The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1902-01-16
THE FILIPIN0'S CUNNING
PATIENT SKILL AND REAL ART IN
NATIVE KNIVES.


bong's' Curve n scabbard Is Designed.
Filipino ingenuity and character are
revealed at the National Museum at
Washington in a new collection OF
hunting and fishing implements, head
gear, musical instruments and weap-
ons of warfare.
The natives of the Philippine group
have developed TO very high degree
the use of rattan, bamboo. vegetable
fibre and palm leaves in the manufac-
ture of dozens of miscellaneous arti-
cles. Rattan is pleated and woven
into hats, arrow quivers, scabbards 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 score OF designs-!nto dippers,
waterproof hats. torches and other ar
ticles. The native has apparently
found in the vegetable growths OF his
dwelling place material to supply all
his demands except the need for iron.
Possibly the most prominent feature
of the collection 10 group of half
dozen "talabongs." or headsman's
axes. They are huge knives, three
feet long or more, curved like a scini-
tar reversed. In order the better to
strike the unfortunate victims neck
this curve is irregular-wlde at the two
ends and acute IN the middle. 1t is
impossible, of course, to slide such an
eccentric curve into scabbard, but
the Philippine headsmen have over
come that difficulty easily. Two pieces
of bamboo. shaped Ike the sclmitar
and fiat on the side nearest the blade,
have been joined together along one
edge with a fiber which Ia little elias
tic. Separating these two slabs of
wood the swordsman can slip his blade
into it from one side and from the end
The fiber at the outside joint holds the
bamboo closely to the knife, open only
at one end.
Among the army officers this need
for a knife fitted to mans neck has
not been allowed to interfere with a
sense of design. Their swords, or
"campalongs," are a regular, graceful
arc OF a circle. One such sword, ap-
parently made from a thick saw
brought to the islands by a trading
ship. is chased and inlaid with silver
and has Il mahogany handle. The
workman who engraved the blade evil
IDENTIFY worked long to carve the handle
into a shape singularly like that CT the
swords used among the Saracen tribes.
At the curve in the hilt Spanish COINS
have been sunk until flush with the
surface. The handle is decorated with
fringe of hair dyed red or maroon.
Another knife is little and curved
back toward the wrist when held IN
the closed fist. This is intended for
swift blow at the stomach, and then,
when the enemy has doubled over, 10
complete the attack with stab in the
back. Many of the knives are decor
ated with horn or silver handles, and
| one terminates in an ivory tusk. Near
ly all of these short knives are curved
| into the form of kris, and look like
highly ornamented bread knives.
An umbrella in the collection is a
work of art, but it is suspected OF chi
pese origin. Palm leaves have been
cut and trimmed until they fitted to-
gether for an outer covering, as smooth
| and firm as heavy paper This was
then applied to a frame of split bam-
boo in the fashion of the ordinary Chi
nese or japanese parasol. inside the
frame has been decorated with rattan
I split into slender strands ana woven
about the umbrella ribs. The whole
was then given a tone of deep red and
the outside vanished TO make 1t imper-
vious to water. Everything used in the
construction OF the umbrella is vegeta-
BILE. even the fastenings at the ends OF
the ribs and the little rivets used III
the frame.
The Filipino blowpipe will disappoin'
those whose ideas of such weapons
| have been obtained from the geogra'
phIes of fifteen years ago or more. II
is not ten feet long or two inches III
diameter. On the contrary, 1t is q
most inoffensive instrument, about
tbree-ouarters of an inch thick and
| only a yard long. Ii is merely an en-
| larged putty blower. of the sort pos
sessed by the American boy. The ma
terial use in its manufacture Is n sec
tion of bamboo, with the openings
carefully rounded. For darts the ma
tive shapes little arrows of split pam
hoo. and winds about the barb end a
little ball of cotton to fill the tube and
offer the greatest possible resistance
| to the air.
Nothing could more fully meet the
old atlas idea of South Sea Islanders
than the bamboo wine bottle which
rests alongside the blowplpe. 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 fibre at the end, and strip of
rattan fastened into them for sling
strap. The last item of Its equipment
is a round wooden cork, which is fast-
ened to the "bottle" by rattan.
The musical instruments are
equipped 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 somewhat like an Indian
pipe-a queer bowl at one end or a
long. hollow tube, with strings from
the top of the bowl to the further end
of the tube. The musician in the Phil
| ippines evidently gives his extra time