NOT Scammed in Dubai!

I thought I made a mistake, but it seems I was wrong!

Well, well, well. In the previous post, I wrote about how I had been scammed by an antique dealer in Dubai, who upon learning that I wanted artifacts related to animals, passed off an Indian todi trumpet as a horn for summoning camels. But it turns out that I might not have been scammed, after all!

One reader pointed out that although Google’s reverse image search led to identifying the camel horn as a todi, it is in fact slightly different - my camel horn has a figurine on it. Also, todi trumpets general have chains, while my todi has a string. And there are other references online to such horns, with figurines and strings/straps, as camel horns:

And then there is a contemporary work of historic fiction, set in the Middle East, which makes reference to one such horn:

Of course, the design of these is certainly derived from a todi. But it may be that the todi was subsequently used as a camel horn. And given the number of references to this as a camel horn, it seems likely that it is indeed one.

The only question is whether this was in India - which, contrary to what I thought, actually has a longstanding tradition of camel herding - or in Arabia, having imported the design from India. But either way, I’m pleased to find out that it probably really is a camel horn!

Of course, the real test is to blow it. I tried that out this morning, and look at the result!

It works! Ah, the sweet thrill of vindication!