My first mandau
As collector is quite normal that trough the years many items come and many items go. One one way or another I could not part with this and now after years I know why.Its the first mandau I ever bougth some 20 years ago.
Always liked the hilt and the bi-colored inlay however the handle wasn't spectacular but decorated with Orang Oetan hair instead of the more normal dyed goathair or on the older examples humanhair.
By reading the book of Elshout " De Kenja Dajaks uit het Apo-Kajan gebied " 1926 ( a treasure of high detailed information on headhunting and other dayak customs) I know why I indeed better keep it.
Elshout once got as present a mandau from a dayak chief, a real headhunting mandau decorated with Orang Oetanhair.The sword once belonged to a very brave headhunter who was well known.Elshout requested another dayak to make a headhunting dance with this sword but he didn't dare because he was afraid to get "parib" ( parib= sickness by spirits because of wearing to powerfull tusks,nails,hairs or anything whats more powerfull as his "beroewa"
( beroewa= the resistance that can be build up by bravery,headhunting)
The man had not hunted heads so his beroewa was not " loaded up"
(In these days its maybe comparable with Mario Bros who build up his credits by taking the difficult levels.)
On another page Elshout notes that mandaus with Orang Oetan hair are very rare.The beroewa of a Orang Oetan is of a higher grade than the human.
Sometimes a collector should read more like in this case where I discovered after 20 years the remarkable details of this piece.
happy collecting and reading!
Arjan.
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