Yesterday, I was looking for some info in Christopher Spring's book : African Arms and Armour. And look what I found :
This first image shows an array of weapons used in Ethiopia during the 19th century. Both guns look very similar to the one I obtained some time ago.
The second picture shows some Ethiopian warriors from that same period. The one on the right carries a similar gun.
In his book Spring relates that the Ethiopian musketmen relied for their effectiveness as much upon the noise their weapons made as upon the casualties they inflicted.
It seems that loading such a gun took several minutes.
