Mr. Berthold Laufer's paper on “Walrus and Narwhal Ivory,” reprinted at Leyden, 1913, from the Toung Pao, throws light on Jāhāngīr'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 Jāhāngīr 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 Fatḥpūr 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-nāma, 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 Abū-l-Faẓl 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.