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Seme (dagger)

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Sketch of a seme

A seme,[1][2] simi[3] or ol alem[4] is a type of dagger or short sword used by the Maasai and Kikuyu peoples of Kenya in East Africa.[3][5]

They have a distinctive leaf-shaped blade, with a relatively rounded point. Scabbards are generally made of wood covered with rawhide, and dyed red.

Notes

  1. ^ "Kenyan Maasai "Ol Alem" ", connectingcultures.us
  2. ^ "African Masai Seme (Ol Alem)", Lew Waldman's Ethnographic Arms & Armour
  3. ^ a b "Kikuyu simi with scabbard", IWM
  4. ^ "Ol alem (sword)", John Woodman Higgins Armory collection
  5. ^ Stone, George Cameron; LaRocca, Donald J. (1999). A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times: In All Countries and in All Times. Dover Publications. p. 547. ISBN 978-0-486-40726-5. Retrieved 2008-12-29.

Further reading

  • George Cameron Stone, Donald J. LaRocca, A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times, Verlag Courier Dover Publications, 1999, ISBN 978-0-486-40726-5
  • Nick Evangelista: The encyclopedia of the sword, Verlag Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995, ISBN 978-0-313-27896-9

See also