The pagan tribes of Borneo - Get a Free Blog Here

CHAP. XII DECORATIVE ART 225
but has the same peculiar convexity of the one
side and concavity of the other in transverse section.
The shaft is sunk into the end of a rod of hard
wood and secured with gutta and fine rattan lashing.
The handle of hard wood is about a foot in length,
half an inch in diameter,
and slightly bowed in the
plane of the blade, the
convexity being in the
direction of the cutting
edge of the blade. The
butt end of the handle is
cunningly carved in the
Fig. 45.—Figure-head of Kayan Warboat
carved in hard wood.
shape of a crocodile's head, or prolonged in a piece
of carved deer's horn. The blade of the knife is
held between the thumb and finger of the right
hand, the cutting edge directed forwards, and the
long handle is gripped between the forearm and the
lower ribs ; the weight of the body can thus be
brought to the assistance of the
arm in cutting hard material. With
this knife most of the finer carving
is done, the adze and sword being
used chiefly for rough shaping.
The adze consists of a flat blade
of steel in the shape of a highly
acute -angled triangle (PI. in).
The slightly convex base is the
. T. T" ^ cutting edge. The upper half of
Fig. 46.—Kayan Button » , 1 / i
• 1
for Sword-belt carved the triangle (which may or may
in hard wood or sub- ^^^ ]^q marked by a shoulder) is
stance of the horn- , . , . 1 1 1 • 1 1 • 1 v •
bill's beak. buried in the lashings by which it is
attached to the wooden haft. The
haft is a small bough of tough, springy wood, cut
from a tree, together with a small block of the wood
of the stem ; the latter is shaved down until It forms
an oblong block continuous with the haft and at
an angle to it of yo°'So\ The upper half of the
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