The lance is held during the poise in the upturned right hand under the thumb and over the first and second fingers. The arm is extended in a slight curve just in front of the line of the shoulders. In making a thrust, the lance is darted parallel to the line of the shoulders and on a level with them, the left side of the person being presented to the adversary. The lance is not thrown, but is nearly always retained in the hand.
The Mandáya lance merits most attention, as it is more generally used, and is usually of better mechanical and ornamental workmanship. The shaft is a piece of either palma brava or of kulipápa palm, varying from 1.8 to 2.4 meters in length. It has a uniform diameter of about 16 millimeters for a distance equal to one-half of its length from, the head; the other half tapers very gradually to about one-half of its original thickness, ending in a fairly sharp point, which may be capped with a conical piece of tin or of steel to protect the wood against injury from stones.
The head is a long, slender, pointed blade. From the shoulders, which are from 4 to 7 centimeters apart, it may taper uniformly to a point; much more commonly, however, it tapers gradually to within about 25 millimeters of the extremity. Here its width is about 25 millimeters. At this point the edges converge at an angle of 45° to the axis, until they meet, forming the point of the lance. From the shoulders of the blade the edges likewise slant inward to the neck at an angle of 45°. The neck is a solid cylindrical piece, about 3 centimeters in length, nearly always ornamented with embossed work, and ends in a rod or in a conical socket about 7 centimeters long. It is very common to see ornamental chisel work along the axis near the neck. The general outline of the engraving is that of the spearhead in miniature, within which there are often little leaflike puncturings.
When the lance head has a socket it is attached to the shaft with a resinous substance similar to that used for bolos. When the lance head ends in a solid cylindrical piece and must be inserted in the hollow shaft, the end of the shaft is reinforced with a Moro brass ferrule, if the possessor of the lance has been so lucky as to have acquired one, or with coils of abaká fiber over which has been wound abaká cloth stuck with the above mentioned resin.
Lances of the better style have ornamental rings of beaten silver, sometimes amounting to as many as 15, placed at equal distances along the shaft for a distance of as much as 30 centimeters from the juncture of the head and the shaft.
A lance of another style is common among the highland Manóbos of the central Cordillera, and is not infrequently found among the Manóbos of Kantílan and Tágo. Though not so striking in dimensions and in general appearance, it is preferred by the Manóbo, because it is said to cause a more severe wound and because it is less liable to have the head detached when driven through the floor or wall of a house. Its head is much narrower at its broadest part than the one just described, is not so long, and nearly always tapers to a point. It is without any shoulders. It never has the conical steel socket that the Mandáya lance sometimes has, is always straight edged, and is set into the shaft in identically the same manner as the socketless Mandáya weapon. Another point of distinction is the decorative scallop that runs parallel to the edges of the head on each side. There is very seldom any decorative work within the periphery of these scallops.
THE DAGGER AND ITS SHEATH
A weapon, whose distribution among Manóbos is limited almost exclusively to Manóbos south of the 8° of latitude, is the Mandáya dagger, of Mandáya workmanship, and indicative of Mandáya influence.16
16It is the Mandáya tribal weapon that never leaves its wearer's side by night or by day, on the trail or in the house, whenever there is apprehension of danger.