Universal ‘tooth fairy’

I found out this week that the ‘tooth fairy’ also exists in Acholi culture here in northern Uganda. Well, not quite a fairy, more of a ‘tooth rat’. When a child loses a tooth they are instructed to put it under the pot for drinking water for the rat. In the morning they will find that the rat has taken the tooth and put a coin under the pot for them. The jury is still out on what exactly the rat does with all the teeth, but this is the cultural story. Interesting…