Interesting Totokia

[DaveA]

Thanks for sharing this. I am extremely fond of ethnographic weapons with a story, even if all the facts might never be known. This one in particular gives a vivid sense of history.

I am imagining the warrior who wielded the club, standing off against powerful invaders (in fairness, he could have been the attacker). Did he have such keen eyes and was he fast enough to block multiple relatively slow shots, perhaps from a distance? Or were these two of many shots that ultimately brought him down?

With the club so severely weakened by the impacts, the fact that it is intact suggests that the owner didn't get a chance to use it afterward. It would likely have shattered. Or if he survived, these events might have made it seem very lucky and he put it away. Either way, it is probably a trophy!

Welcome to the forum and best regards,

Dave A.

[David]

This is an interesting story indeed, though frankly i do find it a big hard to believe that not just one, but two musket balls could hit such a slender piece of wood without shattering it. It would be interesting to so a test with a working musket and a similar piece of wood to see what the damage would loud like. Of course, anything is possible i suppose.

[Kinikini]

Originally Posted by DaveA

Thanks for sharing this. I am extremely fond of ethnographic weapons with a story, even if all the facts might never be known. This one in particular gives a vivid sense of history.

I am imagining the warrior who wielded the club, standing off against powerful invaders (in fairness, he could have been the attacker). Did he have such keen eyes and was he fast enough to block multiple relatively slow shots, perhaps from a distance? Or were these two of many shots that ultimately brought him down?

With the club so severely weakened by the impacts, the fact that it is intact suggests that the owner didn't get a chance to use it afterward. It would likely have shattered. Or if he survived, these events might have made it seem very lucky and he put it away. Either way, it is probably a trophy!

Welcome to the forum and best regards,

Dave A.

I am pleased to read how you have imagined what was going on at the time this brave warrior probably joined his ancestors in the spirit world. Considering the amount of hot lead that must have been flying about at the time and the fact that the shaft has been hit 3 times (2 penetrated 1 didn't) it only stands to reason that the club and it's owner had been subjected to "concentrated" fire from more than one Musket, maybe dozens, in a short space of time. If we look at it logically ....Take a target the same size as a man and draw a Totokia on it being held in front of his chest or (if you want to make it really difficult) above his head........Now fire as many musket balls from various distances as it takes to hit the shaft at least 3 times......I bet you couldn't do it in less than 20 shots....that leaves 17 close misses that would have ripped the rest of the target to pieces, any one of which could have fatally wounded the Warrior. All the best, K