries.
Among the mutilations submitted to on the death of a king or chief in the Sandwich Islands, Cook mentions in his "Voyages" the custom of knocking out from one to four front teeth.
Among the Australian tribes the age of virility and the transition into manhood is celebrated by ceremonial customs, in which the novices are subjected to minor mutilations.

A sharp bone is used for lancing their gums, while the throw-stick is used for knocking out a tooth.
Sometimes, in addition to this crude dentistry, the youth is required to submit to cruel gashes cut upon his back and shoulders, and should he flinch or utter any cry of pain he is always thereafter classed with women.

Haygarth writes of a semi-domesticated Australian who said one day, with a look of importance, that he must go away for a few days, as he had grown to man's estate, and it was high time he had his teeth knocked out.