Wow David! I saw that too, but was way into Rohrshach flashes at that point
A nagan Amazon sabre from West Africa?
I think it goes back to the very well put note in the 'hornbill' article that Tim linked, basically that stylized creatures in African material culture are representative...not representational. Sounds like wordplay, but I interpret that to mean that often African, or for that matter, many ethnographic weapons have stylized designs or shapes that carry more of a temporal image than deliberate likeness of certain creatures important in tradition or folklore. Perhaps Tim will either agree with or correct my interpretation here, as he is the artist
As I mentioned, the zoomorphic creature on the pommel of the flyssa escapes any tangible image; the trilobate hilt of the karabela on Polish and Turkish parade sabres, carried into Arabian sa'if's is believed to be an eagle head; the hook on many sabre hilts is thought to be a birds beak; and the imagery goes on even much more colorfully in Indonesian and Southeast Asian weapons.
I think all that material I posted, Fernando, was sort of a 'wild goose chase' (using even more zoomorphic metaphor!
, but I think we can be pretty sure this is as noted West African, and likely some sort of tribal regalia type piece.If I can ever remember where I saw one like this, maybe it will have more information, or perhaps it remained in the same impasse.