unusual african dagger covered in cowrie shells

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Kubur

its what i think embellished in Senegal for touristic reasons

Thank you Detlef for the input and links...…..clearly you and Kubur are right.....it is a flyssa, but decorated with the cowries. In the 2012 discussion you linked the same decoration seems to have wide popularity and on varying examples. I see Dom put in some great overview on the use of these shells and that Alain Jacob's book has some of this decoration from Senegal (Kubur now I see why you had specified that location). I have the book but have not see it for some time now.
Nicely done guys, thank you!!!