Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1885 — The Weapon with Which Col. Burnaby Was Slain. [ARTICLE]

The Weapon with Which Col. Burnaby Was Slain.

The Hadendowa spear is from six to seven feet long. The handle is of a piece of hard mimosa, or acacia, thinner than a broom-handle. There is a socket attached to the blade, into which the wood is driven and fastened. At the reverse end there is commonly a piece of twisted iron or telegraph wire, which serves the double purpose of weighting the handle, so as to counterbalance the blade, and to prevent the weapon being pulled from the grasp. The spear head, or blade, is rarely more than two inches broad by eight inches long. Going into battle grease their spears from blade to hilt, so that it is impossible to wrest the weapon from their hands in a struggle. The spears used by the tribes up the Nile are much more formidable weapons. The handle is from sever feet to nine feet long, made of male bamboo wood. It is furnished with a terrible, broad-blade dflon <x spear-head, like that of the 'Hadendowas, kept bright as a mirror and sharp as a rasior. „The blades are sometimes fourteen inches long'and five inches wide. In troth, an iron spear up the Nile looks more like an elongated trowel-blade than anything else. Shovel-heads, our soldiers used to call them. Thev make a fearful wound, and it was with one of thefee Col. Burnaby was struck in the throat and killed. Be ng exceedingly light weapons, although badly balanced, the Arabs can handle them with great dexterity. —London Telegraph.