The blade is longer and very much
slimmer than the Bontoc blade, but its marked distinguishing feature
is the shape of the cutting edge. The blade is ground on two straight
lines joined together by a short curved line, giving the edge the
striking form of the beak of a rapacious bird. The slender, graceful
handle, always fitted with a long iron ferrule, has a process on the
under side near the middle. The handle is also usually fitted with
a decorated metal ferrule at the tip and frequently is decorated for
its full length with bands of brass or tin, or with sheets of either
metal artistically incised.
The Balbelasan ax is not used by the pueblos making it, or at least
by many of them, but finds its field of usefulness east and northeast
of Bontoc pueblo as far as the foothills of the mountains west of
the Rio Grande de Cagayan. I was told by the Kalinga of this latter
region that the people in the mountain close to the Cagayan in the
vicinity of Cabagan Nuevo, Isabela Province, also use this ax.
In the southern and western part of the Bontoc area the battle-ax
shares place with the bolo, the sole hand weapon of the Igorot of
adjoining Lepanto, Benguet, and Nueva Vizcaya Provinces.
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