Subject: panggau warrior

Culture: Sumatran Malay

Setting: Jambi, Palembang sultanates, eastern Sumatra/Lampong 19thc

Object: keris kris

Keris Bahari

* Frey 1988 p50-51

"In its earliest and purest form, as found in Lampong, South Sumatra, it [the Malayan kris hilt] is a seated figure with bulging eyes and bird beak, hands on knees and curly hair falling to its waist. Sometimes the figure shows a Naga, a serpent, hung about its neck, corroborating the legend that Garuda was enemy of the Nagas and, in a great battle, destroyed all but one which he displays as evidence of his powers."

Keris Panjang

* Stone 1934 p388 (quoting Winstead)

"The long straight 'execution' creese comes from Sumatra and is common in Negri Sembilan."

* Fryer 1969 p85

"Executioner's Kris A Malay kris with unusually long straight blade and generally straight hilt with rounded pommel. Executions were effected by plunging the blade down through the shoulder into the heart."

* Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery

"[....] This type of kris was used for executions, the blade driven into the victim beside the collar bone, and into the heart."