INDIAN WILD TRIBES AXE

Stone 199 #1. 35 ¾” length. Rare bat wing shaped iron blade with double ringed skull crusher socket back. Scalloped edge iron socket liner. Wood haft with brass band butt and tip mounts. India’s wild tribes are noted for their cannibalistic human sacrifice ritual, Meriah in which a victim is lashed to a beam and displayed to the gathered worshipers then dispatched by strangulation or blade. The flesh is then divided among the attendants and consumed. The ritual was believed to assure a productive growing season. Their defense of the forest against British intrusion ultimately led to war in 1836. The death of a Christian missionary in the Andaman Islands in November 2018 is a reminder of the isolation and ferocity of these people.