Ethnographic bayonets question

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by stephen wood

...a very interesting subject. There was certainly a fascination with the yataghan in France at the time that the first yataghan bayonets appeared - the art of the time is full of them.

I think that the best online resource is here .

I have always wondered what happened to the thousands of sword bayonets which were captured with Remington rolling-block rifles by Mahdist forces.

Interesting question, and as always, when I get curious I start looking things up. So far somewhat inconclusive, but the Egyptian Army apparantly had indeed ordered Remington rifles in 1868 which became known as the M1868 Egyptian Remington rolling block rifle, by 1876 there were as many as 60,000 of these delivered. It appears they used a yataghan style sword bayonet modelled after the French Chassepot type bayonet.
These forces also had Martini Henry muskets which originally had the M1876 socket type bayonets. There were apparantly Sniders in some degree, which had similar sword bayonets, but numbers are not clear.

When the poorly armed rabble for the Mahdi overtook Egyptian forces in the early 1880s in several conflicts, they indeed took what are described as large numbers of arms and ammunition. I had assumed the Mahdist forces were not drilled in the use of these weapons, but accounts indicate they actually were.

After the fall of Khartoum, it is interesting to consider what indeed might have become of these captured arms, but it is said that by the time of the British campaigns of 1898, the Khalifa had assembled as many as 60,000 warriors. While descriptions note the profound presence of course of spears and swords, there were some 15,000 shoulder arms dispersed through the ranks of these forces. These were described as poorly maintained, but no mention is made whether these were accompanied by bayonets.

These sword bayonets, if still among these arms, perhaps were returned to stores as the use of these guns continued in the Egyptian army.

[sirupate]

When Bhess Narayan Dahal (the curator of the National Museum, Kathmandu, Nepal) took me round in 2008 talking me through the various weapons, I took some pics of the kukri style bayonets, I hope they are of some use;
Bhess below;

Kukri style Bayonets below;

[tom hyle]

Yatagan bayonets are actually pretty traditional for old-school 18th or earlier 19th (here's the trick) salawar yatagans. Before they became so wide-based, they already had the double curve.
Do you know what a sumpitan is? It is a Bornean hardwood blowgun drilled from one piece by a two-man team (Amazonian blowguns are bound up out of two hollowed channels), and scarf-joined to its tip is a whipped-on tanged spear blade. The tip of the tang is bent at a right angle and keyed to the blowgun.

[tom hyle]

From what I read, bayonets were originally hunting weapons, rather than for intraspecie violence.