[fernando]

Hi Jim,
Sorry for taking so long in thanking your posting with the treatise in takoubas. It happens that i got envolved with your question on the takouba term origin, ande decided to do some browsing on the subject. Amazing how i have found out you have been trying to solve this riddle since the last eight years.
Well, there is no term equal or similar, or even sounding close to takouba in both Portuguese and Spanish modern dictionaries.
On the other hand, we can see through various historians quotations that the term 'tacuba' in Mexico already existed by the time Cortez got there. In fact Tacuba was a local kingdom, on the western mountains of the valley of Mexico, whose monarch had made a triple alliance with two other nobles,Tetzcoco and Tenochtitlan, to massacre the Spaniards. I don't either think that it was the Spaniards that brought the term from Mexico and later drop it in the Sahara; this assuming that the term is not an original Tuareg word. Meanwhile i have spotted a book that sounds as it could clarify the situation, for those deeply commited in going to the ultimate step with this riddle, as it contains an essay on these swords, namely on their 'nomenclature' ... for what this means.

http://siris-libraries.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!761584!0#focus

Back to my takouba example, i see that you didn't coment on the short length of the handle; was it because nothing occurs to you on the subject ? Also in the mean time i have read that Tuareg youngsters could gain a takouba by the time of their puberty.
Concerning the age of both blade and sheath, XIX century for the blade suits me fine; however XX century for the sheath leaves me a bit sad, as i am 'alergic' to modern stuff. In fact i have read in Lee Jones article that hardly takouba sheaths may be found with a long age, due to their quick degradation. Even so, i hope my example is quite old within possible, that is, from the early times of the XX century. I am based in the fact that its leather material has shrunk so much that, even inserting the blade with some mussle, a good 3,3 cms. (almost 1 3/8") remain unsheathable. Also worthy of note is the (one surviving) elaborated suspension ring, made in decorated brass, with an interesting patina, instead of those in aluminum, a detail quoted in Dr. Lee Jones's article to indicate a mid XX century solution.
Kind regards
Fernando