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Fig. 39.—African Boomerangs.

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.