It's somehow amazing that the country people still paint their teeth this way. I saw a lot of them in 1967-68 when my ARVN counterpart explained that the blackened teeth were intended to scare off demons and such. Beetlenut was a kind of narcotic or stimulant that stained the teeth as well, but the brilliant black teeth like this were probably deliberately stained according to him. I was in Saigon and the delta so never saw the mountain people. -tv
