Of all the various sorts of assegais, perhaps the longest is the crocodile spear, of which the most remarkable feature is the head, which carries four barbs, two close to the blade, and the other two, which are bent upward, just where the neck joins the shaft. There are also two special javelins adapted for killing otters; the blades of these are narrow, but very sharp, and averaging about six inches in length. The water-lizard assegai corresponds with the war assegai in every respect, except that its blade is only half as long. Not unlike this is the weapon used for spearing fish, only it has a point much more rounded; all the upward bent barbs, and those projecting outwards from the sides, exhibit very clever workmanship, and every one of the many kinds seems to answer its purpose well.
In its construction no assegai is more simple than that used in hippopotamus-hunting; the shaft of this is made of soft wood, and from two to three feet long. The elephant assegai is entirely of iron, becoming thicker and broader at its lower end, and covered in the middle with a piece of leather. There is a very rude sort of assegai which is often buried in pits, point uppermost, and succeeds occasionally very well as a stratagem for trapping water-antelopes.
Before concluding my summary of thrusting weapons, I must not omit to mention the Marutse-Mabunda daggers. They are distinguished from those of the Bamangwatos, which are by no means despicable weapons, and from those of the Matabele, which are singularly formidable, by the tastefulness of their workmanship. They are remarkable, too, for their perforated sheaths, which, like the handles, are covered with ebony-like carvings; the blades are of iron, and generally of inferior quality to those of either assegais or hatchets.
The sticks which are employed as missiles are from a yard to a yard and a half long; they are double as thick at one end as they are at the other, the lighter extremity being in the usual way about as thick as one’s finger.
Hatchets are made of different shapes by different tribes; not only are they better than those of the southerly tribes as regards form, lightness, and choice of material, but they possess a decided advantage in being firmly set in their sockets, which the tomahawks of the Bechuanas, Kaffirs, Makalakas, and Matabele seldom or never are. The handles are cut out of strong well-seasoned wood, with ornamental patterns burnt in. The weapon generally is so light, that it seems like a toy in the hands of a man, though it can perform very effectual service in close encounters.
Such knives as are used for particular purposes, like wood-carving, and those that are worn as weapons of defence, are longer in the blade, and altogether more carefully made than the common domestic knives; slightly curved at the end, they are made very strong at the back, and are often found highly ornamented, the handles, into which they are well secured, being usually flat, and occasionally elaborately carved.
The kiris, just as they were elsewhere, were short round sticks, with a knob at one end. Amongst the Marutse they were made either of some hard kind of wood or of rhinoceros horn. Those of wood are the more common. The knobs are about as large as a man’s fist, and are not unfrequently scooped out. Ordinarily, the stick part is about two feet long, and from one inch to two inches thick; it is more often than not highly polished; its extremity is sometimes sharpened, sometimes rounded, and examples are met with from time to time in which the end is finished off by an iron ferule.
No weapon of defence is so important as the shield. The Marutse, however, do not excel in its manufacture, like the tribes farther south; what they use is generally made of black and white cowhide, and is upon the whole very like the shield of the Bechuanas, though larger than that of the Zulus or Masarwas.
As the last in my list of weapons, I may refer to the long sticks that are used for defensive purposes; many of these run from six to eight feet in length, their usual thickness being only about an inch; both ends terminate in a ferule of twisted iron.
At the time of my brief sojourn in the district, the number of guns that had been introduced into the country from the south and west amounted to 500 flint muskets, 1500 ordinary percussion muskets, eighty percussion elephant-guns, 150 rifles, thirty double-barrelled guns of various sorts, ten breech-loaders, and three revolvers. After I left, the great bulk of these were thrown into the Zambesi by the people in revolt, and as they were not replaced, I do not suppose that the entire number of fire-arms in the kingdom would exceed 1100 or 1200 at the most.