DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0259
188
0. Bates and E. A. Hooton
these stamped devices the most curious is that seen between the second perforation and
the convex edge of the blade — a design portraying a strange quadruped bearing in its
mouth a large fish (fig. la). Both edges of the blade are perfectly blunt, and as the
specimen is an old one, there can be no doubt that we have here a ceremonial sword or
knife, used probably for ju-ju or fetish purposes or as a kingly symbol,3 but serving no
practical turn. We are therefore taking our departure not, as could be wished, from a
real weapon, but from one which has already been somewhat metamorphosed by the
conventionalizing agencies we are here considering. The equal bluntness of the edges
leaves some doubt as to which represents the cutting one: the balance and pattern of the
instrument, however, incline us to the opinion that in the practical original the convex
edge was the sharp one, and that this edge was rendered the more formidable by being
provided with sharp teeth (cf. figs. 3, 5, 8, 8a).
Ceremonial weapons such as this, together with others of different patterns, were
sometimes suspended in a group from a peg or nail fixed in the wall of a hut4 or fetish
shrine — such a group is seen in fig. 2. Occasionally, it would seem probable, single blades
were so suspended with the skull of a ram or other horned animal — this, at least, is the
natural inference when one tries to divine the origin of such Ashanti brass gold-weights
as those seen in figs. 3 and 4. The probability is heightened rather than impaired by the
occurrence of such specimens as that seen in fig. 6, where near the juncture of the blade and
the hilt one sees not the skull of an animal but a human mandible. The superstitions
attached to the human jaw-bone on the West Coast as in other parts of Africa5 make its
association with the ceremonial sword a matter not to be wondered at — the two together
forming a ju-ju trophy of peculiar power. In the same way, in the case of fig. 7, we see
mounted on the blade what appears to be a pair of oil-palm fronds.6 In the four cases
just adduced (figs. 3, 4, 6, and 7) the design of the blade and the hilt clearly testify to the
relationship between the Ashanti weights and the Gold Coast sword, though we can readily
see some steps in conventionalization beyond that already noticed in the case of the
sword in fig. 1. Thus, we not only note the direct attachment of skull or mandible to the
blade, but whereas, in fig. 3, the ornament by perforation is represented by the two tri-
angular openings (cf. the holes in the blades of figs. 5, 7, 8, 8a, 10, and 11), in fig. 4 they are
replaced by a stamped design like a wide-spread inverted V with dots punched between its
arms.
3 Cf. H. Vortisch, ‘Die Neger der Goldkuste’ (Globus, vol. 90, no. 15, Oct., 1906, p. 232-237), p. 237.
4 Ibid., p. 233 (swords of the Asare fetish in Duakua, Gold Coast).
6 Ibid., p. 237 (drums on the Gold Coast hung with human skulls and mandibles).
6R. Zeller, ‘Die Goldgewichte von Asante’ (Baessler-Archiv, Beiheft 3, Leipzig and Berlin, 1912), pl. 7,
fig. 202.
0. Bates and E. A. Hooton
these stamped devices the most curious is that seen between the second perforation and
the convex edge of the blade — a design portraying a strange quadruped bearing in its
mouth a large fish (fig. la). Both edges of the blade are perfectly blunt, and as the
specimen is an old one, there can be no doubt that we have here a ceremonial sword or
knife, used probably for ju-ju or fetish purposes or as a kingly symbol,3 but serving no
practical turn. We are therefore taking our departure not, as could be wished, from a
real weapon, but from one which has already been somewhat metamorphosed by the
conventionalizing agencies we are here considering. The equal bluntness of the edges
leaves some doubt as to which represents the cutting one: the balance and pattern of the
instrument, however, incline us to the opinion that in the practical original the convex
edge was the sharp one, and that this edge was rendered the more formidable by being
provided with sharp teeth (cf. figs. 3, 5, 8, 8a).
Ceremonial weapons such as this, together with others of different patterns, were
sometimes suspended in a group from a peg or nail fixed in the wall of a hut4 or fetish
shrine — such a group is seen in fig. 2. Occasionally, it would seem probable, single blades
were so suspended with the skull of a ram or other horned animal — this, at least, is the
natural inference when one tries to divine the origin of such Ashanti brass gold-weights
as those seen in figs. 3 and 4. The probability is heightened rather than impaired by the
occurrence of such specimens as that seen in fig. 6, where near the juncture of the blade and
the hilt one sees not the skull of an animal but a human mandible. The superstitions
attached to the human jaw-bone on the West Coast as in other parts of Africa5 make its
association with the ceremonial sword a matter not to be wondered at — the two together
forming a ju-ju trophy of peculiar power. In the same way, in the case of fig. 7, we see
mounted on the blade what appears to be a pair of oil-palm fronds.6 In the four cases
just adduced (figs. 3, 4, 6, and 7) the design of the blade and the hilt clearly testify to the
relationship between the Ashanti weights and the Gold Coast sword, though we can readily
see some steps in conventionalization beyond that already noticed in the case of the
sword in fig. 1. Thus, we not only note the direct attachment of skull or mandible to the
blade, but whereas, in fig. 3, the ornament by perforation is represented by the two tri-
angular openings (cf. the holes in the blades of figs. 5, 7, 8, 8a, 10, and 11), in fig. 4 they are
replaced by a stamped design like a wide-spread inverted V with dots punched between its
arms.
3 Cf. H. Vortisch, ‘Die Neger der Goldkuste’ (Globus, vol. 90, no. 15, Oct., 1906, p. 232-237), p. 237.
4 Ibid., p. 233 (swords of the Asare fetish in Duakua, Gold Coast).
6 Ibid., p. 237 (drums on the Gold Coast hung with human skulls and mandibles).
6R. Zeller, ‘Die Goldgewichte von Asante’ (Baessler-Archiv, Beiheft 3, Leipzig and Berlin, 1912), pl. 7,
fig. 202.