AtD translation: Oriental knife corps

[Mike Jing]

P901.5-14   Later on, tonight at the Overlunch manor, it was the Moon which
had found him, among these tailcoated and Vionnet-gowned guests drifting
the pavilioned gardens, reflected in the obsidian smoothness of the
ornamental lake, calling down from the sky, again, “It’s me. . . . It’s me
. . .” as the giant crayfish clattered slowly out of the bathing-pool, and
the dog began to bay from some distant part of the grounds, and here came
the strong and beaming Moon herself, just above a bared and passing
shoulder, beaming down on these privileged at play, with their
circus-striped tents, their lamps radiantly lensed from within fantastic
grottoes of ice, their Oriental knife corps with clever white accents at
toques and teeth.

What's the "Oriental knife corps" exactly?