Unknown 'stick'
 

About 8 years ago I bought the entire contents of a small Boer War museum . It contained quite a lot of ethnographical artefacts and amongst them was this odd stick with rope entwined around it .... anyone out there got any clues as to what it might be ?

Just guessing here... Could it be a match used o light a fuse of a canon?

Its an idea , but I feel this is an ethnographical artefact .. the odd cloth like bundle at the end is actually formed from the beaten bark of the stick itself , and the rope is braided into similar beaten bark fibre at the other end. I am wondering if the 'free' end of the rope was in fact once also braided into the loose beaten bark .

Salaams thinreadline ~ Top of a flagpole shot off at Rourkes Drift ! This is a very interesting forum UFO... I look forward to knowing its true description.
Ibrahiim.

It might be a makeshift riding stick but it really very nondescript could be anything ?

Sorry .. but what is 'migshift' ?
Perhaps it is some kind of riding crop but what intrigues me is the way in which the outer bark of the stick has been beaten out into bark cloth and then braided into the rope ... this for a riding crop would be superflous ... it is not even a decorative feature. Bark cloth made in this way is also seen in a wide range of ethnographic artefacts so I am wondering what might this be . As an aside, there were 3 of these in the collection all basically the same but with minor variations ...

Ah if only it were !

I meant makeshift :o . Teaches me I shouldn't reply post new years eve ;) .

Migshift?? Thought we must be expecting an attack by the Russian Airforce!! :D :D
Happy New Year Lew.
Seriously though...could it be some sort of whip for controling cattle or other stock? Hard to tell from the pics but I assume that the rope is attached at the end of the stick opposite to that which has been beaten to a fibrous finish?
Stu

Ah OK with you now ! Thought it was a term I ought to know ! I know what you mean about emailing post NYE ... read some of mine I sent to relatives ..oops !

Very amusing !
Yes now stock whip / stick seems a good possibility ... it is firmly woven into the stick at the end opposite the fibrous mass , so yes would function as a whip.

Salaams ~ It suddenly became very obvious to me what this item was used for. This is a tribal fire lighter . The stick bends to form a bow and inserting another stick the entire system acts as a Bow lighting device caused by friction. Very handy. :shrug:
Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Salaams Ibrahiim ... now that is inspired, I really do think you may be on to something there,
Thanks
Richmond