File:The history of mankind (1896) (14577362078).jpg

Identifier: historyofmankind01ratz (find matches)
Title: The history of mankind
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Ratzel, Friedrich, 1844-1904 Butler, Arthur John, 1844-1910
Subjects: Ethnology Anthropology
Publisher: London, Macmillan and co., ltd. New York, The Macmillan co.
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Wellesley College Library

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be the bols of the Igorrotes,or the mandan of the Dyaks, everywhere we find a one-edged, slightly curvedblade with a broad back, a wooden hilt bound with wire, a wooden sheath, a cordto hang it by ; pretty inlaid work of brass and perforated pattern at the back, 2 E 4i8 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND richly carved hilt, and ornamented sheath complete the description. Hilts setwith human teeth occur among the head-hunters, and here we also find the weaponfinished off by a small sheath of bark attached to the lower side of the scabbard,containing a little knife with a long handle, with which the Dyak cuts off hisvictims heads and strips the flesh from them. This appears also independentlyamong the poorer inhabitants of the islands as a hunting and working knife, whilewealthy and zealous head-hunters have half-a-dozen hanging on their walls asornament. The principal weapon among the Mussulman Malays is the wavy kriss, thenational arm among the Sassaks of Lombok. The head-hunters test the sharp-
Text Appearing After Image:
Krisses (i) from Celebes ; (2) said to be from Bali—one-fourth real size.(Munich Museum.) ness of the edge, by preference, on the hair of their skins. Carved hilts orna-mented with gold and precious stones are among the most characteristic productsof Malayan art industry, and one can trace upon them mythological themesgradually fading away into ornament. The flame-shaped damascened blade, theserpentine or dragon figures of the hilt, the decoration of the sheath, raise thekriss to the rank of a weapon closely allied with religious objects ; salutary textsare often engraved upon it; in Wetter, a talisman wrapped up in rags is concealedin the scabbard. The Una, weapon and tool among the mountain tribes of Luzon,is a short, bluntly-triangular blade, broadest at the end, with the opposite edgesconvex and concave. In Java, crescent-shaped knives, with a handle fixed to theconcave side, have been found in graves. Elsewhere, old knives have been foundof a peculiar shape, with appendages res

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