Just recently I read the book Kim by Rudyard Kipling. In it he mentions a "ghost-dagger" several times. The first mention of one is in chapter nine, and then later on, Kim, the main character, ends up carrying one as a Brittish spy in India. Do any of you knife collectors know what one of these is?

~Josh

A Tibetan Phurba would be my guess.

Loyalist, (Really, I thought we'd kicked you loyalist guys out of the U.S. to Canada after the Revolution! )
I googled both ghost-dagger and Tibetan Phurba. I got virtually nothing with the ghost dagger, but got a bunch of photos when I looked up the Tibetan Phurba. Unfortunately with google, it gives you all the goofy, non-historic stuff along with the "correct" stuff, and I'm not sure which is which. Could you post a picture of a typical Tibetan phurba so I can get an idea of what this kind of knife is. Any additional info would be kinda helpful to. If it isn't too much trouble, that is.

Thanks!

~Josh

http://www.worthpoint.com/wort...-made-of-bronze-must

The above seems to match the term ghost-dagger to phurba (or phurbu, or however it's spelled), and provides a picture. Also, on the same page are other links to other daggers.

Not sure why they were called 'ghost-daggers' but think I recall seeing something about a person killed with a phurbu couldn't come back as a ghost.

Thanks, Loyalist! That's real helpful. I kept reading the word "ghost dagger" and had no idea what kind of knife he was talking about. The description of lamas carrying these things fits right in with the book. Kipling usually knows what he's talking about. If it had been a newer book, as in written in the last ten to twenty years, I would've thought the author was just making stuff up. But seeing as it was Kipling writing, who knew the times, places, and people from first hand expernience, I knew he had to be talking about something that was more than figments of the imagination.