Lampião ... an associate of the Brazilian faca de ponta

[fernando]

Thank you Detlef.
Indeed this not a topic directed to this mythic figure's weapons but, the 'miscellania' surrounding him is somehow interesting.
In any case, we can see in the attached pictures that, although their rifles (mainly Mausers) played the main role, ‘facas de ponta’ were an obliging accessory, some of them being extremely long, considering their ironical name (faca = knife).
Lampião was surely a man of skills ... in either way. An outlaw able to write and read, even wearing glasses, both cases exceptional in the area where he lived; played the accordion, wrote poetry, used Freench perfume, could sew and was skilled with leather works. He used to make his hats and espadrilles (according to period writer). Decorating clothes, hats and even weapons, with mirrors, gold coins, and medals was his invention, as well as wearing rings, gloves and 'leggings'. Weapon belts, water canteens and other accessories were all hung by those outlaws across their chest/neck, hence the name 'cangaço', a term derived from 'canga' (oxen yoke). Therefore those in the cangaço life were called 'cangaceiros'.
According to a statement made Zabelê, accordion player and the gang's official improviser, was Lampião himself who wrote the music and lyrics of Mulher Rendeira, said to be the music the gang sang when entering the villages for the looting. It is further said that he wrote the music in dedication to his grandmother, a skilled lace maker (rendeira).
So ... not bad for a feroceus bandit; a very vain one, always willing to be photographed and enterviewed. It is said that it was rather easy for everyone to locate him, except for the police.
We can see him in the pictures first in a portrait with such an inoffensive face, then sitting at his sweing machine, as together with Maria Bonita his beloved companion, and with his gang, all in ‘fashionable’ attire designed by him. And last a published reward for his capture.


.