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Chapter One. The Material Background |
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axes, hoes, reaping knives, digging sticks |
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Apart from a dao, which was an indispensable piece of every Konyak's equipment, many a man owned an axe with a flat iron blade inserted in the split head of a wooden handle; but foreign-made axes of handle-holed type were already in use in some of the villages in the late 1930s. Two iron implements made by Konyak blacksmiths were hoe and reaping knife. The hoe, used in weeding and in digging over soft ground, consisted of a small semicircular hoop of iron set between two pieces of crossed bamboo. It resembled in shape and function the traditional hoe, which was made from a single piece of split bamboo, sharpened along one edge, and bent double so that the two ends crossed. The reaping knife or sickle was about 8-10 inches long, and the serrated edge was curved at the end. The only other agricultural implement was a wooden digging stick with a pointed end and this was employed when planting and digging up taro. |
