Sumatran Sewar?

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by kai

True enough - I was trying to avoid discussing that...

As Alan noted, the other names are just variants of the same name. I can't really judge how much this may be based on actual differences in pronounciation due to local dialects/languages (their usage by colonial linguists conversant in several branches of the Malay language family may indicate so).

While the typical blade of these daggers (single edged blade curving down towards the tip; strong integral bolster; at the base with usually a short, engraved line which I hesitate to term fuller since it seems to be done pretty sloppily) is widely distributed, the fittings do exhibit a lot of local styles. Yet the shared name seems to indicate that these were regarded as basically equivalent daggers with pretty much only the blade as common denominator. I haven't looked into the entymological origin of the Malay word sewah yet.

On the other hand, the Malay concept of tumbok lada [pepper crusher/grinder] seems to be based on the hilt whose shape could be likened to a tool. In AvZ only the single example with carved horn hilt qualifies as a piece from the coastal Malay community on both sides of the Malacca Strait. The other 4 are Karo status pieces and these apparently got never referred to as tumbok lada by any highland group (possibly short of Scots, that is... ). Both types exhibit similar (broader and more straight) blades (often with fullers). Despite these blades not being identical, the collectors' approach has been to lump these broader blades with stubby hilts as tumbok lada; and to refer to any with dowwncurving blades (and usually short engraved line) as Sewah. This notion may be supported by the status siwaih from Aceh which also exhibit very bulky hilts (more so than many Malay tumbok lada) and still not referred to as tumbok lada in Aceh. I wouldn't be surprised though if somewhat intermediate pieces like yours would have been referred to as tumbok lada by the Straits Malay - or possibly as sewah the other day or in the next village...

Hello Kai,
Don't worry, I agree complete with you. It's is like Alan used to say a name game.
And apparently belong the sewars and the big Karo "tumbok ladas" to the same family and there are other variants of this type also, see the both before shown daggers with another Karo Batak dagger (complete down, ivory handle) but not a status piece and a dagger (third from up) of unknown exact origin but from very similar shape. Both without fullers.
I only mentioned it because most of the collectors do it like you stated before.

Regards,
Detlef

[A. G. Maisey]

Detlef, Alan still refers to this pursuit as the name game --- he just doesn't get angry about it these days and tends to find the whole thing rather amusing.

Kai, in respect of the variant spellings of the same name, there is more than just the different dialects and accents of the users involved, there is also the way in which a Dutchman, or a Portugese, or an Englishman would represent on paper a sound that he heard.

Then there are the peculiarities of the Malay family of languages such as letters that sound the same to an untrained ear, or empty spaces that actually contain letters, or sounds other than sounds that can be represented by letters.

In transcription from native scripts to roman scripts it sometimes becomes necessary to guess at the actual letters that are represented by the native script, and this can occur even with educated people who use the language involved as their own language.