216 SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



Zululand, the Gold ("oast, Borneo, and the Philippines; also, ancient 

 bronzes from Egypt. 



Copper, which may beheld to have preceded bronze, was shown in the 

 Indian relics from Wisconsin, and a modern fish-spear of an Alaskan 

 tribe. Copper implements have been found in the lacustrine deposits 

 al Peschiera on Lake Garda. 1 



TYPES OF WEAPONS DESCRIBED. 



1. Clubs and throwing weapons. 



l'. Axes. 



3. Knives and swords. 



4. Spears. 



5. Shields. 



6. Bows and arrows. 



1. — Clubs, and Throwing Weapons. 

 Leaving- preambulation, let us begin at the Cape of Good Hope. The 

 Keerie of the Kafir is his next best weapon after his favor- 

 ite assegai, the native javelin ; he does not use the bow and 

 arrow. The keerie, called a lenob Jceerie by the colonists at 

 the Gape, is a hurling club, or is used in hand to hand en- 

 counters, but principally the former. It varies in length 

 from 14 inches to ."> feet, but has been seen as much as six 

 feet long. 5 It is straight and lias a knob at the end. It is 

 usually of acacia, (Acacia capensis), but sometimes of strick 

 wood (Laurus bullata): A more costly and highly prized 

 material is rhinoceros horn, of which the Tceerie in the Cape 

 of Good Hope exhibit (shown in the illustration) was made. 

 The Tceerie is habitually carried, and is presented to a friend 

 on meeting him; he touches it, and this is the etiquette oi 

 salutation. By a modification of the weapon, giving it a 

 slight bend, it is used in ricochet, rebounding from the 

 ground and striking upward. 



The knob Jceerie of hard black wood is carried by the 

 Bushman also. 6 The pen bas of the Bretons has been com- 

 pared to it. 7 



( Joining northward from Zululand we reach the Portuguese Possessions 

 on the east coast of Africa, and find Mozambique weapons ; these were 

 shown, together with those from Angola, in the Agricultural Build- 

 ing at the Centennial. Fig. 2 represents two of them; one has a 

 spear-shaped bead, and the knob of tin 1 other resembles an ear of corn, 

 or the raceme of a native plant common in the country. It suggests the 

 idea of maize, but is made by longitudinally grooving, and then notch- 

 ing the protuberant ridges; a not unlikely style of ornamentation for a 

 man to hit upon when amusing himself by carving his weapon. The 



4 Morlot, transl. in Smithsonian Report, 1863, p. :>T3. 



5 Wood's "Natural Historj of Man," vol. L, p. 108. 



"Baine's "South Africa," i». 363. 



"s, .,. frontispiece to Trollope'a " Walks in Brittany," 2 vols., Loudon, 1340. 



Fig. L. — Kafir 

 Keerie. Cape 



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