62 



left hand exposes one face to the full light of the sun, meanwhile 

 rubbing it lightly with the ai'senic and lime juice, etc. The damas- 

 cening up to this time has been very slightly visible, but after a few 

 minutes treatment with these materials comes into view quite clearly, 

 much as the picture becomes visible on a photographic plate when 

 immersed in the developer. The other face of the blade is then 

 treated in tlie same way and the s])ear head is complete. 



THE USE OF THE TEEMS PAMUR AND DAMASCENE. 

 The term pcuniir, as used by the Malays, is not synonom.ous with 

 the English word damascening. The pamur of a blade, strictly 

 speaking, consists only of small ornamental pieces of metal-woi-k 

 applied to those surfaces of the welded block which are to become 

 the faces of the blade. The wavy pattern along the sides of tlie kris 

 or spear blade, which arises from the hammering out of the welded 

 plates in such a way that the centre plate projects furthest at the 

 edges and the two outer plates least, so that the edges of the plates 

 appear in regular gradation, is by the Malays termed Jcurai. Thus 

 in the spear-head described above only the pieces of hesi payong and 

 hesi pamiir form the piamvr, while the edges of the hi"si baja, hesi 

 ptdang, and beai kurai make up the knrai. 



MAKING THE 15ADEK PATANI. 



In manufacturing the l)lade of this knife the smith first took two 

 rods, one of besi hurai and the other of hesi baja (steel) and welded 

 them into a single bar. This when comj)lete had a length of about 

 one foot and a cross section roughly of half an inch by a quarter of an 

 inch. 



The bar Avas then heated in the fire, seized with two pairs of pincers 

 and given a strong right spiral twist along one-half of its length, 

 several re-heatings being necessary before th.e process was complete. 

 The other half of the bar was similarly treated, except that instead 

 of a right it was given a left spiral twist. The poi'tions twisted to 

 the right and left thus met in the centre of the bar. Next, the 

 broader sides of the bar were beaten with a hammer until the twist 

 on them was flattened down, and then the whole bar was bent in the 

 centre to form a 17. The U was further heated and beaten until the 

 limbs came to lie together and had become fused. Then a piece of 

 steel corresponding in length to a single limb of the U — that is to say, 

 about 6 inches or 7 inches long and f inch thick, was welded to the 

 outer side of the U limb with the left spiral. This piece of steel 

 becomes the edge of the knife, the limb with the left spiral the 

 lower portion of the V-shaped damascening, and that with the right 

 spiral forms the upper part of the damascene and the back of the 

 blade. The three portions are forged into one solid block and, 

 when complete fusion has taken place, are further hammered till 

 they attain the shape of blade required. The methods of welding, 

 polishing and bi'inging up the damascene are the same as those used 



