SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



255 



sites, are many of them like some of the figures, in the upper especially. 

 See Desor, 121 where they are shown, some with grooved blades and as 

 much as 59 centimeters in length; also bronze poniards and knives with 

 tongs and sockets. 122 



The lower row shows h i j />•, knives of the Fans of Western Africa. 

 These are sometimes as much as three feet in length and seven inches 

 in width; they are kept very sharp in a sheath of wood, which is in two 

 halves, and is bound together with strips of raw-hide covered with snake 

 or human skin. I is an Unyoro knife of iron, the handle bound with 

 copper wire. 1 - 3 m n are two two-edged daggers of the Mam-niams. 12 * 

 The dagger is worn in a sheath of skin attached to the girdle. The lances 

 knives, and daggers have blood-grooves, differing in this respect from 

 the Bonjo or Dyoor weapons. Both of the last-mentioned tribes have 

 two-handled knives. The Bonjo knife 12 '' is used by the women in peeling 

 tubers and slicing gourds and cucumbers ; it has an oval shape, and is 

 sharp on both sides, like the Unyoro knife I, Fig. 75. The Dyoor 

 knife 1 -''' is spindle-shaped, and is used for similar purposes. 



Dr. Schlieinann found, in his excavations at Troy, a dagger of steel 

 four inches long. The blade, which is double-edged and in 

 the form of an arrow, is 1.6 inches long, and in a perfect 

 state of preservation, which Dr. Schlieinann attributes to 

 the antiseptic power of the red wood ashes, 

 mixed with charcoal, in which he found it em- 

 bedded, in the large mansion close to the gate, 

 28 feet below the surface. 



The Balonda dagger from the Zambesi is 

 shown in Fig. 7(3, and has a remarkable resem- 

 blance to a and i, Fig. 75, which are respectively 

 Roman and Gaboon. This dagger is 21 inches 

 long, and the handle is partly wrapped with 

 raw-hide. The handle is by no means a con- 

 venient one, but no doubt the owner felt well 

 satisfied with its ornamental appearance as it 

 protruded from tin; scabbard. 



Fig. 77 is an Angola dagger, with an iron 

 blade and wooden handle. It looks much more 

 like business than its fellow. 



Fig. 78 shows an Angola dagger, Avith a 

 o/ '' BaUmda^Af- strangely-shaped scabbard of sheet copper. 

 It has a copper-covered wooden handle and a 

 steel blade. The broad base of the sheath is probably indicative of its 



131 Translation in Smithsonian Keport, 1865, p. 374. 



"- Ibid., pp. 374,371-72. 



1 -"■ Baker's " Ismailia," plate opposite p. 135. 



'-'Sehwciiifiirth's "Africa," vol. ii, pp. 10, 27. 



™Tbid ,xo].\, p. 281. 



126 Wood, vol. i, p. 503. 



Fig. 77. — Angola 

 Dagger. 



