Beninese Ceremonial Dagger with Bells, Based

You would hear him coming. That was the point of the bells.

This ceremonial dagger from Benin, West Africa, is 20th century. Ornamented daggers like it were made for display and ceremony rather than combat, carried as emblems of rank, with bells that sounded as the bearer moved. The cast bronze hilt is a crowned figure in beaded regalia, holding an object in each hand, detailed down to the patterned collar and garments. From a ring below hang three small bells and a round rattle. The long leaf-shaped blade, pale and silvery, is incised with a herringbone line down its center.

Eighteen and a half inches tall on its base.

Hang it where a draft might ring it.