Rare Dayak Daggers - Sadop and Dohong

[Mytribalworld]

Originally Posted by Dajak

Hi Michael this one is from the time they have no pics That s why you see no picture off it .
But the mandau from your friend is great I only wanna say that the handle is maybe replaced or the weapon was later than the example from blink.
Having an mandau like this is very rare and your friend have something real special .
the pics in shelford very difficult to see but the classification is nice .
Don t forget the pakayun the type we both have that is in it that is also important for dating after 1900 the fork handle was in use (or the one we have was only for special people) .
I will have something special in an few weeks I will post it here
never see anything like it .

Hi Mikael,

does the blade fits good in the scabbard? its seems to me like a double edged blade but the scabbard look like a single edged.

[VVV]

Hi Arjan,

Welcome to the forum.
It's not my blade but I know that it fits the scabbard from visiting Karsten. It hangs on his Borneo wall in its scabbard.
But I agree that the scabbard looks like a regular mandau scabbard.

Michael

[Dajak]

Hi Arjan can you look up for the Item numbers what date they came into the museum



Ben

[David]

Wow!!! Michael and Ben, excellent blades. I just want to thank both you guys for your continued efforts to shed light on the Dayak world. I only have one Dayak weapon but find these blades very interesting. Keep up the great work.

[Mytribalworld]

Originally Posted by Dajak

Hi Arjan can you look up for the Item numbers what date they came into the museum



Ben

Hi Ben,

will do in the next weeks I will visit the archives of leiden and will look for that.
between my articles I found this about a bayu wich was collected by Bier during the expedition with Nieuwenhuis.
the article if from Stingl " Schwerter aus Zentral Kalimantan.
jahrbuch des museums fur volkerkunde Leipzig 1969
its a very good study, also because Nieuwenhuis/Bier was almost the only one who gave good descriptions when they collected and mentioned ,place,name of the tribe etc.
sadly the pics are quite bad.

Arjan.

[VVV]

Thanks for posting another example of this rare sword.
I noticed that the scabbard of the Bier Bayu resembles the one of Karsten's (looks more like a regular mandau scabbard than having the profile of the Bayu blade).
Also the hilt looks more like a regular mandau hilt than the variation of Ben's example and the one in Blink (illustration below as a reference).
In the Leiden catalogues two Dayak tribes are referred to; "Kajahan" (Kayan?) for the one with regular mandau antler hilt and "Bejadju" for the one with a wooden hilt. The picture of the one with wooden hilt is unfortunately not that good so I am insecure if it's related to the Blink version?
In Shelford's article the Bayu is classified as a Sea-Dayak sword but I doubt that this is the case?However he describes his example as having a regular mandau hilt.
Do you think that the hilt form variations are tribal or maybe they are age indicators?
Or maybe all Bayu are Kayan and the note in the catalogue is wrong?

Michael

[Dajak]

Hi Michael I think hilts are age indicators and that all Bayu are Kayan and the note in the catalogue is MAYBE wrong . (not for sure)

Look at these pis you see latok with this handle or mandau

Latok handle look like the mandua I put pic on could be same tribe so it is in my opinnion an not an seadayak one.( also blade not curved al sea dayak ones have it )

[VVV]

Hi Ben,

I see some similarities in style but still think there are more differences in the handle. Interesting comparison however.
On Shelfords mentioning of Bayu as a Seadayak sword I took a closer look at the reference picture. It's not a "proper" Bayu in his article but something closer to the blade of the parang we posted on the recent Sumatra Borneo thread. But with a mandau hilt and a long back edge.

Michael

[Mytribalworld]

Originally Posted by VVV

Thanks for posting another example of this rare sword.
I noticed that the scabbard of the Bier Bayu resembles the one of Karsten's (looks more like a regular mandau scabbard than having the profile of the Bayu blade).
Also the hilt looks more like a regular mandau hilt than the variation of Ben's example and the one in Blink (illustration below as a reference).
In the Leiden catalogues two Dayak tribes are referred to; "Kajahan" (Kayan?) for the one with regular mandau antler hilt and "Bejadju" for the one with a wooden hilt. The picture of the one with wooden hilt is unfortunately not that good so I am insecure if it's related to the Blink version?
In Shelford's article the Bayu is classified as a Sea-Dayak sword but I doubt that this is the case?However he describes his example as having a regular mandau hilt.
Do you think that the hilt form variations are tribal or maybe they are age indicators?
Or maybe all Bayu are Kayan and the note in the catalogue is wrong?

Michael

Hi Michael,

Bier gives as tribe with this bayu the "Kantuk" tribe from upriver Kapuas.
It must be a tribe related to the kajan as you see on the style of the hilt.

what I think is that the bayu was in use by different tribes all over Borneo.
seen to the very different handles ( I also found two examples in the collection of the Leiden Museum wich had totally different styles)
one was mentioned as "South Borneo".

Arjan

[Dajak]

Hi Arjan what is the time they bring the weapons in


Ben