Bolo with wide blade and t-grip for identification

[Ian]

... above, playing with Photoshop to enhance the letters, and it seems to me the last word of the inscription ends in "...OR" and I think I make out a "T" as the first letter -- maybe "TIMOR" ???

Well, that sent me to look for a suitable town, tribe, river that might fit the next to last word -- no luck (yet). So I googled Timor history and came up with some descriptions of Timor tribal men.

This quote comes from a book on the early ethnology and mythology of Timor that were recorded during the period from 1878 to 1883 by Henry O. Forbes, in his book A Naturalist's Wanderings In The Eastern Archipelago, published in New York by Harper & Brothers, 1885.

"All the natives of the islands we saw were handsome-featured fellows, lithe, tall, erect, and with splendidly formed bodies. They dyed their hair of a rich golden colour by a preparation made of cocoa-nut ash and lime, varying, however, in shade with the time, from a dirty grey through a red or russet colour, till the second day, when the approved tint appeared. Several modes of arranging their hair were in vogue. It was either carefully combed out, transfixed with a long fork-like comb, and confined within a single girdle of palm-leaf, or a black, red and white patchwork band, was allowed to hang loose to the shoulders; or it was done up in a fizzed mop, different, however, from the unravellable matted wisp seen on the Papuans of Macluer Inlet in New Guinea or among the Aru Islanders.

Their coiffure seems to depend on the kind of hair, straight or frizzled, that Nature has given them; when frizzled it is arranged in a mop, and when straight it is combed out and crimped with an instrument to hang down the back in a "cataract."

The arranging of their hair is one of their most enjoyed occupations, and the vanity with which they bind it within various coloured bands - narrow above broad - laid one on another, before a mirror formed of water collected in the bottom of a prau, or on the calm sea-face itself, is most amusing to see. The men are very fond of having their hair cut quite short, as it no doubt relieved them for a time by reducing the population in that region of their bodies."

And here are a couple of pictures of men and their hair styles from the same source. Note the way the hair of the man in the photo is pulled back by the head band. I don't know if this helps or not, but it gives us another avenue to explore.

Incidentally, European involvement in Timor goes back several centuries, with the Dutch claiming the western portion of the island (now Indonesia), and the Portuguese the eastern portion (now independent East Timor). The sandalwood trade in Timor was very lucrative, hence the interest of European countries in the island.

Some of the confusion about the appearance of the man in the photo could reflect that he may be mestizo, with some European heritage (Chinese is possible too).

[fearn]

Hi Ian,

I'm glad to have another candidate other than PI. However, there is a sketch of a parang from Timor in Draeger's The Weapons and Fighting Arts of Indonesia (p. 198) and they don't look at all alike. Also, as you note, Timor's towards the papuan end of the Indonesian archipelago, and our tribesman doesn't look quite right, nor is he dressed the right way.

Another older reference to Timor is in Wallace's Malay Archipelago, but it doesn't contradict anything you've posted.

F

[John]

The markings at the back of the blade also could be seen at the back of some Borneon pakayun blade whilst the hand guards are similar in the sense that they are both circular. If I remember correctly, both Ian and Andrew have mentioned the markings at back of the blade could be seen at other SE Asian swords. I've asked a number of Muruts for it's meaning but got no answer to date.

The blade is parang-like and some indigenous in SE Asia do have Chinese ancestory as the guy's features show. A more likely SE Asian candidate perhaps and a hybrid?


I've copied Mmontoro's pakayun pictures from another thread for reference.

[tom hyle]

Those marks sure are similar; without actually counting lines, awful close to identical (at least some of the single slanted lines in the spine of mine look like they were once part of an "X" than has worn partly away.). The disc guard as such is not uncommon; it's one of the two most basic kinds (disc or crossbar), and is seen in mainland SE Asia, Borneo, and the Visayan Sea (usually either in horn or wood or else, if metal. with added quillons, one of which turns down to form a sheath-grabber, the other usually coming up to form a knucklebow.), as well, of course, as Japan, China, and the Himalayas; I suspect I could go on if I thought hard. These ones are thinnish brass, and in the case of mine the hole for the tang is overly wide, and perhaps intended to be usable as a rattle, as we have heard tell of.
Gosh' they're already worth a lot of money, so I may as well say it; I don't think I ever get tired of looking at pakayuns.

[RSWORD]

In looking strictly at the hilt in the two examples, they seem to me to closely resemble the Nias Gari hilt. If you look in Van Zonnevelds book on p. 47, take a close look at that hilt. It has the same shape with the only difference being that it has a long iron protrusion coming from between the open mouth of the pommel. I suspect this feature has broken or been shortened in the two examples posted. The top example seems to have its forked pommel wrapped in cloth and perhaps it once contained charms within which would be in keeping with Nias tradition. The guard and blade shape I believe are imitative of another culture, perhaps Chinese. The notches at the base of the blade are peculiar but perhaps done by the Nias for decorative or symbolic purposes. Certainly not the ace of spades but hopefully a worthwhile observation to add to the overall discussion.

[Ian]

Hal. Nobody seems to know exactly where these bolos come from, nor the man in the photo. I suspect we will resurrect this thread down the road when we hit upon the answer.

As promised, I am attaching pictures of two knives of the Ilongot, a noted headhunting tribe in northern Luzon. The bolo used by the Ilongot has a fairly distinctive form and the scabbard is unusual in its decoration, featuring MOP inserts and dangles.

Ian.

[Ian]

Having thought the last word on the inscription of the man's photograph may be "TIMOR" I have been thinking over the next to last word and I believe it is "CANAKA," which may be a corruption of "KANAKA." The word kanaka is Polynesian and means human. It was adopted by Europeans to mean anyone from Polynesia or Melanesia.

Kanakas were routinely abducted in the 19th C. from the Torres Strait Islands and Timor to work as slave labor in the sugar cane fields of northern Australia, notably in the State of Queensland. There are still descendants of these people living in northern Australia today.

I think this man is a kanaka from Timor. On further reading of Henry O. Forbes' A Naturalists Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago, I was struck by the following passage:

"What the pedigree of the Timorese is I have not sufficient evidence for forming any decided opinion; but that they are a race in which many elements comingle seems certain. I saw no one with what I can with perfect truth designate as "black skin" such as seen among the Aru islanders. Tall, well-proportioned men, with frizzly hair, and of a rich and yellowish brown or of a choclate colour, I saw in abundance, as well as short, stumpy men with straight hair and no lack of beard or moustaches."

Forbes further decribes a prominent presence of "Mongols" (Chinese) as local merchants, and even a tribal group of red-haired, fair-skinned natives who intermingled and bred freely with other local groups.

Quite an ethnic melting pot. In a previous post on this thread I rather boldly said the man in the photograph was unlike any Asian/SE Asian native that I had seen in thirty years of traveling in the region. I've never been to Timor. But it sounds as though Timor has some very unusual ethnic blends, involving Malay, Chinese, European, and Pacific Island groups. The man in the photograph may well have emerged from such a comingling.

Until someone comes up with something more conclusive, I'm going for a Timor kanaka in the picture, and his bolo as being a variation of either a local golok/parang or a European machete.