Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Gustav · Yesterday, 02:42 PM

Speaking of the dangerous method of staining - while searching for something completely different I stumbled upon realgar wine - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realgar_wine

Which leads to a couple of questions.
Since when did Javanese start to stain the blades with a solution which has realgar as a part of it? Are there other cultures, which did use it on blades around 1300-1400?

If I read, that in China it POSSIBLY was used as "protection against disease, snakes, and evil spirits", so it would have apotropaic qualities - is there some kind of account about similar apotropaic qualities of realgar on Java?

Edit: here a source for use of realgar in China, which indeed mentions its apotropaic quality: https://de.scribd.com/document/54137...-and-Tradition

Yesterday, 02:42 PM	#32
Gustav Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 1,347	Speaking of the dangerous method of staining - while searching for something completely different I stumbled upon realgar wine - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realgar_wine Which leads to a couple of questions. Since when did Javanese start to stain the blades with a solution which has realgar as a part of it? Are there other cultures, which did use it on blades around 1300-1400? If I read, that in China it POSSIBLY was used as "protection against disease, snakes, and evil spirits", so it would have apotropaic qualities - is there some kind of account about similar apotropaic qualities of realgar on Java? Edit: here a source for use of realgar in China, which indeed mentions its apotropaic quality: https://de.scribd.com/document/54137...-and-Tradition Last edited by Gustav; Yesterday at 03:29 PM.