from time to time, we see these oddball weapons that bucked the conventional style. octagonal shaped handles does pop up every now and then. the relatively common octagonal hilts usually have a horse hoof pattern on the end.
David, three different types of wood were used on this piece. a darker type was used for the handle; meanwhile, the scabbard has a light and dark side (see pic below).
as far as whether the barung was "born with" the scabbard:
one way to check whether the barung was born with the scabbard was to dismantle the scabbard itself. every now and then the rattan bind are missing, so this is easily done. once it's dismantle, you can lay the blade on the notch carved out for it, and since each blade is unique, it should have that "Cinderella shoes" fit to it, meaning a perfect match. in this particular piece, the binds look original to the piece, so i won't go into that, rather i placed the blade on the scabbard just to show the clearance from the sides and tip. very, very tight. hope this helps...
vandoo, the "lyre" image is the representation of the naga head in ukkil motif. notice the similarity on this barung from artzi's website. as far as location/date: Sulu. date is harder to pinpoint due to lack of provenance, but i would conservatively place it around mid 19th c...
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