Another Most Interesting Parang Nabur/Beladah Belabang

[Mytribalworld]

Originally Posted by VVV

Hello Tim,

I also first thought the long BBs might be like a cavalry sword.
But unlike the famous horsemen of Sumba the Malays on the Borneo south coast (around Banjarmasin) didn't use cavalry.
However they of course had horses for individual transportation.
The famous horseman of Borneo are the Bajau in NW Borneo (Sabah), but they don't use the Beladah Belabang.
The Sumba horsemen use their spears when on the horseback, even if they also carry short swords, the Kabeala.

Michael

see for examle http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgur...NL266%26sa%3DN


About the long swords I think in our western opinion a superb long sword has to be made for some handy reason , like cavalry or extra strong slashing or so.But in the eyes of animistic and superstitious people the bigger sized swords may be just used for his enourmous size and so the power whats in it.
Swords in their culture doesn't play only a role in warfare but also in rituals and just as images of power.
Arjan