Origin of the Kalinga Axe

[Nonoy Tan]

Going back to tracing it origins ....

The crescent moon-shaped axe appears to me in the shape of the hornbill, whose red beak is used by the Ilongot to represent excitement (as in headhunting forays). I wonder if there is any connection.

Unfortunately, accounts of early travellers in the Cordillera (which mention the axe) do not seem to go earlier than the late 19th century.

The origins of the Kalinga axe is puzzling.

[migueldiaz]

Originally Posted by Nonoy Tan

Unfortunately, accounts of early travellers in the Cordillera (which mention the axe) do not seem to go earlier than the late 19th century.

Hi Nonoy,

I have good news for you.

In William Henry Scott's Barangay: Sixteenth-century Philippine Culture and Society (1994), we read of this early account of the head axe:

"They [the Ibanags of Cagayan, an area right beside the Cordilleras] carried shield large enough to cover the whole body, and went to battle clad only in G-strings, with bodies well oiled in case of hand-to-hand grappling (although quilted armor was known upstream in Gaddang territory -- that is, modern Isabela). Their weapons were leaf-shaped daggers 20 to 30 centimeters long (inalag), spears (suppil if plain, saffuring if barbed), and one which in modern times would be called the head ax -- bunang, 'machete of the natives,' Father Bugarin (1676, 80) said, 'like a crescent moon with a long point.' Unlike the inalag, the bunang cannot be put in a scabbard (alag)."

Looks to me that this is the Cordillera axe we are tracing, and it is going farther and farther back into the past

[Vandoo, I'm still ruminating on those fine points you made in your last post. Thanks for sharing those.]