kastspjut

"The spears of the swamp people are long and thus differ from all adjacent mainland tribes. Central and South African spears seldom exceed male height, and both baushi, bawemba and babisa spears hardly reach this length. Babisa, however, exchange long spears from batwa, which they use when hunting in the swamp. The short spears, which the inhabitants of the mainland make, have wooden handles and are always equipped with a heavy iron dipping shoe at the rear end. The spearhead is made of iron. It is lanceolate in shape with very long and stepped pincers, which are often inserted into the shaft only for a quarter of its length. To increase the weight and strength of these short throwing spears, which are intended for close use, the shafts are generally adorned with a mass of rings and fittings of copper, brass or iron; often the shafts are completely wrapped with metal tape.
The batwa spear has a length of about 3.5 m. (Fig. 81). The shaft is made of bamboo tube and the tip consists of a 3 '—4 dm. long double-edged blade of iron, provided with a rather coarse pliers, which with almost its entire length is inserted into the shaft. The shaft is wound with bast or metal tape near the blade so that it does not split the pipe in a hit against a hard object. Batwa spears are never fitted with dipping shoes or metal fittings other than the winding above to strengthen the front end of the shaft. When a swampman is to throw his spear, he grasps it in the manner shown in fig. 82. The spear rests on the inside of the left hand between the thumb and forefinger; the right hand encloses the rear end of the spear. In Fig. 83 we see the spear thrower during the throw and in Fig. 84 his position is seen at the same moment as the spear leaves the hand. Despite its fast speed, the spear has been included in the picture and can be seen in a horizontal position just in front of the spear thrower. A similar way of throwing spears occurs in some parts of the Congo, and it is also reminiscent of that of the Australian Negroes, although they generally use throwing woods to increase the force of the throw."
(pp. 186 - 190, von Rosen, 1916, translated from Swedish).