1, 2. Hunga-munga; 3. African Weapon; 4. Kordofan Weapon; 5. The
same developed; 6. Faulchion of Mundo Tribe; 7. The same developed;
8. Jibba Negros; 9. Knob-stick; 10. Ancient Egyptians (Rosellini);
11. Old Egyptian; 12–15. Tomahawks of Nyam-Nyams; 16. Fan (Mpangwe)
Tomahawk; 17. Dor Battle-axe; 18. Dinka and Shilluk Weapon.]
From Egypt the weapon spread into the heart of Africa. The Abyssinian
‘Trombash’ is of hard wood, acute-edged, and about two feet long; the
end turns sharply at an angle of 30°, but the weapon does not whirl
back.[117] The boomerang of the Nyam-Nyams is called _kulbeda_. Direct
derivation is also shown by the curved iron projectile of the Mundo
tribe on the Upper Nile, a weapon of the same form being represented
on the old Egyptian monuments. The ‘hunga-munga’ of the negros south
of Lake Chad, and the adjoining peoples, shows a further development
of spikes or teeth disposed at different angles, enabling the missile
to cut on both sides. The varieties of this form, with a profusion of
quaint ornaments, including lateral blades which answer the purpose
of wings, and which deal a severer wound, are infinite. Denham and
Clapperton give an illustration of a Central African weapon forming
the head and neck of a stork. So the Mpangwe negros[118] of the Gaboon
River, West Africa, shape their missiles in the form of a bird’s head,
the triangular aperture (fig. 40, No. 5) representing the eye.
[Illustration: FIG. 40.—TRANSITION FROM THE MALGA, LEOWEL OR PICK TO
THE BOOMERANG (AUSTRALIA).]
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