SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 279 



rolls, which are laid spirally, being interlaced by ratan strips which 

 proceed from the center radially. The view shows the back of the shield 

 with the two sticks which form the 

 handle. The shields of Londa-land, 

 in Equatorial Africa, on the West 

 Coast, are made of reeds plaited to- 

 gether. The shape is oblong-square, 

 5 feet by 2. The Apono shields are 

 circular and of basket-work. The 

 shield of the Fans of the Gaboon 1S8 

 is a piece of hide 3 feet long and 2.] 

 feet wide from the skin of the ele- 

 phant's shoulder. This resists all 

 the native weapons: axes, spears, 

 arrows, or even bullets in a glancing 

 direction. 



ml „ j. ,, ,. , -, Fig. 122.— Matshield of Angola. 



The Egyptian collection showed 

 a number of shields from Central Africa, trophies brought north by 

 Long Bey from his expedition beyond Khartoom. Fig. 123 is a leathern 

 conical shield with a handle of the same. It is 2 feet in diameter ; alti- 

 tude of cone, (> inches. It is made of ox hide and has a strong leathern 

 binding. It is ornamented to represent basket-work. Another shield 

 exhibited was of giraffe hide and 1 foot in diameter. The Roman clipeus 

 was a round buckler of several folds of ox hide covered with plates of 



metal and sometimes on a 

 wicker-work foundation. Fig. 

 123 shows the strap, answering 

 to the Roman balteus, by which 

 the shield was suspended from 

 the shoulder. 



The Dinkas of the Upper 

 Xile 1 * 9 use an ox-hide shield like 

 the Kafirs. It is cut in oval 

 form and crossed by a stick se- 

 cured by being passed through 

 holes cut in the thick leather. 



Allied to the shield is an in- 

 strument used among the 

 Dinkas and Niam-niains forpar- 

 rying clubs and lances, rather 

 than actually covering the body. 

 One Dinka instrument looks 



Fig. 123. — Leathern shield of Uganda, Africa. 



so much like a, bow that it lias been mistaken for one; this is called dang. 

 The other is a neatly carved piece of wood about a yard long and with 

 ahollowat the mid-length for the hand-grasp. A similar parrying shield 



1K »Wood, vol. i, p. 5%. 



1811 Sch weinfurth's "Africa," vol. i, p. 155. 



