The myth of the Hanshee{sic.} unveiled.

[spiral]

Cheers Guys! Can you see the look in the dogs eyes? He wanted to bite me!

Spiral

[JPSF]

This is great stuff from Simon & Jonathon. As we have been writing directly I want to thank them for not just hearing one thing and taking it as fact. Multiple sources are invaluable especially when they agree!
In all my research I would hear different things from the same Nepali family members, museum experts, even anthropologists from the British Museum vs the British Library.

I am hoping the sources were beyond verbal in some cases and there is documentation and more paintings similar to what Simon showed.

More please!

[spiral]

John thank you for your honest words, To quote the knife expert Bernard Levine

" I don't cling to comfortable familiar errors, mine or anyone else's.

I don't mistake my imagination for an information source.

I always prefer primary sources to derivative works, but even original documents contain errors.

Every knife is what it is. No one's opinion can change that. Not even everyone's opinion can change that.

I know what I know.
I know what I don't know.
I know the difference.
When I guess, I say so, and say why.

Being book-learned about knives is like being book-learned about anything else: a guarantee of sophmoric pomposity and public absurdity. One learns knives by studying knives. Real world knowledge enables critical reading. Reading without experience leads to confusion and foot in mouth and embarsement"
.................................................. ..........................

Most of these kukri have original spine inscriptions in the manner of the mainly post 1902 so called Longleaf kukris from Atlanta cutlery. I think thats a pretty good primary source myself.

Cheers.

Spiral

[tom hyle]

Good quote there, though the "imagination" (a cultural construct including, perhaps even primarily, what most cultures, less fascinated with concepts of individuality and of material proof [experiential proof often being considered more important], have considered to be outside influences and images from collective consciousness and nonhuman/nonliving spirits) certainly is a source of information; much of it which ends up being very rewarding, useful, and proving true, depending, perhaps, on what kind of spirits one hangs out with.....and is that the "blacksmits don't make knives guy?"
Here I kind of like the actual hanshee, too.
At least you were not in Tibet; they grow some big pups up there, and from what I hear it's only safe to walk around armed; often with several good throwing rocks, though in all native actuality, I still sometimes see rural people wearing swords while herding in photos.

[Conogre]

Excellent points all the way around and very well written.
One thing that seems universal with modern "westerners" is the compulsion to pigeonhole everything into minute and exact categories, when no such distinction was ever made or intended by the original peoples.
In biology, it's even more rampant, with many taxonomists writing doctoral thesis that, years later, end up being, literally, nonsense, while that same information is eagerly taken to heart by pseudo experts and purists who HAVE to split hairs, ad infinitum.
Many "eastern" dogs instinctively dislike people from western cultures, I suspect, because of our diet.
In SE Asia, many years ago, US soldiers were often heard making comments about the fishy "smell" of the locals, while in conversation after conversation I kept hearing that WE smelled like rotten meat.
If so, that's BOUND to get a reaction out of a semi-ferel dog used to scavenging scraps! **grin**.
Mike

[spiral]

Hi Tom, Much as I like the BL quote that I use, I must admit he is quite a charachter who makes some intresting statements on occasion.

I do aspire to follow parts of his above quote though, both with kukri & in other walks of my life.


Thank you Conogre, very well said in my opinion!

As for the dog, yep I am glad it wasnt a Tibetan mastif & i did eat so much Black pig pork in Nepal ,I am sure I smelt like a rotten black pig!

It certainly wasnt the type of village tourists or treckers would normaly go to either.

To Follow the BL qoute,& Conogres accurate conlclusian of the western need to pigeon hole & JPs statement about different Nepalis saying different things & having re read my post,

I should add, for the sake of accuracy & clarification that the term Lamebendh Sirupate {long handle sirupate.} was also intialy used by our sources, not just Sirupate, before we got into the differention of the different grip lengths .

So that actualy the usual term according to our sources for the "Hanshee is "Lamebendh Sirupate " {sorry for lack of previous clarity, ill blame the Jet lag }

I am also confident that other terminology may be used that we havent yet heard. There are many minor local languages,amongst the tribes & castes in Nepal after all.

But we used the main Gurkali or Nepali language, which after all is the main language of Nepal & the offcial one.

Spiral

[Rick]

I'm afraid this phenomenon is universal . When my Son walked across Europe last year he ran into the same unfriendly dog phenomenon .
He and his friends quickly discovered that the simple act of bending over to pick up a stone would cause an immediate retreat by the offending canid .
They never had to throw the stone , the very act of picking one up was enough .