PRIMITIVE WEAPONS AND ARMOE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 11 



Weapons of the Philippine Islands are remarkable for their variety 

 of perfected design ; they illustrate the employment of a wide variety 

 of materials fashioned in an artistic and effective manner ; they are 

 further remarkable for the skill displayed in their manufacture, in 

 the decorative art displayed, and in their use as insignia. Contacts 

 with peoples indicated through weapon types originating elsewhere 

 are illustrated; also examples of the great ingenuity and skill in 

 ornamental patterns introduced either locally or throughout wide 

 areas. 



Weapons of offense embrace clubs of various sliapes, some of them 

 edged; slung shots made by attaching a bag woven of abaca (manila 

 hemp) fiber and loaded with an iron ball or poisoned stones to a 

 looped rope ; spears, lances, and harpoons with bamboo, steel, or iron 

 blades in great variety of forms and with shafts of hardwood and 

 bamboo wrapped with rattan or shod with figured iron or brass; 

 bows of wrapped or plain palm wood or bamboo; arrows with reed 

 shafts, palm wood foreshafts, and plain or barbed metal, bamboo, or 

 palm wood points. Sword blades and knives of iron and steel for 

 slashing and stabbing are often laminated or are inlaid with a soft 

 metal, and have horn, ivory, or wood handles decorated, carved, and 

 beautifully made; edged weapons of the cutting and slashing type 

 have heavy backs to supply weight, and are often supplied with 

 acute pointed tips for piercing and thrusting, or, again, are abruptly 

 truncated at the distal end like a scimitar for chopping. The single 

 tube blowgun reaches its most decorative form among the Palawan 

 Batak, while other forms of offensive weapons had a wide distribu- 

 tion, such as the formerly prevalent crossbow. The production of 

 brass and bronze firearms and culverins was limited to groups and 

 nationalities under the influence of Mohammedan culture, although 

 the employment of brass ornamentally has been acquired by many of 

 the nationalities that remained pagan. 



Weapons of defense include shields of three kinds, the circular, 

 the oblong, and the pronged concavo-convex types. Shields are 

 for the most part carved from a single block of wood and are used 

 as targets for parrying, and protection; they are also woven from 

 rattan splints or are made of hides. Chevaux de frise, caltraps, 

 and path splinters are set up in the paths and approaches to villages. 

 Body armor of chain and plate brass, of horn, leather, and of 

 woven fiber, and helmets of hides, various fibers, brass, and tin 

 are made by the southern island tribes after a native design 

 or are copied from the Spanish armor of the fifteenth and sixteenth 

 centuries or from ancient native Malayan models, such as are in 

 vogue throughout Nias and other out of the way places in western 

 Malaysia. 



3021—26 2 



