2G2 SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



The Malays and Dyaks have several swords, as they may be called, 

 of peculiar character. Three of them are cutting weapons ; the other is 

 a thrust. The three former are parangs ; the latter is the fern. 



Fig. 88. — The parang of the Malays. 



The pardng 139 (T?ig. 88 ) has a two-edged blade which is small but thick 

 at the handle, and runs broader and thinner to near the point. It is 

 elaborately ornamented with tufts of human hair and charms. The 

 haudle is frequently of deer bone neatly carved, but in the present 

 instance is of wood bound with red leather and has a tuft -of human 

 hair at the hilt. The scabbard is of red wood, carved. A ratan-split- 

 tiug knife 140 occupies a pocket in a small sheath attached to the scab- 

 bard of the parang. This attaching of a knife to the scabbard is also 

 found in Scotland and Central Africa. The parang-latoJc is made of a 

 square bar of £-inch steel, which is gradually thinned and widened until 

 it reaches a width of two inches near the point. It has a peculiar bend 

 of 30° near the hilt. It is sword, machete, axe, all in one, being the 

 ordinary weapon of the men and many of the women. It is kept in a 

 wooden sheath made of two pieces of wood hollowed out and bound 

 together with ratan. It is the executioner's weapon. The parang-ihlang 

 is straight. Its blade has a curious shape, being ogee in cross-section. 

 This shape seems to give it wonderful execution in cutting, but at the 

 same time makes it dangerous to an inexpert swordsman, as the blade 

 glances in a remarkable manner. The beheading sword of the piratical 

 Illanos '" has a somewhat similar curve. The holes in the Illahoon sword 

 indicate the number of victims. 



The most characteristic, however, of the Malay weapons is the kris m 

 (Fig. 89), which is used in thrusting, as a Spaniard uses his knife. The 

 armorers take as much pride in the making of the weapon as of old 

 did the Toledo or Ferrara workmen. The blade is generally waving, 

 and its grain is more marked than in any other weapon, as much so in 

 fact as the Damascus gun-barrel, and for the same reason, as it is made 

 of steel and iron strips laid together, twisted, doubled, and variously con- 

 voluted to give the kind of marking required. These are rendered more 

 plain by etching the blade with lime juice, the acid corroding one metal 



'"■• Boyle's "Dyaksof Borneo," 114,115; 

 Belcher's " Eastern Archipelago," ii. 133 and plate. 

 u° Belcher's " Eastern Archipelago," vol. i, ]>i>. 230,231. '" Tbid, vol. i, p. 2G6. 



u* Raffles' " Java," 4to,*i, p. 296 and plates ; Wallaces' "Malay." 



