This captain [the Macassar captain], with no hesitation, answered «I agree, but they will disembarked armed.» Then, looking at him and smiling : «Are we in war? I asked him. - No, he answered: but the crit that I have on my side, and which is the weapon that we wear, is such a honor among us that we could not leave it without infamy.» I could not reply to this argument, I agreed, not thinking that what seemed to me such a despicable weapon would be as dangerous as I would later experience it.
This crit is a kind of dagger, a foot long and an inch and half wide at the bottom; it is wavy, the tip like a snake tongue, made of a good tempered steel; it is as sharp as a razor, and on each side; it is enclosed in a wooden sheath, and never leaves it."
Source: Le voyage du Comte de Forbin à