Identification for a friend
 

Indo-persan ?

Well, i'll be the first to throw in, I have no idea. The blade seems to have some marks i'm used to seeing on European blades ( X's in the fullers near the forte ) and the quillion block by itself would be at home on a European later medieval blade. But then you throw in the blade and the shape of the hilt/handle and those surely seem to be all about the East/Orient. The jagged section missing from the front end of the edge of the blade seems to be broken as if it struck something and shattered, rather than perished from rust, is that at all correct?

Looks shortish to me. And suspiciously like a naval cutlass. North African Nimchas had similar blades. And the down-turned quillons seem to fit with this attribution.

Here are 2 Ottoman nimchas

That snake sure looks like African work. Dahomey?