Mr. Berthold Laufer's paper on "Walrus and Narwhal Ivory," reprinted
at Leyden, 1913, from the Toung Pao, throws light on Jahangir's remarks
about fish-tooth dagger-hilts. It now seems certain that they were made
of the canine tooth of the walrus, or the horn of the narwhal. Possibly
one reason why Jahangir attached so much value to the fish-teeth was
because they were supposed to be an antidote to poison. He was fond
of such things, and one day, when he was heir-apparent, Father Jerome
Xavier found him engaged at Fathpur in extracting copper from peacocks'
tails, on account of its supposed antitoxine properties.
It is stated in Mr. Laufer's paper, pp. 13 and 15, that walrus-teeth
were supposed to be also useful in reducing swellings. As they
were often made into knife-handles, it is not improbable that the
knife which a Rajah of Cochin appears to have sent to Akbar in 1569
(Akbar-nama, i. 342) was, wholly or in part, made of walrus ivory. The
Rajah said that whenever it was applied to a swelling it reduced it,
and Akbar told Abu-l-Fazl that over 200 persons had benefited by
touching it.
In the British Museum there is a fascinating set of chessmen made of
walrus or narwhal ivory. They were discovered in the island of Lewis
in 1831, but are supposed to be as old as the twelfth century.