Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-11-26
PHILIPPINE RELICS
Additional Collection Being Cata-
logued for National Museum.
STRANGE WEAPONS AND HEADGEAR
Bamboo and Rattan Put to Many
Uses.
BLoWPIPEs ARE STILL USED

A fair view of Filipino ingenuity and char
acter may be had at a single glance at the
National Museum these days through a
new collection of hunting and fishing imple-
ments, headgear, musical instruments and
weapons of warfare now piled up on the
tables in one of the cataloguing rooms.
There are elsewhere in the institution, dis
played in exhibition cases, many more spec
linens from the Philippine Islands, and
these latest acquisitions will not materially
swell the number of such articles. But
they are regarded as offering by themselves
singularly complete survey of the modes
Of open-air life in American South sea pos
sessions.
The first impression they excite perhaps,
Is that the natives of the Philippine group
have developed to a very high degree the
use of rattan, bamboo. vegetable fiber and
palm leaves in the manufacture of dozens
OF miscellaneous articles. Rattan is plated
and woven into hats arrow auivers. scab-
bards for swords and knives and umbrellas.
Bamboo Is fashioned into telescope fishing
rods. water and wine bottles, covers for the
swords of executioners and blowpipes.
Palm leaves are shaped into a score of de-
slgns-lnto dippers. waterproof hats.
torches and dozen other articles. The
native has apparently found in the vegeta-
BILE growths of his dwelling place material
to supply all his demands except the need
for iron.
strange Instruments for Executions.
Possibly the most prominent feature of
the collection Is group Of half dozen
"talabongs," or headsman's axes. They are
huge knives, three feet long or more,
curved like scimitar reversed. In order the
better to strike the unfortunate victims
neck this curve is irregular-wide at the
two ends and acute in the middle. 1t Is
impossible. of courses to slide such an &C.
centric curve into a scabbard. but the Phil
ippine headsmen have overcome that diff
Guilty easily. Two pieces of bamboo, shaped
like the sctmitar and nat ON the side nearest
the blade, have been Joined together along
one edge with fiber Of some sort, which
Is little elastic. Separating these two
slabs of wood the sWordsman can slip his
blade into 1t from one side and not from
the end. The fiber at the outside joint
holds the bamboo closely to the knife and
thus protects 1t as effectually as any case
open only at one end.
Among the army officers however, this
need for knife fitted to mans neck has
not been allowed to interfere with a sense
are regular, graceful arc Of a circle, and
several are included in the new museum
collection which are very handsomely dec
GRATED. One such sword. apparently made
from thick saw brought to the islands by
a trading ship, is chased and inlaid with
silver and has a mahogany handle. The
workman who engraved the blade evidently
worked some time carving the handle Into
a shape singularly like that of the swords
used among the Saracen tribes. At the
curve in the hit, Spanish coins have been
sunk until flush with the surface. The
whole handle Is decorated with a fringe Of
table that among the three campalongs in
this collection not one is sparsely orna-
mented.
Knives, Torches and Umbrellas.
Numbers Of other knives, less Discriminate
in their character, are to be displayed. One
is made from the nosebone Of a swordish,
with the teeth set latterly so as to be
about as effective as the prongs Of a rake.
Another Is little and curved back toward
the wrist when held in the closed fist. This
knife, according to the museum officials, Is
intended for swift blow at the stomach
and then. when the enemy has doubled
over, to complete the attack with a stab in
the back. Many of the knives are decorated
with horn or silver handles. and one ter
inmates In an ivory tusk, presumably that
of a wild boar. Nearly all Of these short
knives are curved into the form of kris
and look like highly ornamented bread
knives.
night the natives Of the islands wrap close
ly together a bundle Of palm leaves.
About them they wind and weave
the long stems of the leaves so that
lattice work. No one at the museum knows
how such torch would burn, and as but
one is included In this new collection the
officials are unable to experiment and find
out
In the box with this torch are a closed
a water bottle, a blowpipe with
dts darts and two Of the musical instru-
ments with which the young Filipino lover
is wont to woo the affections of his dusky
sweetheart. The umbrella is work Of art,
but 1t Is suspected of a Chinese origin.
Palm leaves have been cut and trimmed
until they fitted together for an outer COW
ering, as smooth and firm as heavy paper.
This was then applied to frame Of split
bamboo In the fashion Of the ordinary Chi
nese or Japanese parasol. Inside the frame
has been decorated with rattan split into
brella ribs. The whole was then given a
tone of deep red and the outside vanished
to make 1t impervious to water. Every
thing used In the construction Of the UNI
fastenings at the ends of the ribs and the
little rivets used in the frame
BIowpipe Looks Harmless.
The blowpipe will disappoint those whose
ideas of such weapons have been obtained
from the Biographies Of fifteen years ago
or more. 1t is not ten feet long or two
inches in diameter. On the contrary 1t Is
a most inoffensive instrument. about three
quarters of an inch thick and only a yard
long. 1t is merely an enlarged putty
blower, Of the sort possessed by the Amer
lean boy as often as the season for putty
blowers wheels around. The material used
in its manufacture Is a section or link Of
bamboo. with the openings carefully round
ed. For darts the native shapes little ar
rows Of split bamboo. and winds about the
barb-end little ball of cotton to fill the
tube and offer the greatest possible resist
ance to the air.
But, If the blowpipe Is disappointment,
nothing could more fully meet the comic
opera or old atlas idea Of South Sea Island
ers than the bamboo wine bottle which
rests alongside the biowpipe 1t Is about a
foot long, four or five inches in diameter.
and would hold possibly half a gallon
Holes have been bored in the fiber at the
end, and strip of rattan fastened into
them for sling-strap. The last item of
its equipment Is q round wooden cork
which Is also fastened to the ''bottle'' by
rattan. It Il said the natives fill these bot
ties with cocoanut milk, set them to one
side until the milk ferments, ana then
carry their own bar with them into the
field.
Both the musical Instruments are euutp-
ped with vegetable strings. One Of them
Is much like the guitar Of the Tyrol but
more slender. and weighted down with long
highly carved keys. The other is some-
What like mir