Origin of the Kalinga Axe

[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.]