A STUDY OF THE SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL 

 EXHIBITION, PHILADELPHIA, 1870 



By Edward H. Knight, A. M., LL. D. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The objects illustrated in the following paper are merely those of* one 

 class, shown at the Centennial Exhibition, in Philadelphia, 1S7C. 



The paper, therefore, makes no pretense to completeness, as the weap- 

 ons shown in the various national sections were in most cases treated 

 as mere casual objects thrown in as curiosities, and in many cases so 

 little esteemed by the parties in charge that they were huddled away 

 under tables 5 surprise was sometimes expressed that any one should 

 pore over the coarse and clumsy when the best talent of the country 

 had exerted itself on the objects prominently displayed as worthy of 

 notice. 



More than 700 sketches of the crude and curious implements shown 

 at the exhibition were made by the author; the following were a por- 

 tion, including weapons only, while a much larger, embracing tools of 

 industry, were the subject of a series of papers in the Atlantic Monthly, 

 May, 1877, to April, 1878, inclusive. 



There was no concurrence of design in the exhibition, so far as con- 

 cerns our present subject. In almost all cases the objects were mere 

 casual additions; in a few the scientific spirit was evident, and some 

 care had been taken to illustrate this side of ethnology. 



To illustrate : The curious collection of musical instruments and weap- 

 ons brought by Oapt. Long (Bey) from Central Africa was almost hidden 

 in a (;oiner, while the tufted carpets, embroidered robes, and horse-trap- 

 pings were prominently shown. In the collection from Java and the 

 other Dutch Colonies in the Malay seas, much more was shown of the 

 appliances of the semi-savage races of the region. Brazil, which had so 

 admirable a collection of its agricultural and forest products, had scarcely 

 anything which touches our subject, and Japan had a great deal, though 

 much less in the way of its weapons than in its industries and domestic 

 implements. 



The Centennial Exhibition was mainly of the means and results of 

 modern industry and art, and the primitive objects were comparatively 

 but strays and occasional^. It is, therefore, not the author's fault that 

 the exhibit of the relatively rude is so incomplete, as he has rigidly con- 



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