Wood-carving is the most generally practised and on the whole the
most important of the decorative arts. Much of it is done on very hard
wood; and the principal tools are the sword, the small knife carried
in the sword-sheath, and adzes and axes of various sizes. The blade
of the knife is some three inches in length, resembling in general
shape the blade of the sword; it is wider in proportion, but has the
same peculiar convexity of the one side and concavity of the other
in transverse section. The shaft is sunk into the end of a rod of
hard wood and secured with gutta and fine rattan lashing. The handle
of hard wood is about a foot in length, half an inch in diameter,
and slightly bowed in the plane of the blade, the convexity being
in the direction of the cutting edge of the blade. The butt end of
the handle is cunningly carved in the shape of a crocodile's head, or
prolonged in a piece of carved deer's horn. The blade of the knife is
held between the thumb and finger of the right hand, the cutting edge
directed forwards, and the long handle is gripped between the forearm
and the lower ribs; the weight of the body can thus be brought to the
assistance of the arm in cutting hard material. With this knife most
of the finer carving is done, the adze and sword being used chiefly
for rough shaping.
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