The pitfalls of using someone else's photos, even with their permission....the shield arrived yesterday and it's definitely NOT a dance shield, nor is it little...the dimensions are 18 1/2" high and 35" side to side, weighing in at 7 1/2 pounds!!!
There are very old cut marks evident in several places making me think that this is a very real war shield.
I tried to get Justin tho take a pic with me holding it last night for comparison, but alas the beer had flowed too freely, so I'll try again when I can get someone on the other side of the camera.
A lot of the confusion about the word "Mandingo" by the way arises out of 1950's novels and cheesey 1960's movies about inter-racial plantation sex in the American slave era south, with most in the US familiar with the genre concepts rather than aquainted with the real African tribe.
That spoon, by the way appears to be Ethiopian to me or possibly even Dahomey, from Benin, with both areas having worn thoose fez type hats.
In Spring's book the women of the King's Wives regiment from Dahomey are shown wearing them in two or three different illustrations.
Mike
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