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A pickled human toe, the centrepiece of a bizarre Yukon drinking ritual, was swallowed last Saturday night in an apparent act of bravado by a departing American worker.

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“It’s bragging rights, is what he wants,” said Terry Lee, the official “toe captain” who witnessed the deliberate toe-swallowing.

“The more we downplay that, the better, because we don’t want to give him any credibility whatsoever.”

Just before midnight, the man entered Dawson City’s Downtown Hotel and ordered a “Sourtoe cocktail,” a 40-year-old rite-of-passage in which a drink of the patron’s choice is served along with a preserved human toe.

Normally, the ritual calls for the drinker to merely touch the toe with their lips while downing the drink.

But, Mr. Lee said the man instead swished the toe into his mouth, washed it down with a beer chaser and then slapped $500 onto the bar — the Downtown Hotel’s going fine for toe-swallowing.

“I said ‘Where’s the toe?’ and he says ‘I swallowed it,’ and then immediately headed over to the bar and started bragging,” said Mr. Lee.