PRIMITIVE WEAPONS AND ARMOR OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 17 



jects required neither smelting nor casting because of its softness 

 and freedom from other ingredients when mined. The use of gold 

 metal in the production of ornamental objects or as an inlay in 

 the harder imported metals is distinctly a Filipino development. 

 Primitive Malay tribes of northern Luzon still mine gold and trade 

 it to the Christianized plains tribes for necessary industrial and 

 household articles. 



In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (vol. 2, p. 

 127), Dr. Walter Hough discusses at length the origin of metallurgy 

 in iron and observes that primitive man had seen metallic iron de- 

 rived from meteorites but that its occurrence was sporadic and 

 limited. 



Heavy and lustrous hematite ores were also widely used for implements 

 and ornaments. When and in what locality iron began to be smelted is un- 

 known, but, as has been stated, it is the logical successor to the advanced 

 teehnic of the metallurgy of bronze. Primitive iron woi'king may still be 

 observed in Africa and has been described in India. African ore is an oxide 

 comparatively very easy of reduction and ore beds are of genei'al occurrence. 

 The smelter consists of a basin-shaped depression in the ground beaten down 

 hard, and leading to the center is a clay tuyere with which the rude bellows 

 are connected. The ore is heaped with charcoal in this depression and in the 

 midst lighted coals are placed and covered over. The bellows are started 

 and after a time the ore is reduced to a fluxed mass in which small pellets of 

 iron are found. The mass is pimnded up and the iron sorted out to be ham- 

 mered into larger pieces by a second process. This was essentially .the 

 method pursued in India. Only limited amounts of metal were secured. 

 Casting of iron was unknown in Africa. The knowledge of smelting is quite 

 diffused in Africa, so that there are no chief centers of manufacture and dis- 

 tribution, although some tribes are famed as blacksmiths and a few tribes 

 depend on alien artificers for their iron utensils. The smelting of iron ore is 

 impossible without forced draft. The bellows therefore is i\ device of 

 great interest and importiiiice. The history of draft-producing devices 

 embraces the hand fan, the tube for blowing, the air bag, in which the air is 

 captured and forced out by pressure through a tube, the double air bag to 

 promote a steady stream of air, the double air bag worked by rods, in which 

 a valve appears, the double plunger bellows, the piston bellows, the folding 

 bellows, with organ valve used by blacksmiths before the invention of the fan 

 blower, and the fan blower, which brings back the primitive hand fan much 

 improved. 



The most marked t.vpes, the complete knowledge of which would cast much 

 light on the history of the western and eastern foci of metallurgy, are the 

 air bags and the piston blower, the former belonging to the Europe-Africa 

 province and the latter to Malaysia. 



An interesting survey is presented of the state of metallurgic art in the 

 various world areas. It shows that the Pacific islands, most of the Americas, 

 Australia, and much of Asia are in the premetallic stage ; Malaysia is in the 

 beginning of the metallic age by acculturation, the first demand being 

 weapons ; native Africa is advanced in iron metallurgy, using two metals ; 

 civilized (Mediterranean) Africa advanced in the use of metals; Europe 

 (Mediterranean) shows early development and use of five metals. There are 



