Origin of the kampilan?

[fernando]

Originally Posted by VANDOO

A BIT MORE SPECULATION
IN MANY PICTURES OF MORO DATAU YOU SEE ONE OR MORE SWORD BEARERS WHO HAVE A KAMPILIAN THEY ARE NEAR THE DATAU IN ALL THE PICTURES I HAVE SEEN. I SUSPECT THAT IN BATTLE THESE SWORDBEARERS WOULD BE RIGHT BESIDE AND AROUND THE DATU. IN THE PICTURES THERE IS USUALLY THE DATUS FAMILY OR OTHER DATU AND PEOPLE OF IMPORTANCE SO THE SWORDBEARER IS AT A LITTLE DISTANCE.
IN A BATTLE WITH VERY EXPERIENCED FIGHTING MEN WITH ARMOR AND LONG SWORDS SUCH AS MAGELLENS MEN IT WOULD BE SMARTER AND SAFER TO FIGHT THEM WITH SPEARS AND SHIELDS AND NOT TO GET IN TOO CLOSE. WHEN MAGELLAN WAS DOWN AND SEPARATED FROM HIS WARRIORS IT WAS SAFE TO APROACH AND FINISH HIM OFF.
PERHAPS LAPULAPU THEN CALLED HIS SWORDBEARER AND TOOK THE KAMPILIAN TO FINISH HIM OFF. IT MAY SHOW HONOR TO KILL A WORTHY FOE WITH THE KAMPILIAN RATHER THAN JUST TO STICK HIM FULL OF SPEARS OR IT MIGHT BE TO SHOW THE DATU'S POWER TO EXECUTE HIS ENEMY?. IT IS ALSO LIKELY THEY TOOK HIS HEAD SO A KAMPILIAN WOULD ALSO SERVE WELL FOR THAT. IS THERE ANY MENTION OF THEM TAKEING HIS HEAD OR IF MAGELLANS ENTIRE BODY WAS RECOVERED.?

Fair reasoning.
However it seems as the actual manner how Magalhães was finally executed is not yet established. This particular, together with his birth date and place are still an uncertainty. This was still assumed by the most recent author of a supposedly thorough research book on Magalhães biography and the circumnavigation saga, Michel Chandeigne, a French teacher who used to lecture in Lisbon.
Naturally there are versions of his beheading, here and there. For example, a martial arts Brazilian academy narrates that the ten Datus of Borneo, each with a force of a hundred men arrived at the island of Panay in the Visaya region, in the 13th century. Some historians beleive that this is when the old Philipino martial art Kali was born. It is said that Kali is the art of wide blades, an art that deeply influenced Philipino war traditions, being considered by some as the mother of all styles of stick and knife (sword) fighting. This source assumes that Magalhães was decapitated by the Datu Lapu Lapu and that, according to historians, Magalhães beheader was a Kali master.

Fernando